Submission No 111

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

Organisation: Vision Australia Date Received: 18 September 2026

Vision Australia Submission: Inquiry into Disability and Foundational Supports

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

Date: 18 September 2026

Submission approved by: Chris Edwards, Chief Mission Officer

Inquiry into foundational and disability supports available for children and young people in New South Wales

Prepared by: Caitlin McMorrow, NDIS and Aged Care Funding Specialist Lead

Introduction

Vision Australia welcomes the opportunity to provide this submission to the Select Committee, as part of its inquiry into foundational and disability supports available for children in New South Wales. Vision Australia acknowledges that there is an ongoing need in the disability community for supports additional to those provided by the NDIS, mainstream services and other Government bodies. We welcome the commitment of all Australian Governments to these reforms as they will play an important role in building the capacity of people with disability to ensure that they can participate fully in social, community and civic life.

The role of Disability and Foundational Supports on a Child’s Overall Development, Health and Wellbeing

Vision impairment in children may occur as a primary disability, or in conjunction with another condition or spectrum of conditions. No matter the circumstance, the incidence of vision impairment in children can and does result in developmental delay, particularly if vision strategies are not available or applied at an early stage.

There are many children with vision impairment who cannot access the NDIS on the basis of permanent disability because their visual acuity cannot be clearly established. In the case of very young children, it can be particularly difficult to determine visual acuity until the child is able to communicate or begins to access environmental information beyond arm’s length.

Currently, under the early childhood approach, children with developmental delay who are not otherwise full NDIS participants may access early intervention supports for a period until it can be established whether they meet the NDIS criteria for permanent disability. This stream of supports may be partially replaced by Thriving Kids, and may capture some, but likely not all, children with vision impairment who are not accessing the NDIS on the basis of permanent disability.

Whether or not these children are later diagnosed with a permanent disability for NDIS purposes, early vision specific services are crucial in ensuring that they meet developmental milestones, and have access to any strategies which may allow correction of visual function. These services are often more tailored than those provided by general allied health professionals such as occupational therapists and speech pathologists. Due to the impacts of vision impairment on all areas of development, it is essential that children are able to access vision specific services without delay. Access to supports for this cohort must also be supported by a clear pathway for families. Parents often have limited knowledge of how to identify developmental delay in vision impaired children or the services available at their child’s

point of diagnosis. They need to be supported with a referral process that operates effectively across both the health and disability sectors.

Gaps and Barriers to Accessing Early Childhood Intervention and Their

Impact on a Child’s Overall Development, Health and Wellbeing, as Well as on Their Family or Carers and Other Government Services and systems

Vision Australia has a number of current clients who would benefit from increased access to short-term early intervention provided through foundational supports outside the NDIS. For example, we work with several children experiencing delayed visual maturation. These children are generally aged under 3, and often do not qualify for access to the NDIS because their vision is able to be corrected through contact lenses, removal of cataracts, and other treatment options. It is nonetheless important for us to work with these families so that they can understand how to provide the best possible environment to stimulate the child’s vision. A child’s vision will generally continue to develop until around 8 years of age, and the way in which they use it changes as they become more mobile and need to access visual information at greater distances. It is vital that they work with specialist providers such as vision Australia, to ensure that level of vision and its use in daily routines is monitored and is continuing to develop.

Sometimes these children are later diagnosed with a permanent condition that qualifies for NDIS access, and sometimes they are not, but in either case their access to short-term early intervention services is crucial in ensuring that they meet developmental milestones. Regardless of whether children meet permanent disability, early intervention or developmental delay requirements to access the NDIS, there must be supports available to them until such time as the extent of their vision loss can be properly assessed and determined. Due to the impacts of vision impairment on all areas of development, it is essential that children are able to access services without delay. The availability of such services in early childhood plays a crucial role in reducing reliance on other Government systems and funding programs later in life.

There are also ongoing gaps regarding service delivery to small cohorts of children in thin market environments and we have concerns that these challenges are not being addressed in the development of new foundational support programs. Vision Australia was recently invited to submit a buyer response to the Department of Communities and Justice in relation to the provision of general supports and targeted supports under the Thriving Kids program. This followed a successful Expression of Interest submission. Vision Australia has the capability and expertise to deliver targeted supports under the Thriving Kids program, however, due to thin market conditions and the prescribed geographic areas proposed, we were unable to establish a viable service delivery model to meet the tender requirements.

Vision Australia is committed to ensuring that appropriate supports are made available for children experiencing developmental delay and/or autism in combination with vision impairment. This is a small and geographically dispersed cohort, with demand spread across broad regions rather than concentrated within defined service areas. It includes children whose developmental delay is caused by vision impairment, but who are not eligible for support through the NDIS. Given the unique developmental impacts of vision impairment, mainstream

providers often do not have the specialist expertise required to effectively support these children and their families. Access to vision-specific support is critical to build developmental capacity and improve functional outcomes for this group.

Given the small and geographically dispersed nature of this cohort, there is a need for Statewide specialist service models that can promote access to equitable supports for all children and families and ensure that vision-specific needs are effectively integrated within the broader support system.

Measures to Implement Recommendations of the NDIS Review Final Report and the Disability Royal Commission Final Report in Relation to Foundational Supports It seems that much of the thinking around foundational supports has and continues to centre on the delivery of supports within existing education and care frameworks to children with disabilities that have a significant prevalence within the community. Children with vision impairment, however, represent a low incidence cohort, meaning that those within mainstream frameworks do not have the necessary experience and skills to provide supports that are appropriate for them. To address developmental delay and encourage good functional vision skills, these children require a more individualised and specialised approach within the home and across other natural community settings. This is the case whether a child presents with vision impairment as a single disability or as part of a broader condition or spectrum of conditions. For children with vision impairment, the home setting is the environment where strategies are best learned, due to the level of comfort and familiarity for children within that setting. There is then a greater likelihood of transferring those skills successfully into other settings.

The scope of foundational supports programs that are already under development, such as Thriving kids, does not seem to anticipate the support of children with developmental delay where that delay arises in a child with a vision impairment or with another low incidence disability. It is therefore imperative that either:

A separate funding stream is created to enable specialist vision providers to work within the mainstream service system to build capacity in vision impaired children with developmental delay; or
A similar but more tailored initiative to Thriving Kids be developed to support children with vision impairment who sit outside the NDIS.

Without a dedicated approach, children with a vision impairment and developmental delay will not have access to supports outside of the NDIS in the same way that will be available to children with more prevalent conditions.

It is also important to realise that families do not always know what aspirations they can or should have for their child, particularly where diagnosis of a condition is new and unfamiliar. Foundational supports should play a key role in enabling parents and families to develop an understanding that their child generally can be active and productive with the right supports in place. Some parents conduct their own research and are able to understand how to make systems work well for their child, whereas others have more limited capacity to do this.

Dedicated funding to support family coaching and peer mentoring programs should be considered as part of the design of foundational supports. This would strengthen the ability of families to play an active role in setting goals for their child and develop compensatory strategies to offset future impacts of a child’s impairment. Currently, investment by providers in such programs is minimal, because there is no funding stream for this purpose. The NDIS support structure tends, by its nature, to prioritise individual capacity building for the participant. While service providers are cognisant of the beneﬁts that capacity building and coaching can offer to families and supporters, organisations are not resourced to develop these programs without the ﬁnancial assurance to run them. Activities such as camps or residential programs for children and young people can be particularly beneﬁcial in facilitating peer connections, however, they are difficult to administer in an individualised, activity-based funding context, due to the complexity associated with involvement of multiple professionals and staff. The implementation of Foundational supports provides an opportunity to address this gap in holistic and family-centred service delivery and to ensure that young people do not miss out on the opportunity to learn and build skills in less formal settings.

Conclusion

Vision Australia thanks the Committee for its consideration of this submission. We would be happy to provide additional information about any of the issues raised in this paper. We recognise that the implementation of foundational supports is both complex and extensive, and we look forward to additional opportunities for meaningful participation in future consultations on this topic.

About Vision Australia

Vision Australia is the largest national provider of services to people who are blind, deafblind, or have low vision. We are formed through the merger of several of Australia’s most respected and experienced blindness and low vision agencies, celebrating our 150th year of operation in 2017.

Our vision is that people who are blind, deafblind, or have low vision will increasingly be able to choose to participate fully in every facet of community life. To help realise this goal, we provide high-quality services to the community of people who are blind, have low vision, are deafblind or have a print disability, and their families.

Vision Australia service delivery areas include:

Allied Health and Therapy services, and registered provider of specialist supports for the NDIS and My Aged Care
Aids and Equipment, and Assistive/Adaptive Technology training and support
Seeing Eye Dogs
National Library Services
Early childhood and education services, and Felix Library for 0-7 year olds
Employment services, including National Disability Employment Services

Accessible information, and Alternate Format Production
Vision Australia Radio network, and national partnership with Radio for the Print Handicapped
Spectacles Program for the NSW Government
Advocacy and Engagement, working collaboratively with Government, business and the community to eliminate the barriers our clients face in making life choices and fully exercising rights as Australian citizens.

Vision Australia has gained unrivalled knowledge and experience through constant interaction with clients and their families. We provide services to more than 26,000 people each year, and also through the direct involvement of people who are blind or have low vision at all levels of the Organisation. Vision Australia is therefore well placed to provide advice to governments, business and the community on the challenges faced by people who are blind or have low vision fully participating in community life.

We have a vibrant Client Reference Group, with people who are blind or have low vision representing the voice and needs of clients of the Organisation to the Board and Management. Vision Australia is also a significant employer of people who are blind or have low vision, with 15% of total staff having vision impairment.

We also operate Memorandums of Understanding with Australian Hearing, and the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service.