There is common agreement among service providers and governments that our systems of child and family support services no longer meet the needs of young children and families as effectively as they once did. To achieve better outcomes, it is proposed that services must become better integrated - that we need "joined up solutions for joined up problems". For this to occur, the professionals and services involved need to share a common core of knowledge, skills and values - a "core curriculum".

This presentation reports on the key findings of a national survey of the knowledge base and training needs of those working with young children and their families. The survey showed that no single profession was trained in all the relevant knowledge, skills and values needed to work effectively with young children and their families, although all were trained in some. The survey also showed that the on-the-job supervision and mentoring needed to consolidate the essential skills and values were inconsistently available across the professions working with young children and families, and that the ongoing training was conducted in professional "silos" with few opportunities for multidisciplinary or cross-sectoral training.

The implications of these findings are discussed, and a new initiative to address the common training needs of those working with young children and their families is described. This consists of a series of CD ROM-based training modules for interdisciplinary groups. Finally, other actions still needed to address the training needs for the early childhood and family support sector are outlined.