Encouraging playgroup participation: What works to support the wellbeing of children and parents?

Audio transcript (edited)

Sharnee Moore: Welcome everyone to today's webinar, Encouraging Playgroup Participation: What Works to Support the Well-Being of Children and Parents?

My name is Sharnee Moore and I am a Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Family Studies. I would like to start by acknowledging the Gunaikurnai People of East Gippsland. I would like to also acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands around Australia. We recognise the Traditional Owners' continuing connection to lands and waters. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. Playgroup was a really important part of my parenting journey. But before we dive into our parenting session, we have a little bit of housekeeping cover. This is our last webinar for 2025, or our last live webinar. On behalf of AIFS, thank you to those who have attended a webinar throughout the year. We have appreciated your engagement your support and of course your work with children and families.

There are a couple of weeks left of the on-demand webinar program before our Summer Series kicks off. Keep an eye out in your inbox for more information on that.

In other news, we're very excited to announce the dates for the 18th biennial AIFS Conference, which is happening next year on 9 – 11 September in Naarm, Melbourne, at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. This event will bring together government, practitioners and leading researchers to explore how policies, programs and systems must evolve so that families, in all their diversity, can flourish in the rapidly changing world. Abstracts for presentations are opening early in the New Year, so keep an eye out on a social media. Moving on, this session will be live captioned. Please follow the link in your chat if you require that function.

And there will be a live Q&A at the end. You can submit questions via the questions box in the GoTo Webinar dashboard. This will be recorded and made available on the AIFS website and a couple of weeks.

We really appreciate your feedback, so please take the time to reply to that survey, which will open at the end of the webinar.

Finally, today we going to be looking at how to encourage participation in playgroup somewhat works to support child and family being. Our audience today comes from a range of roles across the child and family sector. We also have some playgroup facilitators and people who work in early education. Many of those in the audience work with children and families in other roles.

This is a big topic and we can't cover everything, but we hope there's something here for everyone.

Before we jump in, we want to acknowledge that we have had questions come through about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander playgroups and culturally say playgroup models. It's a big topic, big enough for its own webinar, and is a conversation best led by First Nations voices. There are some powerful examples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander playgroups out there, and organisations like SNAICC are doing exceptional work in the space. We have included some more info in the handouts for those that are interested.

I'd like to introduce Dr Kristel Alla, Patricia O'Donovan, Jacinda Armstrong and Angela Barwick. I'm not going to go into detail on their bios, because we want to spend time on the discussion, but if you would like to learn more about any of the panellists, their bios can be found in the handouts tab.

I might start with you, Patricia. As the CEO of Playgroup Australia, could you tell us about the different types of playgroups and their purposes?

Patricia O'Donovan: Thank you, Sharnee. I would just like to start by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation on whose land I am joining you from today. And thank you for that question. We often talk about playgroups as if they are one thing, but there are actually many different types. Each with their own purpose. And often delivering differentiated outcomes. So, just let me describe some of those differences.

A lot of the research you will be familiar with, and probably the caseworkers of family support workers are listening as well, would know of supported playgroups. So, these types of playgroups are usually service lead, they can look and feel quite different, even across the type. Because they depend on what families need and the playgroup responds to that need.

They will often have a coordinated with specific skills in setting up spaces and activities, and/or facilitators that may deliver a structured, evidence-based program. But playgroups in Australia actually began with the community playgroups model. These are parent led groups where families come together and create a space that suits their children, their culture, their rhythm, and the local community. They are flexible place-based programs that are generally shaped by the people who attend them and every week we have tens of thousands of families who participate in community playgroups across the country.

Sharnee Moore: Thanks, Patricia. Angela, you have attended playgroups are also volunteer as a parent leader. Can you tell us a bit about what you found.

Angela Barwick: The first five years in your children's life is probably the most important five years of their life, and it helps build all their social and emotional and physical well-being, just by simply attending and meeting new families, and the volunteers that run them.

Sharnee Moore: So beautiful. Kristel, you have recently completed a practice guide. Can you tell us a little bit what you found in your research?

Dr Kristel Alla: Thank you. We looked at what helped and hindered families from joining playgroups and most of the research focuses on supported playgroups. What we found is interesting. Families who go to playgroups and really like them, but few are attending for example supported playgroups from 10 or 15 years ago. There are some clear reasons in the literature. We have a handout that lists these factors. Just to mention them. Personal and family circumstances, relating to playgroup social environment. Facilitator skills and approaches. Also program facilities and processes. Whether families attend depends on things like what is their past experience. How welcoming does the playgroup feel that they are attending? How easy to access? Also practical things like income, health, transport, and even what families know about playgroups and what they think about them, whether they are useful or not. For example, you might find some low income families may struggle with fees. While others face scheduling issues, for example. There might be a playgroup that they like on a 12 o'clock on a Wednesday. So there are a lot of things to consider here. A couple more things. Social environment is important. Inclusiveness and friendliness, making families want to come back. The viable feeling that they get when they attend or when they walk through the door. Is it judgemental or cliquey? Communication between people. They may not tend to want to come back. Research does say that.

Facilitators also make a big difference, those approachable, building relationships can be hard. And whether you have consistent and fun activities, strong community links. They tend to keep families engaged.

It is really important to support playgroup participation, and that means considering or tackling these issues as much as you can, and making them as accessible for a particular group of people you want to invite there, and make them inclusive and appealing for everyone. Thank you.

Sharnee Moore: Thanks, Kristel.

Jacinda, Kristel's research focused on research. You are the CEO of Playgroup Tasmania, what are you seeing in terms of family engagement and demand?

Jacinda Armstrong: Overall, I think the demand is steady and in some areas, it is increasing. Families are choosing playgroups because they are offering something really grounding for them at a time when many are feeling isolated. As Patricia said, community playgroups continue to be foundational and flexible, local and shaped by the families who attend.

With supported models, we are also seeing a growing interest, and especially for parents who want a bit more guidance or who are navigating some more complex circumstances in their lives. But really, across all types, families tell us the same thing, and that is that they value spaces that feel safe and welcoming. And that really fosters a sense of community and makes parenting feel that little bit easier. And I would probably just kind of reiterate that, that playgroups really do need to feel welcoming.

And so, Kristel touched on a few points she has heard through the research around some experiences of families that they are not welcoming or haven't been quite as positive or inclusive as they would have liked. I think that is work that can absolutely be done, whether it is through working really closely with community playgroup volunteers, or that relationship based practice through a supported playgroup model. That it is really about how you grow trusting relationships with families. And when you do, they will return, and they will have a much more positive experience.

Sharnee Moore: Yes, the importance of that facilitation role has really come through already, a few times in the conversation. Kristel, what does research say about the role of supportive facilitation in playgroups?

Dr Kristel Alla: The research says supported facilitation is really critical. Parents value facilitators that are not just knowledgeable, they are also friendly, respectful, sensitive to the needs of families, children and parents both, so people, when they come to playgroups, tell us they want to feel welcome, they want to feel understood stop it is also about empathy. It is recognising that different families have different circumstances, different experiences, and creating an environment where everyone feels they belong as much as possible.

So, skilled and supportive facilitation, one could say, make playgroups work. And the research does say that facilitators who have a strong support background and some training, do better at attracting participants to the playgroups. And what is fascinating for me, looking at the research, is that parents were asking, families were asking for quite a range of mix of technical and social skills. They were asking… I want to go back and attend a playgroup if the facilitator for example is good at managing group dynamics, has good communication skills, good at resolving conflict. And also it is important in culturally and linguistically diverse settings. So we are demanding quite a lot, based on the research, from facilitators. So we want them to understand child development, how to link to community services and be knowledgeable around childhood pathways, because it means they can offer more holistic support. There is a variety of families who come to play groups with a different set of needs stop so yes, (inaudible) looks like investing in training and communication skills and cultural competence. And also understanding how to link playgroups with local organisations is important for facilitators to know about. 

Sharnee Moore: It's certainly a very important but complex facilitation task. Patricia, playgroups offer many opportunities for children and families to grow together. From your perspective, how does playgroup participation for children's development, and also nurture things like parent well-being, confidence, learning?

Patricia O'Donovan: Thanks, Sharnee. I would like to support all of the statements that Kristel just made about the vibe in playgroups, it's really important. And facilitators and volunteers alike need to have those skills to nurture relationships, to mentor other people into a skills-based relationship model as well, in playgroups.

To just answer your question specifically, one of the things that we absolutely love about playgroups is that they are very simple, welcoming spaces that deliver very powerful impacts for both children, parents, and in general, families.

For children, developmental benefits are huge across the whole spectrum of development. And our research shows that children who participate in playgroups a 1.4 times as likely to be developmentally on track when they start school. That's an effect size-up there with preschool participation, so it is a very high-impact program for children.

The benefits don't stop with the children. Parents and carers get just as much out of it. The playgroup itself can be a huge boost for parental well-being.

Being around other families who understand the ups and downs of raising children in these very early years can change or lift that sense of isolation, and help parents feel more grounded and supported by each other in this really informal, non-professional way.

They do a wonderful job... Playgroups do a really wonderful job of growing parent confidence. When parents either child trying new things or the pick up ideas from other families and facilitators, the parents themselves recognise their own strengths, the strengths they already have, and start to build on that.

There is so much gentle peer-to-peer learning that happens within a playgroup, and the parents often take those moments of learning home and build on them within the home environment. All of this supports the parent-child relationship.

When parents feel more confident and connected and relaxed, it creates a lovely foundation for the strong, secure bonds that continue right throughout a child's life.

Sharnee Moore: I think I experienced all of those benefits from my own playgroup experience, Patricia. Angela, I'm interested to hear from you about what you got out of your playgroup experience, and how being part of the playgroup supported you in your role as a parent?

Angela Barwick: Pretty much exactly what Patricia just said. There was a whole lifeline for me. Coming out of my comfort zone and bringing my eldest son to playgroup for the first time was quite daunting, and then I walked in and there was nice, familiar faces, and a beautifully set up building.

My child just got to come in and explore, and I got to unwind with parents who knew the struggles you face as a parent, and I knew I was not alone with all the behaviours and struggles you deal with throughout your child's life.

Sharnee Moore: You are also here as a playgroup leader, a parent playgroup leader. You have seen a lot of parents come through groups. Are you seeing parents and children benefit?

Angela Barwick: A lot of it is that the parents come in and see the familiar faces, the regular volunteers. The Playgroup Tasmania staff that come out, welcome everybody, get to know us.

Everybody knows myself and my boys by their names, and greet us with a great big smile every time we come in very different playgroup. We have attended two or three every week since my eldest was nine months old, and I am still coming in with my 19-month-old, and my big boy at school.

Sharnee Moore: A long journey. We have heard about the benefits of playgroups from I think all of our speakers. I am interested in understanding how we also measure the impact from a monitoring and evaluation perspective. I am an evaluator, ultimately.

Jacinda, can you talk to us about what measuring impact and outcomes looks like the playgroups? It can be a bit tricky.

Jacinda Armstrong: It can, but most importantly impact measurement must be meaningful, practical, and useful. We have an outcomes framework that names things that we are trying to influence, which is confidence, connection, child and family well-being, and safe environments.

This is both community playgroups and our type of playgroup programs. To understand whether these things are happening, we actually really use several tools. Attendance and session mapping helps us to understand participation trends, reach, and where families are actually engaging. A few times a year we will do short family check-ins through surveys, and ask questions around that confidence and connection, how they feel their child is going.

The facilitator and volunteer connections are links to our quality framework, and this gives us good insight into what good practice looks like on the ground. Children's voices, we also engage with children through various activities, to really understand and listen to what it can tell us their preferences, their boundaries, and what feels safer for them.

In addition to those pieces of work that are linked in with our own outcomes framework, look at broader data like the AEDC, understand what families might be experiencing in their local communities. This helps us build a picture as to how playgroups are actually contributing to stronger families and safer, more connected communities.

Sharnee Moore: Sounds like you are applying a few different strategies to get a holistic view of the benefits and how the impact of playing out. I'm just going to change tack a little bit now. Unsurprisingly, we talk a lot about families, we talk a lot about what families are and how they have evolved over time.

Patricia, I'm curious if you could talk a little bit about how playgroups have evolved from some of the more traditional models to meet the modern needs of changing families?

Patricia O'Donovan: As I spoke before, they have been changing and transforming over many, many years. One of the most amazing things about playgroups is that they have always been very adaptive. And it them organic quality of the that enables them to survive and thrive within communities. Very little curation goes on. They morph and change according to the need, the social impact and community expectations.

A traditional playgroup model might look very simple on the surface, families coming together with their children to play, interact, learn. But that simplicity is exactly what makes them flexible and able to evolve.

There is a reason that community playgroup has been around in Australia more than 50 years, and it's because of their natural ability to respond community needs. Because they become what families make of them.

Families who participate in them, really create them. Community playgroups, in particular, are very place-based. They grow out of the interests, cultures, routines and needs of the families who come together to create them. Because they are not rigid, they shift and change as the community shifts.

I like to think of playgroups really as shape shifters within their communities, responding to whatever the community needs are, or what the community throws at them at the time.

As families have changed, playgroups have changed right along with them. Not by abandoning the traditional model, because the model that they are, loosely designed is the way I would describe them. They are loosely designed to shift and change and grow with the people who conceive them, establish them, support them, and facilitate them.

It is... They always will be able to respond to changing needs of families, because of those very distinct features that they have.

Sharnee Moore: I love that imagery of the shapeshifter, the metaphor there. Jacinda, do you have anything to add to what Patricia said?

Jacinda Armstrong: I think Patricia summed that up really nicely. I don't have much more to contribute. The responsiveness is the biggest strength of the model, and playgroups are not fixed programs. They adapt to who turns up, and to the community needs might look like.

There are new groups that pop up might be grandparent groups, dad groups, multicultural or language-based groups. We know families are juggling more, and the flexibility of playgroup means that they can just tap in and out depending on what life actually looks like that week.

Sharnee Moore: We can just extend the conversation around the adaptability a little bit. We have had a lot of questions come through from the audience about how best to support neurodivergent children or parents with playgroup participation. I wonder if you can plus about the work you are doing at Playgroup Tasmania around the group and inclusion accessibility?

Jacinda Armstrong: Inclusion is a really big focus for us. We worked really closely with families and sector partners to understand what helps neurodivergent children and parents feel safe and supported, with this understanding we also really work closely with all of our playgroups, whether the community playgroups with parents or volunteers or more targeted programs, to really grow their knowledge and understanding what inclusive practice looks like and what safe and welcoming spaces should look like.

This includes creating sensory-aware environments, using visual prompts so that families and children know what to expect. Giving choice and predictable routines, but also having quiet areas available without needing to ask. Using strength-based, neurodiversity affirming approaches, and really giving families the permission to participate in whatever way works for them and their family.

Sharnee Moore: Thanks for that. If there are any audience members who might be working with families where one or more family member is neurodivergent, what you think is important for them to know about playgroups?

Jacinda Armstrong: I think it's actually pretty simple, in that playgroups... We don't expect families to fit a certain mould. Playgroups, at their heart, are relationship-based. Like I said before, are not program or curriculum-driven, which means they can easily adapt what a parent or child needs that day.

Neurodivergent families often tell us the relief that they feel walking into a space where their child and themselves are understood, and they don't have to explain away any behaviours.

Sharnee Moore: Mm. Angela, what has been your experience with families with neurodivergent members? Have the any approaches you have deserved that have been particularly helpful?

Angela Barwick: We have quite a few families that attend our playgroups that have children on the spectrum some degree, and we have found that each week it varies. Some weeks they will come in and be OK with the overstimulation and the noise and everything that's going on at playgroup, and other weeks they might need a little quiet space set up.

We always try and make a little quiet area. A favourite is a little tee-pee in the corner with books and toys for them, so that they can regroup and come back to enjoy the playgroup environment.

Sharnee Moore: I think we all need that sometimes, don't we? Just thinking about inclusivity from a different perspective, Kristel, can you tell us a little bit about what role cultural norms and shared values play in creating inclusive spaces?

Dr Kristel Alla: The social and cultural environment really matters, just like Jacinda was talking about, playgroups bring relationship-based. Patricia also mentioned that participants really do create them. Research shows the values, attitudes and norms within a playgroup, they do strongly influence whether families attend and lots of experience they have when they come. It's really about curiosity, respect, how we handle differences when they come up. We know from research that includes the playgroups, what that means is you do create a space for families from different backgrounds to feel safe and valued. That might be, for example, by offering culturally appropriate activities, using materials that reflect diversity, training facilitators in cultural safety and providing information in different languages when needed.

So it is important for everybody to be respectful of cultural norms. Families from some different backgrounds, for example migrant backgrounds or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, building trust may take time, so relationships can be more of a focus. If we don't approach people in a culturally-respectful way, some of it is really commonsense. And research nods to this. People will feel cared for or respected. Sometimes it can be as simple as, you know, going beyond that usual, simple, "How are you?" But really being ready for a deeper conversation.

It is about respectful, being open, supportive. Making people participate feeling that they belong and reducing any feelings of exclusion and judgement. Sometimes it is really helpful to connect the participants with other local organisations, if they have a cultural or migrant background. Engage them and tap them into community networks. Maybe organise some offence that really celebrate cultural diversity in playgroups where you have families with different backgrounds.

It is really about making everyone welcome, inclusivity. Cultural norms, they are important.

Sharnee Moore: A useful set of principles that would apply to good relational and kind of, good quality practice, in almost any setting.

I might go to you next, Patricia. There has been a lot of discussion lately about how we can create environments where children feel safe and supported unable to thrive. From your perspective, what role can playgroups play in nurturing children's safety and their overall well-being?

Patricia O'Donovan: Look, I think playgroups have a really important role here. Yes, child safety is one of the big ticket items on people's agenda at the moment. One of the things I was come back to is that playgroups support children's safety and well-being in practical, everyday ways. 

Some people think safety is just about soft fall under climbing equipment. And perhaps good supervision or something like that. But it is a lot more than that. It is really about strong relationships, tuned-in adults, a shared sense of what helps children feel secure and ready to explore. In playgroups, you actually see lots of anchoring behaviours, where children look back and are so strongly connected to their parents and caregivers that they feel safe and secure around playing there.

That, in turn, contributes to good developmental outcomes.

The second part of this really is that it is an opportunity to educate parents. Playgroups are a space where parents will often discuss, what are your next steps with your child? What do you think you are going to be doing next with your child? And often early education and care comes into that. Playgroups are often a nice place for parents to discuss what they are actually looking for. They come to an understanding of what a child-safe environment looks like, what good ratios look like, if a child is going out of your care.

So these can be topics discussed by parents. They highlight the sorts of issues with each other. They will often say to each other, "I saw this, did you see that?" They share these sorts of things between each other. Playgroups naturally create the environment for the sorts of discussions. They are such good platform for raising awareness and providing this sort of education.

Sometimes, some of our playgroup organisations will host a local speaker. Sometimes it is just the everyday modelling of safe, respectful interactions in warm, familiar settings where families already feel at ease. Those messages tend to land in a way, in a playgroup, that is accessible and meaningful for parents, for children, and then the outcome is this sort of relaxed, knowledgeable space where people understand what a safe environment looks like. Once you have a nice, safe environment, of course, you have everybody flourishing in the area of well-being.

Sharnee Moore: Thank you. Jacinda, a big part of children's well-being is making sure they feel heard and respected. How can playgroups create spaces where children's voices, choices and their cues genuinely guide what happens?

Jacinda Armstrong: This is an ongoing, I guess, priority for Playgroup Tasmania and that kind of celebration of children's rights. Children communicate in all sorts of ways, even without words. So what they moved towards, what they avoid or how quickly they might settle into a space. And for us, it is really about slowing down enough to notice those cues, rather than adding any layer of complexity. This year, as part of our child safe, child friendly playgroup work, we spent time sitting with children, asking them what safety feels like for them. And using playdough, crayons, just simple conversations, they told us it is really about people who show up, and routines they can count on. Friends to play with, and grown-ups who listen.

When we talk about children's voices, we are not necessarily talking about a big, formal process. It's more everyday things, like offering simple choices about what to play, letting children take the lead. Keeping the environment from feeling overwhelming. As we kind of mention, having that quiet space available if somebody needs a break. And really checking with children through play, or eye contact, not just words.

When we are taking our cues from children rather than directing everything, they will naturally influence the flow of what happens at playgroup.

Sharnee Moore: I think in your answer you have really nicely pre-empted one of the questions that came through from our audience around some practical strategies for engaging the children to collect information from them. In a more general setting, as well. Hopefully that satisfies that question as well.

Angela, when you walk into a playgroup, what are the little signs you notice that tells you it is a place where children's well-being is really front and centre? What do you see happening in those contexts, that shows you children are being listened to and supported?

Angela Barwick: When I first walk in, it is like home. So, I walk in and it just looks familiar. My children know where everything is. They can see things set up from previous conversations set up by volunteers. We will go in and I will ask them what they feel like playing with today. Then we will get out the trains or get out some painting. Then someone will do something and it will be a whole different experience from those things. So then next week we will set up something different because that is what they have done with it this week.

I guess, yeah, children's voices is everything. We would always do, like, themes for our playgroup as well, so the parents knew that if we were going to focus on animals or something that day, they could dress their children up as animals. Or in animal clothes. Just get them to feel more welcome by having all of that set up.

Sharnee Moore: That sounds like some beautiful examples there, but also the importance, again, of the vibe in kind of really encouraging that sense of safety and connection and support and well-being.

We've got to the point of our session today now, where we are going to jump into some of the questions from our audience. We have had a few questions come through about running playgroups for fathers. Jacinda, we might start with you. Do you have anything you could tell us about playgroups for fathers or people in the fathering role?

Jacinda Armstrong: Yes, so dads, father figures' playgroups do tend to work best when they are built around real life. So, weekends, afterwork, outdoors. All linked to activities that dads already enjoy with their kids.

In our experience, they often need a little extra nurturing to kind of get going. And having a male facilitator or volunteer involved really does make a notable, noticeable difference.

We have had success partnering with like Bunnings to run hands-on projects. So, simple woodwork activities, you know, kind of making something together. Those practical shared tasks help dads connect, I think, without feeling like they have to make small talk.

Also, just tapping into what dads or male figures naturally gravitate towards. Trucks were a big hit in one of our groups. So, the local fire station brought a fire truck along and instantly just created an easy way for the dads there to chat and connect.

Sharnee Moore: Sounds like fun. Firetrucks are always a hit, aren't they? Patricia, do you have anything to add to that?

Patricia O'Donovan: I suppose I would add that the dads were so busy chatting to the fireman that the kids were able to crawl all over the fire truck without supervision. Obviously, that didn't happen. I think we do know a lot about dad's playgroups and the specific things that come to mind. As Jacinda mentioned, they cannot make a standard weekday session, they have to be arranged around the times that a working dad has available, if those are the people who are coming.

Some dads just come if they are the primary caregiver, they will just come to a normal community-based playgroup or supported playgroup and just join in, because all the playgroups are welcoming and inclusive of everybody. But if we are trying to tap into the main working parent, and that happens to be the father, we know that those playgroups need to happen at a convenient time. They need to generally happen at the same time each week.

A facilitator often is sort of the key to the success of those playgroups, because they can arrange things, they can listen to interests and arrange things for those things to happen.

They really tend to like a show up and play style of play group. The main barrier for dads playgroups, or the main barriers, it's not a lack of interest, we have found, it is often resourcing. Because the facilitators need to be sourced. After hours or weekend rates for venues are expensive.

Everything adds to the cost of those sorts of things, and they are costs that a community playgroup doesn't usually carry. So we have to allocate some additional funding and resources to those playgroups. But we see them as critically important in building family relationships and including everyone in those very early years of child rearing, which can often be challenging but can also bring lots of beautiful benefits to families as well.

Sharnee Moore: Indeed. Angela, I'm wondering, with your the group facilitator hat on, if you have anything to add to that?

Angela Barwick: I feel that we have quite a few dads come to our playgroups. They definitely like the more rough-and-tumble sort of boy play. So, balls and trucks and getting a bit more testosterone out into the environment. Compared to the mums. Which is a nice spin on our playgroup. Like, there are a lot of families that may not have a father figure and when there is another dad there interacting, it brings out the best in all of them. 

Sharnee Moore: Thank you. I will stick with you, actually, because we have had another question asking for practical ideas for building relationships quickly and keeping parents engaged. Do you have any practical tips or strategies that you are able to share?

Angela Barwick: I think it's more about making sure that the parents feel really welcome. So, getting to know every person that comes to your playgroup by their name, their children's names. And just, like, really take an interest in their personal life outside of it, so that they feel like they are welcome to come in and offload anything that has happened throughout the week that they need to get off their chest. And do it in a safe environment, where they've got experiences for the children set up, so that the children can be busy and playing and having fun while mum or dad gets their stresses off their chest.

Sharnee Moore: Mm. I'm going to stick with you, not to keep you in the spotlight! But I think I have another question for you. To build on that, how do you encourage positive interactions between parents, where there might be disagreements around issues such as neurodivergence, maybe some cliques formed between different parents. How do you manage that situation, in that group setting?

Angela Barwick: That's a tricky question sometimes.

Sharnee Moore: (Laughs)

Angela Barwick: Most of the time we would try and maybe kindly remind the parent that may have an issue with something that, like, everyone is welcome to come to playgroup. Everyone should feel safe and supported while here.

Just to try and remember that not everybody fits in the same box.

Sharnee Moore: Jacinda, do you have anything to add that? I saw you nodding.

Jacinda Armstrong: I just love the way that Ange framed that. Playgroup really is for everybody, and, you know, it is often difficult when there is different personalities, and we know that, in any social setting, regardless of whether it's a playgroup or whether it's a work environment.

The ways in which we can ensure that everybody feels genuinely trusted and respected is just making sure that people feel seen. You know, remembering people's names, noticing their child's interests. Warmth and consistency matter.

When somebody new is coming along to your playgroup, acknowledge that, notice them. Remember their name. Ask their name, and remember it. I think it's just really important for playgroups that we keep things relaxed, so parents, families feel that they can show up, however they might be feeling that day.

Sharnee Moore: Building on this idea of how we might manage the dynamics of relationships, you have any tips or ideas - and this is probably a question for Jacinda or Angela, I'm imagining you have some great experience - for balancing the structure of a playgroup? How you might plan activities throughout the session? And then offer different strategies for how people could integrate those activities or provide a space for different ideas or conversations or resources to be happening in parallel.

Jacinda Armstrong: I will jump in first, and then let Ange go, because she has more practical experience. We provide our playgroups with essentially what is a framework, and there are tools, there are ideas, there are resources. And then the playgroups are able to adapt those, and to implement those tools when and where they think the families will most easily respond to them, I guess.

I think it's really important to reiterate that, while playgroups are flexible, they can run to a general structure. There is a greeting, there is a craft activity, there is... Before it's time for the playgroup to wrap up, there might be a quiet storytime. That signals that the playgroup is about to finish up.

What we have found is super popular is the bubble machine and a bubble song, which kind of indicates that playgroup time is up. It can have a general structure, but we really do make sure that whatever that might look like at the playgroup on the day is really driven by the families and their interests. We just provide the framework or the guidebook as to how they might be able to engage with families, and keep children interested.

Sharnee Moore: Thank you. Any tips from your perspective, Angela?

Angela Barwick: Very close to what Jacinda has said. Just taking in the children's voices, and taking their lead. In our playgroup, we run a theme. One week we would do ocean animals, and the next week do emergency vehicles, and things like that.

The week that we had the emergency vehicles coming, we actually would have the police and a fire truck come in, so that the children could look through the fire truck, and pull out the fire hose, have a little turn of the hose, press the alarm on the police car, have the siren go and the lights flashing.

Just really get the children involved in setting out the themes for the following weeks. Jacinda nailed it on the head with, the children absolutely love bubble time at the end of our playgroup. They know that as soon as the song comes on, it's outside for bubbles, and everything starts getting packed up. Once the bubbles have finished, it's goodbye, and they have the familiar routine happening.

Sharnee Moore: I think I am yet to meet a child that does not love bubbles. It is a universal love language, I think. We've got time for one or two more questions.

Kristel, I'm going to through to you, and then I think I will come to Patricia. Are you able to give us a sense, from your insights out of the research, about what are the challenges playgroups may currently be facing? Thinking about things like more demand for services, volunteers, inclusive practices, what that might look like?

Dr Kristel Alla: I think it's probably a better question for our playgroup experts, rather than research. Challenges. There is a few things, I suppose.

Off the top of my head, lots of people, through research, tell us that they are not actually aware that there is a playgroup happening in the neighbourhood, or a playgroup of a type that they would be interested in attending.

From what I have noticed, information necessarily doesn't get to the right people always, or it doesn't get into... It doesn't reach them in the right ways, or whatever way most suits them.

I have noticed this from my experience with some migrant-related backgrounds. You have one playgroup who likes to communicate through Messenger, and another playgroup whose parents like to communicate through WhatsApp and a third with emails. Some of them are really really good with creating a Facebook page. 

I understand it's really hard to know who your audience necessarily is, or how to reach them in the best way without actually going there and asking them, or asking a selection of your target group. That is what research tells us is useful.

I think awareness is one of the things that I have noticed, because getting the parents and children the playgroups tends to be, from what I have seen in the research, the hardest bit. Once you have them there, they seem to enjoy and love that.

Sharnee Moore: Patricia, do you have anything to add around the challenges or barriers that might be preventing people from being able to access playgroup, and how we might start to address some of those?

Patricia O'Donovan: Look, I think how we might address them is very difficult. But some of the things that I have noticed around this, and I have been really involved with playgroups for many, many years now. But basically I see parents and families as being very time poor.

This gets back to the curated time around their children. They like to have the time specifically to do something, to achieve something. Swimming lessons, for example, take precedence over a playgroup.

Both are absolutely essential for children, I think. But if they are time poor, they will sacrifice the socialisation of a playgroup, which can benefit their children. They will sacrifice that, and do something else.

I see the curation of both parent time and children's time as a big issue that we are concerned about, but we also see that it contributes to stress and anxiety within families that we hope playgroups can mitigate in some way, shape or form.

Other family pressures will always come into playgroup attendance, whether there is a cost-of-living issue, and not necessarily because playgroup is expensive. Most of them are very, very affordable, and many, many of them are free. But there are the issues of getting there.

In some states, public transport is very expensive. And perhaps, other areas, we've got the impact of heat and often the weather, but certainly heat. Playgroups are often used as heat refuges across Australia in very isolated communities.

To get to a playgroup in an area where there is heat, issues with heat, often they don't have bus shelters for you to wait in and catch a route in the blazing sun. We know there are those sorts of things.

We also know - again, I would like to refer back to Kristel's comment around CALD families or families where English is spoken as a second language. We know that playgroups are there as a soft entrance to the school journey, and they have acknowledged this themselves.

They often say that within playgroups that wouldn't have known where to go, what to do. "I grew my network from there, and learned everything from there." Getting the word out into those communities is really important, because playgroups enrich their lives in ways we don't necessarily plan for, but happen really organically.

How we can address some of those issues is an ongoing problem, but often it's timing, scheduling, responding to weather challenges which are often unexpected, and making sure that we keep costs low and supports for families included in what we are doing.

Those are the most immediate things that come to my mind.

Sharnee Moore: Thank you, I think that's a wonderful place for us to end the webinar, at this point. I would like to offering huge thank you to our presenters, this has been a really interesting discussion, and we really appreciate your contributions.

I would also like to extend a really big thank you to our audience. We really appreciate you taking time out of your very busy days to participate in these webinars, and we hope you got something useful out of the session today, as we hope for all sessions.

And we also thank our AIFS communications and child and family evidence and evaluation team, who do all of the backend work to make these webinars happen. 

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