Submission No 124

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

Organisation: The Institute of Special Educators (InSpEd) Date Received: 17 September 2026

Inquiry into Foundational and Disability Supports Available for Children and Young people in NSW

NSW LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL SELECT COMMITTEE ON FOUNDATIONAL AND DISABILITY SUPPORTS AVAILABLE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN NEW SOUTH WALES

SUBMISSION – SEPTEMBER 2026

Institute of Special Educators ABN: 67 299 496 951 PO Box 357 Balmain NSW 2041 www.insped.org.au

Table of Contents

Background

Executive Summary and Recommendations

Response to specific Terms of Reference:

• (a) The role of services and supports for a child’s overall development, health and wellbeing

• (c) The role of diagnostic services, existing gaps and barriers, and measures to improve effectiveness, availability and access of such services

• (g) Workforce issues in the child development and early childhood intervention sectors, including workforce demand and the availability, quality and capacity of existing workers

Background

Members of the Board of the Institute of Special Educators (InSpEd) appreciate the opportunity to address the terms of reference for the parliamentary inquiry into Foundation Supports for Children and Young People in NSW. A member of our organisation is prepared to attend in person to discuss our recommendations. We can be contacted at info@insped.org.au

About the Institute of Special Educators

The Institute of Special Educators (InSpEd) was established to secure the ongoing availability of specialist education support for all individuals with disabilities/delays and learning and behavioural difficulties at all stages of life – infancy and early childhood, school and post school.

In order to achieve quality support, the InSpEd Board determined that all specialist educators must be qualified to provide that support by completing:

• a specialist qualification
• a course that includes knowledge of and skills in implementing evidence-based practice.

Certified special educators must also meet minimum hours for ongoing professional learning in order to maintain their certification.

A panel of researchers and practitioners with expertise in evidence-based practice in supporting individuals with disabilities/delays was established to:

• Guide the development of the InSpEd standards for:
  • special educator accreditation
  • endorsement of university courses in special/inclusive education
  • endorsement of professional development courses in special/inclusive education.
• Assess applications for accreditation of special educators and endorsement of courses.

In view of InSpEd’s objectives and the expertise of our Board and members, we have addressed the following areas outlined in the terms of reference for the current inquiry:

• (a) The role of services and supports for a child’s overall development, health and wellbeing

• (c) The role of diagnostic services, existing gaps and barriers, and measures to improve effectiveness, availability and access of such services

• (g) Workforce issues in the child development and early childhood intervention sectors, including workforce demand and the availability, quality and capacity of existing workers

Coral Kemp, B.A DipEd, MA (Special Education), PhD, OAM Chair, Institute of Special Educators Committee Member of the International Society on Early Intervention Founding Director of Specialist Teaching and Research (STaR) Honorary Senior Lecturer, Macquarie University

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Executive Summary

There is no doubt that the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has had a positive impact on the lives of people with significant disability. However, the evidence suggests that the NDIS has negatively impacted the quality of services for infants and young children with intellectual disabilities/developmental delays and those on the autism spectrum (Gavidia Payne, 2024¹). This is because the changes brought about by the introduction of the scheme have significantly compromised the ability of providers to address best practice in early childhood intervention (ECI; Gavidia Payne et al., 2025²)

Under the NDIS model of person-centred funding:

• Children with delays that were not medically diagnosed were not always able to access funding.
• Qualified early childhood special educators were not recognised as providers of ECI.
• Access to trusted professionals with knowledge of evidence-based practice was not always available to families.
• Collaboration and capacity building, inclusion, family-centred practice, which are the cornerstones of quality supports for infants and young children, were not always a feature of ECI services (Carlon et al., 2025)³

Although there are benefits for the focus on individual needs and input from families under the NDIS, which should be retained under a new model, there is also a need to address the unforeseen negative products of the NDIS approach. We strongly support a change in the model of service provision for the population of infants and young children with mild to moderate support needs and encourage the NSW government to provide the necessary supports to achieve the best long-term outcomes for individuals with intellectual disability/developmental delays and those on the autism spectrum.

Summary of Recommendations:

• 1. That the NSW government provide block-funding for ECI services to deliver foundational supports to enable unbiased advice to families and collaboration with other relevant programs
• 2. That the NSW government and Department of Communities and Justice require that foundational supports be delivered using a capacity-building approach within children’s natural environments, as opposed to an individual therapy approach involving withdrawing children from their natural environments

1 Gavidia-Payne, S., Rossell, R., Bull, K., & Forster, J. (2024). The changing narrative of early childhood intervention in Australia: Service providers’ perspectives on the implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Children and Youth Services Review, 157.

2 Gavidia-Payne, JS., Zanuttini, J., Carlon, C., & Kemp, C. (2025). Early childhood intervention under the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme: Characteristics and recruitment practices of service providers, Early Childhood Education Journal 53 (7), 2655-2664

3. Carlon, S., Zanutinni, J. Z., Kemp, C., & Gavidia-Payne, S. (2025a). Australian Early Childhood Intervention Roles: Are they Reflective of Best Practice and are the Skills, Knowledge, and Experience Sought by Employers Suitable? Infants and Young Children, 38(2), 87-106.

3. That the NSW government and Department of Communities and Justice require that foundational supports include transition from ECEC to school

4. That the NSW government and Department of Communities and Justice require accountability on the part of service providers funded to deliver foundational supports including:

   a. selection of goals: - based on a functional assessment of skills in collaboration with families/caregivers - building on the strengths and interests of the child b. selection of evidence-based intervention strategies c. implementation of strategies in the activities and locations (e.g., the home, education and care settings) in which skills need to be demonstrated, allowing for the cumulative practice of skills rather than an hour of clinical intervention once or twice a week d. ongoing monitoring of progress using objective data e. changes to goals and/or intervention strategies based on the collection of progress data

5. That the NSW government requires practitioners delivering support to infants and young children with intellectual disabilities/developmental delays and autism to have: a. an initial early childhood education or allied health qualification, and b. a post-graduate qualification in ECI that includes knowledge, skills and experience in recognised best practice for infants and young children with disabilities/developmental delays.

6. That the NSW government provide support for early childhood educators and allied health practitioners to complete a post-graduate ECI qualification by providing: a. scholarships to assist with course completion b. preferential funding for services employing staff with ECI qualifications

Response to specific Terms of Reference:

(a) The role of services and supports on a child’s overall development, health and wellbeing

Evidence-based Early Childhood Intervention Services The aim of ECI is to mitigate the effects of disability and developmental delay, thereby enabling the child to make optimal progress at a time when the brain is still developing. For infants and young children with mild to moderate support needs, the support provided early, ideally from the point of identification, is likely to reduce the intensity of support needed at a later time. In ECI services committed to evidence-based practice, parents/carers are advised by professionals whom they trust and who are not benefiting directly from the inclusion of individual children in their services.

Collaboration, inclusion, family centredness and evidence-based intervention strategies have been identified as best practice in early childhood intervention in Australia (Moore, et al., 2025)4.

Accepted Practice in Early Childhood Intervention

Recommended practices, that is practices that research has demonstrated to have a positive effect for children and families or practices that have been accepted by a consensus of opinion in the field, have been identified by the Division for Early Childhood (DEC, 2014)5 of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) in the USA and have international support.

Recommended practices include assessment that is conducted for the purpose of:

• screening,
• identifying eligibility for services,
• individualised planning,
• outcome measurement, and monitoring of progress.

It is important that families have easy access to developmental screening when they have concerns about their child’s development or the child is at biological risk for disability or delay. Assessment used for program planning and measurement of child outcomes should target all developmental areas and provide information about the child’s skills in daily activities, routines and environments (e.g., home, ECEC centres). This would assist with the identification of skills that the child needs in order to participate and learn in these environments.

Services and supports should take place in natural and inclusive environments and should:

• build family capacity by increasing parental knowledge and skills and promote the child’s interaction with adults and peers;
• build the capacity of educators in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and early school settings to:
  • implement functional assessments within the activities and routines of their settings
  • develop individual plans in collaboration with families and other services
  • implement evidence-based strategies in naturally occurring activities and routines
  • monitor progress using objective data

While instructional strategies need to be intentional and systematic, they also need to build on the child’s strengths and interests and to be implemented in the environments where the skills are needed. All service providers supporting the child need to work collaboratively with the family to achieve the best developmental outcomes for the child.

4 Moore, T, Imms C.. et al. National Best Practice Framework for Early Childhood Intervention. The University of Melbourne. Commissioned by the Commonwealth of Australia’s Department of Social Services. 5 Division for Early Childhood. (2014). DEC recommended practices in early intervention/early childhood special education 2014. Retrieved from http://www.dec-sped.org/recommendedpractices

Support for transition to school is also integral for effective ECI support (DEC, 2014).6 Where a child is transitioning to a mainstream class or school, this support provides an opportunity to build the capacity of mainstream teachers to successfully include students with disabilities and delays in their classrooms.

Recommendations:

Given the knowledge of research and the practical experience of our members with expertise in the field of ECI, we are most disappointed that the NSW government does not support Recommendation 13 of the Parliamentary Inquiry, which recommended educator capacity building. Many children with, or at risk of, disabilities/developmental delays attend ECEC settings. These settings focus on building skills across all developmental areas in addition to maximising the child’s health, safety and welfare. Providing foundational supports in these settings and in the first years of school has the potential to reduce the need for more costly support at a later time. Building the capacity of early childhood educators to support these children must be a high priority.

We noted, also, that Recommendation 3, which recommended support for family well-being and parent capacity building, was not supported by the NSW government. Given that family-centred practice has been identified as an important component of quality ECI (Moore et al., 2025), we wish to register our disappointment that the needs of the family, especially as this relates to their mental health and the knowledge and skills needed to support their child’s development, was not supported by the NSW government.

We recommend:

• That interventions be based on a functional assessment across developmental areas and implemented within the child’s everyday activities, routines and environments
• That all service providers be required to work collaboratively with the family of the infant/child with disabilities/developmental delays to optimise the child’s progress
• That Foundational supports should include support for transition to school.
• That service providers build the family‘s knowledge and skills and the capacity to support their child’s development
• That ECI services support early childhood educators to implement functional assessments and evidence-based interventions in their settings.

6 Division for Early Childhood. (2014). DEC recommended practices in early intervention/early childhood special education 2014. Retrieved from http://www.dec-sped.org/recommendedpractices

(c) The role of diagnostic services, existing gaps and barriers, and measures to improve effectiveness, availability and access to services

Access to services for individuals with intellectual disability/developmental delay and autism should not be based on a diagnosis. Infants and young children whose parents and carers are concerned about their development across one or more developmental areas should have access to early developmental screening and assessment of skills in natural settings. Such an approach to identification of need is far more useful than any label, even if this label has levels attached. There are very important reasons for this:

• Not all individuals with intellectual disability/developmental delays have a medical diagnosis. For many, the impairment has an unknown aetiology.
• A diagnosis of autism is based on an assessor’s measure of a set behaviours. Autism is a spectrum and those diagnosed as autistic have a broad range of intellectual, communication, self-regulation and social skills. The way in which these skills are demonstrated may differ according to the environment in which the assessment takes place.
• Individuals with genetic disabilities (e.g., Down syndrome and Fragile X syndrome) do not all have the same level of cognitive impairment, nor do they have the same difficulties with motor, language and communication, social and self-care skills.

For these reasons infants and young children requiring foundational supports should be identified initially through early childhood developmental screening and/or the concerns of parents, health professionals and early childhood educators. Assessment for support services should then be conducted, as previously outlined, within the activities and environments in which the skills assessed need to be demonstrated.

Recommendations:

• That infants and young children requiring foundational supports be identified initially through early childhood developmental screening and/or the concerns of parents, health professionals and early childhood educators
• That assessment for support services should be conducted within the activities and environments in which the skills assessed need to be demonstrated (i.e., home, ECEC and school settings)

(g) Workforce issues in the child development and early childhood intervention sectors, including workforce demand and the availability, quality and capacity of existing workers

Person-centred funding in Australia was introduced by the Australian Federal Government with the launch of the Helping Children with Autism (HCWA) funding initiative in 2008 and the Better Start Initiative in 2012. Under these funding models, families were allocated funds to purchase ECI services that they believed their children needed. With the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), there were dramatic changes in the services supporting infants and young children with disabilities and developmental delays. These changes included an increase in the

number of for-profit providers of disability services offering therapy and early childhood education and fewer services specialising in early childhood intervention (Gavidia-Payne et al., 2025)7.

Providers of services under the NDIS no longer required practitioners who were employed to deliver services to infants and young children to have skills in best practice early childhood intervention. Fewer early childhood intervention programs were employing early childhood special educators, with early childhood intervention practitioners commonly required to be qualified in occupational therapy, speech pathology or early childhood education. This has resulted in a change in the model of service provided and the expertise of the practitioners offering those services (Zanuttini, et al., 2026)8.

Our research into ECI best practice content included in initial occupational therapy, speech pathology and early childhood education courses, endorsed by the relevant professional associations, indicates that those courses did not sufficiently address best practice in early childhood intervention. Practice related to inclusion was particularly poorly addressed in speech pathology and occupational therapy courses. Of concern was that not one of these professional courses included strategies for supporting early childhood service providers to assist children with disabilities/delays to learn and develop within everyday activities and settings (Carlon et al., 2025b)9.

Recommendations

• That the NSW government requires practitioners delivering support to infants and young children with intellectual disabilities/developmental delays and autism to have:

  • an initial early childhood education or allied health qualification, and
  • a post-graduate qualification in early childhood intervention that includes knowledge, skills and experience in recognised best practice for children with disability, practice that includes:
    • functional assessment of skills across developmental areas
    • naturalistic interventions for communication, social skills and personal care

• That the NSW government provide support for early childhood educators and allied health practitioners to complete an accredited post-graduate early childhood intervention qualification by providing:

  • scholarships to assist with course completion
  • preferential funding for services employing staff with ECI qualifications

7 Gavidia-Payne, JS., Zanuttini, J., Carlon, C., & Kemp, C. (2025). Early childhood intervention under the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme: Characteristics and recruitment practices of service providers. Early Childhood Education Journal, 53(7), 2655-2664.

8. Zanutinni, J., Z., Carlon, C., Gavidia-Payne, S, & Kemp, C. (2026). Best practice early childhood intervention: What do Australian providers look for in their practitioners? Infants and Young Children, 10, 1097.

9. Carlon, S., Kemp, C., Zanuttini, J. Z., & Gavidia-Payne, S. (2025b). Personnel Preparation for Australian Early Childhood Intervention Roles: Does It Meet Best Practice Standards? Advancing Early Childhood Intervention, Paper presented at the 8th ISEI Early Childhood Intervention Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, 2-5 September.