There continues to accumulate an abundance of evidence demonstrating the importance of the early years of life to a child\u27s development and later adult functioning. More and more evidence demonstrates the value to children, to the lives of the adults those children become and to the wider society of supporting early child development. A growing body of research evidence indicates the programs that have been shown to improve these developmental outcomes, and significantly those programs that have failed to demonstrate similar health and developmental gains. Disconcertingly, decades after this evidence has become known few children in Australia have received the benefits of these proven programs, while many more children are offered unproven ECD programs and rhetoric and advocacy concerning the importance of the early years continue to grow. This paper describes the experience of developing, then rolling out of the Family Home Visiting Service, which is a sustained nurse home visiting program incorporating the strongest evidence of efficacy
