The 10-year, Every Child Gunnedah program aims to ensure every five-year-old in Gunnedah is ready to start school.

It follows statistics from the 2015 Australian Early Development Census which showed 22 per cent of Australian five-year-old children were deemed developmentally vulnerable.

Program co-ordinator Carolyn Leys said they have planned five sessions of two-day training to be run by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

She said the project encouraged active input from families, not passive acceptance of service.

The information sessions, which are due to start later this year or early 2018, will begin preliminary work with Gunnedah’s early education network.

“This is the first step in the project,” Ms Leys said.

But it doesn’t come cheap at a cost of $54,000 for the initial round of seminars.

“We’re looking for participants and people to help fund it,” she said.

In another big development, the program has secured an auspice in Tamworth Family Support.

Ms Leys said its processes are similar to the Every Gunnedah Child operating model, so it made sense to form the partnership.

The connection will allow the start-up project to “process” its funding and hopefully lead by example in the industry.

“It’s pretty exciting to think there may be a different approach,” Ms Leys said.

“And it will have an impact.

“If we can do this, we can be the example for others.”

The Every Child Gunnedah Facebook page is operational and posts information for parents and about recent developments about the program.

To register your interest about becoming involved in the project, email: everygunnedahchild@gmail.com