Kelly Baird

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Principal Policy Analyst at NSW Department of Education

The ReSPECT Project (Reconceptualising Services from the Perspectives of Children and Teens) was conducted in a disadvantaged urban community in Australia, with young people who experience marginalisation and who were involved with multiple service agencies across a range of service sectors. Its purpose was to work closely with young people to unde...

Background Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) mothers with young children with limited English proficiency (LEP) encounter multiple barriers in accessing and engaging with primary healthcare services. The aim of this study was to explore the lived experiences and perceptions of CALD mothers with LEP in receiving child and family health nu...

There is widespread discourse and policy on children's participation in decision‐making. This is not matched with an equal level of implementation in practice. This qualitative research explores the policy to practice gap with senior decision makers in the child protection system in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Their reflections on the challen...

Background The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of healthcare interpreters working with child and family health nurses (CFHNs) in providing child and family health nursing (CFHN) services and sustained nurse home visiting (SNHV) programs to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) families with limited English proficiency. Meth...

Background Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) families with young children are less likely to seek out healthcare services in comparison with the mainstream population. A lack of appropriate access and engagement with public health nursing (PHN) service contributes to major health disparities for CALD mothers. Aim To describe and synthes...

Background: In Australia, sustained nurse home-visiting (SNHV) programs are designed and implemented to promote positive outcomes for mothers with young children experiencing complex life challenges. Despite the crucial role of trained public health nurses, there is a dearth of research about their experiences delivering these programs to cultural...

This paper presents findings from mixed-method research exploring 3–5-year-old children’s social interaction experiences while attending one of three different early childhood settings: a therapeutic family support program; a supported playgroup; or a preschool. Thematic analysis of child interviews revealed differences in how children experienced...

This paper presents a scoping review of the literature on child participatory research in Australia published in academic journals between 2000 and 2018. The review focused on research designed to engage with children and young people in the development, implementation and evaluation of services. A total of 207 papers were identified and distribute...

BACKGROUND Volunteer home visiting is a widely adopted community-based approach to supporting families by linking isolated or vulnerable families with community volunteers. This study seeks to robustly evaluate the effectiveness of this model of support for families with young children. OBJECTIVE This paper reports the intention-to-treat analysis...

Background: Volunteer home visiting is a widely adopted community-based approach to support families by linking isolated or vulnerable families with community volunteers who visit their homes weekly over approximately 12 months. This study seeks to robustly evaluate the effectiveness of this model of support for families with young children. Obje...

Background: Use of community volunteers to support vulnerable families is a widely employed strategy with a long history. However, there has been minimal formal scientific investigation into the effectiveness of volunteer home visiting programs for families. There is also a need for research examining whether volunteer home visiting leads to impro...

This paper presents findings from research exploring young people's perspectives on the strengths, challenges and needs of their local community in a disadvantaged area of Sydney, Australia. These findings contribute to the growing body of literature that seeks to better understand the life experiences and support needs of vulnerable children and f...

This article reports on findings from longitudinal research that explored perceptions of family life for three- to five-year-old children whose families were participating in an intensive, therapeutic family support programme (N = 5) in a disadvantaged community in Sydney, Australia. There were two early childhood comparison groups, one comprising...

This study contributes to child voice research that seeks to understand the early childhood education and care (ECEC) experiences of young children. Forty-seven children from seven disadvantaged communities in NSW Australia, including urban, rural and remote areas, participated in a face-to-face interview guided by Ecocultural theory. The children...

This paper criticaly reflects on the appropriateness of the methodological framework adopted in an exploratory study of young children's experiences of participation in their early childhood centre and home environments. The Mosaic and Ecocultural approaches informed the study's methodological framework as these approaches were seen to be complemen...