Thursday, 3 April 2025

Ministers statements: Tweddle Child and Family Health Service

Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:25): I rise to update the house on one of the ways in which the Allan Labor government is continuing to support Victorian families through the delivery of the refurbishment of the early parenting centre in Footscray run by Tweddle family and children’s services.

Earlier this week it was an absolute delight to join the Premier and the member for Footscray from the other place to officially open the refurbished Footscray early parenting centre. We heard about how this service has provided much-needed care and guidance to families in raising their beautiful babies for more than 100 years. The centre is operated by Tweddle, which also operates the Allan Labor government’s new Wyndham early parenting centre, supporting families across the west and beyond by delivering sleep and settling, health and wellbeing, and early parenting services to families who need a little extra help. Early parenting centres offer free specialist support for parents and carers of babies from zero to four years old, and they can be accessed by self-referral via the websites or via professional referrals from GPs and maternal and child health nurses.

Tweddle CEO Liz Murdoch and Tweddle board chair Annette Vickery lead their team to form a warm and inviting community that wraps around families who utilise their services. We met with families who explained how they have benefited greatly from the parenting supports that they have received. Indeed they described it as a blessing. We also met therapy dog Ajay and his handler Andi, who regularly visit the centre, helping to create the calming environment that it is. We even met with one of the oldest Tweddle babies, 87-year-old Jim, who on the day of his birth was transferred to Tweddle all those years ago in 1939 and still credits Tweddle with saving his life.

This centre has been a much-loved fixture, providing essential care to Melbourne for over 100 years, and with this upgrade now it offers 12 residential stay units and four day-stay facilities, along with a kitchen, dining room and play spaces. The Footscray early parenting centre is delivered through a $185 million investment in 12 new and upgraded parenting centres, supporting more than 5000 families each year to raise their little ones. It is only the Allan Labor government that will get on with supporting Victorians in the areas that matter most, supporting families to be settled, rested and content and giving families and children the strategies they need to thrive.