Child and family services information, referral and support teams

Each Child and Family Information, Referral and Support Teams (Child FIRSTs) provides a central referral point to a range of community-based family services and other supports within each of the Child FIRST catchment areas.

Child FIRST ensures that vulnerable children, young people and their families are linked effectively into relevant services and may be the best way of connecting children, young people and their families to the services they need.

Factors which affect a child's safety, stability or development are:

• significant parenting problems that may be affecting the child's development
• serious family conflict, including family breakdown
• families under pressure due to a family member's physical or mental illness, substance abuse, disability or bereavement
• young, isolated and/or unsupported families
• significant social or economic disadvantage that may adversely impact on a child's care or development.

Use the table below to find your local Child FIRST referral number according to which local government area the child/young person and family you are concerned about are in. If you are not sure which local government area the family you are concerned about lives in, visit the Know your council website.  

For Victorian child FIRST catchments map, see Related resources.

In some areas referrals about Aboriginal children and families can be made directly to an Aboriginal organisation, as indicated with a star (*) in the table.