Submission No 114

INQUIRY INTO FOUNDATIONAL AND DISABILITY SUPPORTS AVAILABLE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN NEW SOUTH WALES

Organisation: NSW Advocate for Children and Young People Date Received: 18 September 2026

Submission to the Select Committee on Foundational and Disability Supports Available for Children and Young People in New South Wales

NSW Advocate for Children and Young People

18 September 2026

Acknowledgement of Country

The NSW Office for Youth acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands where we work and live. We celebrate the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their ongoing cultures and connections to the lands and waters of NSW.

We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continue to experience barriers to accessing culturally appropriate services and supports.

Role of the NSW Advocate for Children and Young People

Established under the Advocate for Children and Young People Act 2014 (NSW), the NSW Advocate for Children and Young People (the Advocate) is an independent statutory appointment overseen by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Children and Young People.

The Advocate promotes the safety, welfare and wellbeing of children and young people aged 0-24 years and their participation in decisions that affect their lives. The Act requires the Advocate to give priority to the interests and needs of vulnerable and disadvantaged children and young people and to focus on systemic issues affecting children and young people¹.

The Advocate has led the NSW Office for Youth since it was established on 1 July 2025.

¹ Advocate for Children and Young People Act 2014 (NSW) Part 2 (s2)

Executive summary

The NSW Advocate for Children and Young People (ACYP) welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Select Committee on Foundational and Disability Supports Available for Children and Young People in New South Wales. Reform should be judged by whether children and young people can exercise their rights, influence decisions and access timely, appropriate support where they live, learn, play and belong.

The Interim Report calls for earlier support, simpler access, stronger coordination and greater equity. The NSW Government Response to Thriving Kids provides an opportunity to embed these objectives in a broader rights-based foundational supports system, with children’s participation as an operating requirement.

Thriving Kids should be the first stage of that broader system. Access should be based principally on functional need and developmental concern, with trusted entry points, warm referral and coordinated support. Mainstream services must retain existing responsibilities, and transition safeguards must prevent children losing necessary support.

The age boundary remains a significant gap. NSW Government should work with the Australian Government on a funded pathway for children and young people aged 9-24 across key education, employment, community participation and independence transitions. Reform also requires child- centred accountability, formal participation and sustainable commissioning.

Summary of recommendations

1. The NSW Government should implement Thriving Kids as the first stage of a broader foundational supports system. This includes: - ensuring function-based access to supports - taking a no-wrong-door approach with clear referral pathways between mainstream services and foundational supports - ensuring culturally safe services and pathways - ensuring there is a transition pathway for children and young people aged 9-24 to continue to receive the supports they need.

2. Embed children and young people’s voices in reform through: - Child and youth participation in governance, commissioning, service design and evaluation. Participation should be in accessible and including mechanisms to reach those least likely to be heard. - Ensuring the program has in-built mechanisms to allow for children and young people to participate and influence the decisions about their own supports. - Clear pathways and support mechanisms should be available for children and young people to make a complaint safely.

3. The NSW Government should establish a child-centred outcomes reporting framework (the Framework) to monitor the effectiveness of the scheme. The Framework should include collection of baseline data, regular reporting, an early implementation review, clear whole-of- government responsibilities and formal independent oversight by the Advocate.

4. Commissioning of supports should focus on continuity, quality and local capability through multi-year indexed funding, appropriate core funding, First Nations community-controlled commissioning.

Thriving Kids implementation

Recommendation 1: The NSW Government should implement Thriving Kids as the first stage of a broader foundational supports system. This includes:

• ensuring function-based access to supports
• taking a no-wrong-door approach with clear referral pathways between mainstream services and foundational supports
• ensuring culturally safe services and pathways
• ensuring there is a transition pathway for children and young people aged 9-24 to continue to receive the supports they need.

Thriving Kids should form part of a wider NSW foundational supports system, not operate as an isolated early-childhood program. Success should be measured by whether children can communicate their needs, participate in learning and relationships, develop autonomy and be included in family, education and community life.

General and targeted supports should operate as a continuum. General supports may include trusted information, parent and carer education, peer support, developmental promotion and community inclusion. Targeted supports should respond to functional need and may include allied health, early childhood intervention, assistive technology, family capacity building and key-worker support. Children should move between levels without repeatedly proving eligibility.

Diagnosis should not be the only practical gateway to support. General supports should commence on developmental concern; assessment for targeted supports should be proportionate, free and focused on function, participation, family priorities and safety. Where diagnosis is clinically indicated, appropriate support should continue while children undertake this process.

A no-wrong-door approach should be taken by mainstream services such as health, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs), playgroups, Early Childhood Education and Care, schools, community organisations, disability advocacy and digital or telephone pathways. Services should assist or make a warm referral, with named coordination where systems intersect. Rural and remote access requires measurable standards for timeliness, travel, face-to-face alternatives, interpreters and escalation.

First Nations partnership and culturally diverse access require Aboriginal co-governance, community-controlled commissioning, culturally appropriate assessment and referral, interpreter funding, accessible information and culturally responsive workforce strategies. Procurement should not exclude smaller ACCOs and ACCHOs.

Whole-of-family needs should be addressed without creating new silos. Child-development services should identify caregiver and sibling needs, build family capability and make accountable warm referrals to mental health, respite and family-support services.

Education interfaces require similar clarity. Foundational supports may be delivered in ECEC and schools through consistent arrangements for in-reach, professional consultation, information sharing and co-commissioning, while preserving education providers’ obligations to fund reasonable adjustments and inclusive practice.

The age-nine boundary remains the clearest unresolved gap. NSW should develop a foundational supports roadmap for children and young people aged 9-24, with planning before age nine and support across school, post-school education, employment, community participation and emerging independence. Evidence should be reusable if a young person later seeks NDIS access.

Implementation should preserve meaningful choice for children and families. Information about applicable standards and available service pathways should be clear and accessible. Children and families should also have access to an independent complaints mechanism to raise concerns and seek advice and support where needed.

The transition period to January 2028 should be used as a readiness safeguard to ensure new arrangements are supported by adequate service capacity and accessibility. Where necessary

supports are not yet in place, existing services and transitional funding should be maintained to avoid gaps in care and support.

Children and young people as participants in reform

Recommendation 2: Embed children and young people’s voices in reform through:

• a) Child and youth participation in governance, commissioning, service design and evaluation. Participation should be in accessible and including mechanisms to reach those least likely to be heard.
• b) Ensuring the program has in-built mechanisms to allow for children and young people to participate and influence the decisions about their own supports.
• c) Clear pathways and support mechanisms should be available for children and young people to make a complaint safely.

Children and young people are rights-holders and service users in their own right. The Interim Reports calls for their voices to be recognised, valued and prioritised should become an implementation requirement across governance, commissioning, service design, evaluation and quality monitoring.

Participation should be direct wherever possible. Parents and carers provide essential insight but should not be the only channel for a child’s views. Younger children, children with disability, children using augmentative or alternative communication, and children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds need accessible ways to express preferences, goals and service experiences.

Children should participate in decisions about their own support. Service standards should require accessible explanations, documentation of the child’s views and evidence of how those views shaped goals and delivery. Supported decision-making should increasingly reflect the autonomy of older children and young people. They also need child and youth friendly mechanisms to raise concerns about their care.

Ongoing co-design should include formal, remunerated roles for children and young people with disability in advisory structures, commissioning and evaluation governance, with independent facilitation where needed. Participation should not depend on a provider, and confidential feedback and complaints mechanisms should be available.

Accountability should show who was engaged, what children and young people said and what changed. Providers should demonstrate participation in service planning and quality improvement, while evaluation should test genuine choice, respect, inclusion and influence rather than simply whether consultation occurred.

Children’s voice should be a distinct accountability measure, not subsumed within parent satisfaction. Children and young people should help determine outcomes and methods using age-appropriate and disability-accessible approaches. Public reporting should show what they said, what changed and where their views differed from adults’.

Participation must reach those least likely to be heard, including children in out-of-home care, rural and remote communities, Aboriginal and culturally diverse children, those disengaged from education, and those affected by disability, housing instability or family violence. Equity in voice should be treated as seriously as equity in access.

The pathway beyond age eight should also be co-designed with young people at key transition points, with their priorities shaping both supports and measures of success.

Data, evaluation and public accountability

Recommendation 3: The NSW Government should establish a child-centred outcomes reporting framework (the Framework) to monitor the effectiveness of the scheme. The Framework should include collection of baseline data, regular reporting, an early implementation review, clear whole-of-government responsibilities and formal independent oversight by the Advocate.

The Framework should make children’s rights and experiences visible. Data should show not only service volumes but whether children can access support, influence decisions, achieve meaningful goals and experience inclusion, safety, dignity and continuity.

Before services scale, NSW should publish baseline data on wait times, service availability, geographic gaps, workforce vacancies, NDIS and non-NDIS pathways and public developmental-service capacity. A current system map should set out eligibility, services, intake, local availability, expected waits, interfaces, transitions and escalation where services are unavailable.

The Framework should cover access, child and family outcomes, equity, system performance, safety and quality. Measures should include timeliness, participation, functional goals, family capability, coordination, transitions, complaints, provider continuity and disaggregated equity indicators under ethical data governance.

A public dashboard should be available and supported by annual reporting and an early implementation review at about 12-18 months. The review should examine readiness, access gaps, provider stability, workforce movement, transition failures and children’s reported experience before January 2028.

Digital infrastructure should support safe coordination through common referral pathways, service directories, referral-status capability and outcome data standards where needed. Information sharing should be consent-based and proportionate, with role-based access, correction, retention and cybersecurity safeguards, including protection of Aboriginal data consistent with Indigenous Data Sovereignty principles.

Whole-of-government accountability should be explicit. If DCJ leads implementation, Health, Education and relevant central agencies should have named deliverables, shared indicators and escalation mechanisms. Reporting should identify responsible agencies, funding, milestones and performance measures, including whether responsibility is Commonwealth-led, State-led or shared.

The NSW Advocate for Children and Young People should have a formal, independent oversight role in Thriving Kids. As an independent statutory officer with a legislated mandate to promote the safety, welfare, wellbeing and participation of children and young people, the Advocate is uniquely positioned to provide independent advice to government, facilitate meaningful and ongoing engagement with children, young people and families and assess whether implementation is delivering equitable and effective outcomes. This includes participation in governance, oversight of outcomes and evaluation frameworks, access to relevant data, monitoring of systemic concerns and public reporting on progress and gaps and emerging risks. Embedding the Advocate within the accountability framework of Thriving Kids would strengthen transparency, provide a sustained mechanism for children and young people to influence reform, and help ensure the implementation remains consistent with the rights and responsive to their changing needs.

Funding, commissioning and sustainability

Recommendation 4: Commissioning of supports should focus on continuity, quality and local capability through multi-year indexed funding, appropriate core funding, First Nations community-controlled commissioning.

Sustainable funding and commissioning are essential to a stable rights-based system. NSW should translate commitments on funding certainty and procurement into commissioning principles that protect service continuity and local capability.

Neighbourhood and community centres should receive sustainable core funding where they perform enduring functions such as trusted outreach, soft entry, community connection, referral and local coordination. Funding should reflect capability and outcomes while recognising that these functions cannot rely on short-term project grants.

Multi-year, indexed commissioning should be the default for enduring services once capability is established. Funding should cover the real cost of delivery, including outreach, travel, supervision, professional development, interpreters, data, clinical governance, safeguarding and administration.

Place-based and relational commissioning should be used where outcomes depend on several organisations. Local models should adapt to geography, culture and demand while meeting statewide rights, quality and access standards; rural and disadvantaged communities may require workforce development, visiting services, mobile outreach and travel assistance.

Commissioning should give practical effect to First Nations self-determination. Aboriginal governance should shape specifications, workforce, data and evaluation as well as dedicated service streams. Funding should accommodate smaller ACCOs and ACCHOs, build community-controlled capacity and avoid disproportionate administrative burdens.

Conclusion

NSW has an opportunity to build a coherent foundational supports system rather than shift children between programs. Thriving Kids can be a strong first stage if children and young people can access support early, influence decisions and remain connected through transitions.

The Committee’s final report should retain the Interim Report’s substance while sharpening implementation. Priorities are the pathway for children aged nine and above, mainstream coordination, family wellbeing, rural access, workforce and market readiness, data and accountability, and sustainable commissioning. The central test is whether reform advances children’s and young people’s rights, voice, inclusion and life opportunities.