Submission No 106

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

Organisation: Youth Action Date Received: 18 September 2026

Youth Action Second Submission

on Foundational and Disability Supports for Children and Young People

18 September 2026

Acknowledgement of Country

Youth Action acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and understands that sovereignty was never ceded. Our office is located upon the land of the Gadigal people, and we recognise their traditional and ongoing Custodianship and pay our respects to Elders past and present.

About Youth Action

Youth Action is the NSW peak body for young people and the youth sector. We believe all young people aged 12–24 have the right to have a say in the decisions that affect their lives. Our advocacy is shaped by young people’s lived experience, strengthened by the expertise of the youth sector, and informed by evidence and research. We bring young people, the youth sector and decision-makers together to advocate for a NSW where all young people are supported, valued and have their rights realised.

We represent a network of more than 1,000 members, including over 180 youth focused organisations, alongside individual youth workers and young people, and have proudly advocated alongside them for over 30 years.

Principles that underpin our work are:

Inclusion and cultural safety are at the heart of our work. We have a particular focus on First Nations young people and those who have disability, are LGBTQIA+, come from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, or live in regional and rural areas. This also includes young people experiencing homelessness, affected by domestic and family violence, or in contact with the justice or child protection systems.
We use a rights-based lens to focus on programs, policy and advocacy that achieve meaningful outcomes, embed strengths-based approaches and are informed by data and evidence.
We are an ally to self-determination of First Nations communities and are led by the expertise of young people and the Sector to be a trusted partner and collaborator.

Executive summary

This submission should be considered in combination with Youth Action NSW’s first submission made to this Inquiry in May 2025, with respect to foundational and disability support available for young people with developmental concerns, delays, differences or disabilities. It is grounded in evidence and experiences shared through direct consultation with young people with disability and NSW youth sector representatives. These core insights include:

Young people with disability should have every opportunity to thrive Young people with disability have the right to belong, participate and thrive. They bring strengths, ideas, creativity and expertise to their communities. Adolescence is a critical period of growth, identity and connection, and an important opportunity to create the conditions and provide the right support for young people to thrive now and into the future.
Don’t leave young people in the support gap Early intervention means intervening early in need, not only early in age. Yet there is currently no clear foundational supports pathway for young people aged nine and over. As disability supports change, governments must ensure young people are not left between systems, with youth-specific supports designed and in place before existing pathways change.
Create systems and supports that work for young people with disability Young people with disability should not carry the burden of navigating, adapting to or fitting into systems that were not designed with them in mind. Foundational supports must go beyond helping individual young people cope. They should help create schools, services and communities that are inclusive, flexible and able to respond to different ways of learning, communicating and participating.
Provide support when it’s needed Young people should not have to wait for a diagnosis, reach a threshold or get to crisis before support becomes available. Costs, long waits and barriers to assessment can leave young people without support while needs grow. Foundational supports should be easy to access and respond to what is happening in a young person’s life, not their ability to prove they qualify.
Belonging is an essential part of support Belonging, connection and participation are not extras around the edges of disability support. Young people need places and relationships where they can build identity, practice new skills, grow in confidence and independence, and put support into practice in everyday life. Youth spaces, creative activities, sport and trusted relationships all help create the conditions for young people to grow and thrive.

Back the sector that is already showing up Young people with disability are already coming through the doors of youth services, and youth workers are already responding, often beyond what services are funded or equipped to provide. Youth services should be recognised as part of the foundational supports ecosystem, with sustainable investment and practical capability building so they can provide consistent, inclusive support and connect young people with other supports when needed.
Design it with young people Young people with disability are experts in their own lives and have the right to shape the decisions that affect them. Any future foundational supports for young people should be designed, tested and improved with young people from the beginning, with meaningful roles in decision-making, not simply consultations once the big decisions have already been made.

Introduction

Foundational supports set up young people with disability to thrive throughout their lives, supporting them to grow their confidence and skills in everyday settings. They must be easily identified, freely available, delivered in judgement-free ways, and provided in multiple settings, including through schools, health settings, and in community.

Young people have a right to grow up in environments that support their dignity¹ and allow them to flourish², and it is a collective responsibility that we shape our communities to be these spaces. Young people with disability, and the sector and carers who support them, have unique perspectives that must inform how we do this shaping. Recent changes to how disability supports will be accessed have been made without adequate consultation, and this has caused anxiety and frustration. This inquiry represents a clear opportunity to centre young people with disability, listen to their voices and experiences, and use these learnings to guide future investments and policy changes.

As part of this process, we note and welcome the joint commitment between the Commonwealth and NSW Governments to deliver the ‘Thriving Kids’ Program as a positive step towards realising the above. However, embedded and easily accessible community supports must be available for all young people, including those aged nine and over who are not supported through this current program. Due to recently passed

¹ United Nations. (2006). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities.html ² Australian Federation of Disability Organisations. (n.d.). Social model of disability. Australian Federation of Disability Organisations. https://www.afdo.org.au/social-model-of-disability

NDIS reforms, they now face an unknown landscape that reflects a clear gap in the government’s approaches to disability support and inclusive policy. We recognise that the Commonwealth acknowledged this gap in mid-August 2026, with brief, non-binding comments on a plan for a new range of services to be made available for these young people by 1 January 2028.

Youth Action urges the NSW Government to hold the Australian Government accountable to these comments. We stand ready to support and contribute to efforts to develop this, and to ensure that young people with disability are active participants throughout the process and remain at the heart of any decision-making.

Our second submission to this inquiry has been developed between July and September 2026 through further and ongoing consultation with young people with disability and the youth sector. We welcome the additional opportunity to share further insights into young people’s experiences navigating support in everyday environments, and what young people and the youth sector see are the solutions to the challenges created by these systemic conditions.

What we heard, and what needs to happen

1. School ecosystems are inadequate

Young people overwhelmingly identified that traditional school environments are experienced as exclusionary spaces for young people with disability. Standard learning practices and school structures rely on rigid expectations of how to communicate, regulate, and participate, causing many young people with disability to face barriers to accessing adjustments, critisised for normal behaviours, and bullied. These reflections point to systemic conditions, rather than individual failure, with teachers and schools operating within systems that are often under-resourced and have limited access to disability and neurodiversity training.

Implementation of the Universal Design for Learning³ across the education system was highlighted as a way to better support all young people, and to create a genuinely equitable learning environment, as this changes the structures, allowing for easier delivery of inclusive practices without placing responsibility on individual teachers or schools. Smaller recommendations to improve the school ecosystem could include introducing regular movement breaks, and opportunities to remove oneself when needed via a form of ‘hall pass’ or ‘calm card’ that is available to all students.

³ NSW Department of Education. (2026, June 18). Universal Design for Learning. https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/planning-programming-and-assessing-k-12/about-universal-design-for-learning

“Education needs to normalise inclusive spaces… without it we’ll likely almost never get those extra third spaces we need” – young person, she/her, 19

“I never fit the criteria to be in special education classes, so I missed out on being able to use the calm cards – but it would be better if we just didn’t need to put a spotlight on it” – young person, they/them, 24

In many cases, young people with disability also report that teachers and school staff frequently mislabel young people with disability as ‘bad’ or ‘disruptive’, framing them as problems to fix and normalising the othering of young people with disability. It was a shared experience that the need for diagnosis and other criteria for accessing additional assistance at school fundamentally misunderstands young people with disability, and creates an additional barrier to access help. Young people see that the system is unjust and observed a lack of quality training and education for school staff, and implementation of inclusive structures and practices. They shared that the system was an additional contributor to experiences of bullying by peers, as the structures and conditions validated further social exclusion.

“Lots of mental health issues I acquired were through problems at school” – young person, he/him, 20

Young people identified education systems that do not adequately respond to diverse needs, alongside experiences of bullying, as key drivers of school withdrawal and disengagement. Importantly, disengagement should not be understood as a lack of desire to learn or attend school. Young people described desperately wanting to remain engaged in education, but facing barriers, including environments that did not accommodate their needs, experiences of bullying and deteriorating mental health, that made continued attendance increasingly difficult or, at times, impossible. They expressed that there was shame attached to not attending school, which in most cases would worsen negative feelings. Young people and their loved ones were then left to carry the burden of rebuilding the safety, belonging and connection that had been lost, often investing significant time, energy and resources to navigate barriers and find alternative pathways to education and support. This placed responsibility on young people and families to respond to failures within systems that should have been designed to include and support them in the first place.

Youth workers reinforced this view and are frequently witnessing more young people with disability disengage from formal education settings, and that additional pressures are being placed on families, carers, and community organisations. They felt that this reinforces the need for investment in quality supports outside of the education system. They also observe there is a systemic othering in the environments young people with disability navigate, including in community and social settings. According to many, current early interventions require greater investment and security to be truly effective, as rates of young people accessing support at the time of crisis is increasing.

“It’s so important that we talk about how we look outside of schools to deliver these supports, because the fact of the matter is that majority of the kids who are pushed into homeschooling, this is not a choice they’re making” – youth worker

2. Alternative community settings as places to connect and belong

Many separate spaces to school and home were raised by young people as examples of where connection and safety were felt. After school disengagement, time is needed to rebuild confidence in low pressure environments, building on the strengths and motivation of the young person while also giving them the opportunity to regain confidence and improve mental health and coping skills. These spaces were identified as having the visual markers and conditions of a safe environment for young people to turn up as they are. Examples raised included having attendees from a diverse range of backgrounds and disability, a mix of areas or activities designed for different sensory needs and levels of engagement, and friendly and approachable staff to engage with. These spaces create opportunities to build safe relationships and explore school-like experiences that helps support young people to grow and progress towards reengaging with education, employment, volunteering, or greater participation in community life.

“There was one person who taught me how to play ping pong, they were patient and kind, and through our connection I felt I was able to overcome my fears” – young person, he/him, 20

Young people told us that having places to connect is vital for their wellbeing, especially those who had disengaged from the traditional education system. Spaces such as youth centres or youth hubs, which provide opportunities to socialise with others and connect to qualified staff, and places to practice art, creative pursuits, sport or physical activities, help to build independence and autonomy. Increasing the number of places to foster long-term relationships and skills, in settings that create a sense of safety and belonging, were considered an essential foundational support to invest in.

Young people also identified that it is crucial that where and how to access these spaces is clearly communicated to young people with disability. They shared that these types of spaces get the balance right, providing reliable, flexible support that can increase when help is needed, but only if they knew they existed.

“If we knew our local youth centre or similar was this kind of space and had this person when you were younger, rather than the programs and actual activities that were there, absolutely it would have been amazing” – young person, they/them, 24

Youth sector workers in NSW also report that there is an increasing need to support young people with disability in their work, which is commonly outside of clinical settings. They witness that their services are finding it difficult to appropriately support

young people with disability long-term and effectively within reporting requirements and stretched budgets. They shared that this service provision is almost always outside of the scope of their contracts, which frequently underestimate the level of need and age of young people with disability seeking tailored supports and care from youth workers.

Spaces that encourage and support physical movement, art, or creative activities were also highly valued for their impact on young people’s wellbeing, sense of identity, confidence, and self-expression. Being able to participate in activities they enjoyed, and in which they could experience success, was described by young people as particularly important. These opportunities enabled young people to build a sense of competence, identity, belonging and connection to community, providing an important buffer against experiences of exclusion, bullying and feeling that they did not belong in other parts of their lives. Young people described the confidence, strengths and skills developed through these experiences as extending well beyond the activity itself, transferring into other areas of their lives and shaping their sense of what they were capable of. Participants saw access to these opportunities as particularly important for other young people with disability.

However, young people shared that organisers of social sports and recreation activities would benefit from training or resources to ensure that they are genuinely inclusive and neurodivergent affirming, which would have the additional advantages of growing overall participation and supporting all young people involved.

“Dance class was a lifeline, it allowed me to build a sense of identity, socialise and create friendships and community – it gave me the opportunity to actually like myself” – young person, they/them, 24

“Music and art and things like that, they’re such an important way for them [young people] to communicate and express how they feel and what they’re going through” – youth worker

3. Training and education

Youth sector representatives also identify a significant gap in comprehensive awareness, training and knowledge of best practice approaches to supporting young people with disability across the state. While there is a growing understanding of disability in a general sense, youth workers have difficulty accessing affordable, ongoing training in how to provide effective and inclusive support, particularly training informed and delivered by people with lived experience. This means that, in practice, therapeutic approaches designed around neurotypical needs and experiences may be used instead, which can be ineffective and, in some cases, exacerbate distress. There is strong appetite across the sector to address this gap. Youth workers are already responding to growing need and are actively seeking the skills, knowledge and

confidence to adapt their practice and provide young people with disability with effective, appropriate support.

“A school counsellor, for example, might say, ‘oh, go and do X, Y, Z, this will help your mental health’, but depending on what XYZ is, if you have autism or another type of neurodiversity, that could potentially make things a heck of a lot worse and create a whole other level of fear” – youth worker

Low-cost, quality, and ongoing training opportunities, to maintain their knowledge of indicators of disability and practical, effective techniques for supporting young people with disability are key. Youth workers noted that they feel it would be best to be delivered by those with lived experience to develop capacity throughout the sector, rather than academic style training. They identified there is strong awareness in the sector of disability generally, but workers are playing catch up with training. In many areas, the funds to invest in this capacity building or the access to options is also very limited.

4. Addressing the symptom rather than the system

Young people identified that many programs or supports aimed at assisting them fundamentally viewed the context incorrectly; addressing symptoms, rather than the exclusive design and under resourcing of the systems they must navigate. They hold concerns about how current government efforts focus too heavily on the individual, and believe that to make a significant difference, more energy and attention should be directed towards reforms to systems.

“Not doing the system changes means we’re just trying to solve the symptom instead of actually fixing our issues” – young person, she/her, 17

The support on offer to young people is routinely broken or interrupted, often unable to fully get to know and centre the young people they aim to assist. Youth sector representatives see this firsthand repeatedly, and are concerned that young people are moved from one intervention to the next, without having the critical continuity that creates a solid foundation for effective care. Foundational supports are considered as key to building and fostering the relationships and support that are needed as a long-term baseline, and that they would complement additional tailored interventions or care.

It was also highlighted as especially critical for older young people, aged between 18 -24, as accessing supports independently and navigating these systems can be challenging during the transition into adulthood.

5. Make inclusion the default, not an adjustment

Young people described the difference that inclusive and flexible environments can make to their ability to learn, connect and participate. Environments that recognise different ways of communicating, learning, moving and engaging give more young people the opportunity to participate on their own terms. However, young people also described education, health and community settings that are often designed around a narrower set of expectations, with flexibility introduced as an individual adjustment rather than built in from the start.

Young people explained that there is a chasm between what is felt in therapeutic and practical support they receive, and the places they inhabit, such as the existing schooling system. Redesigning systems through actively listening to and implementing what young people with disability recommend is a core requirement to successfully achieve this. Young people felt strongly that reforms in schools were the priority area to focus this attention, to ensure that younger generations had accessible and embedded support from the outset of their learning and throughout.

This would look like reevaluating and changing structures, expectations and norms, so that everyday environments are truly inclusive, such as normalising movements breaks and setting flexible assessments. This would recognise the diverse ways that learning and moving throughout the world look like, and would support neurodivergent young people to be their authentic selves and thrive.

“This isn’t the experience of every ND [neurodivergent] young person, but I’ve heard others describe genuinely not knowing what they like, want or prefer because they’ve become so used to masking and skilled at adapting to everyone else.” – young person, she/they, 21

6. Missing ‘middle’ ages

Concerns were raised about how younger peers with disability, currently lack the types of support they need, particularly those between ages nine and 12. Young people noted experiences with young family members who were showing signs of autism or ADHD, who could not access supports due to challenges in diagnosis, being too old to access childhood services, and being too young to access those aimed at teenagers.

Schools, in particular, were described as underprepared and under-resourced to respond effectively to the needs of young people with disability. Young people were often required to repeatedly explain and advocate for their own needs within school, yet this self-advocacy was not always supported, heard or translated into consistent adjustments and practice, even where plans were already in place. Young people and their families were then left to seek out, coordinate and advocate for support themselves, carrying a

significant burden to navigate systems and fill gaps that should not have been theirs to manage. Participants identified a clear need for schools to have greater capability, resources and accountability to ensure young people’s needs and agreed supports are understood, integrated and consistently implemented.

“There’s not support for him [brother] outside of school, and he’s too young for the teenage programs, so he is then turned back to school to get help, but can’t access it there” – young person, she/her, 17

Across the board, comprehensive programs, services and supports for older young people are limited when compared to those targeted at children under the age of nine. Youth workers repeatedly raised the growing trend of younger individuals with disability, often nine or ten years old, reaching out for their help as a worrying pattern. Participants saw this as reflecting a system that too often fails to provide young people with the support they need early enough, and then withdraws or reduces that support while it is still needed. The consequences can compound over time, disrupting education, relationships, wellbeing, connection to community and opportunities to build independence, ultimately shaping the long-term trajectory of young people’s lives.

These gaps in support were described as particularly consequential during key transitions in adolescence, including the move from primary to secondary school and from school into further education, employment or adult life. These periods bring significant change and new expectations at precisely the time when continuity and additional support can be most important, yet young people described support as too often reducing, changing or falling away altogether.

“There’s a lack of funding, support, strategy, policy, everything. And so then when you apply that to that cohort and then specifically children with disability, it’s like amplified” – youth worker

7. Diagnosis

Young people were clear that their experiences with formal diagnosis as a requirement to access help is an ongoing barrier for younger generations that must be urgently addressed. They shared that many neurodivergent young people are used to masking, and that this means that adults often do not recognise when they require support. They emphasised that accessing care and foundational supports must be underpinned by a universal approach and not use any restrictive criteria, such as having a medical diagnosis.

A need for formal diagnosis is understood by sector representatives as a gatekeeping and equity issue. They noted that young people with disability, and their carers, often need to do extensive research and pay large amounts of money to effectively navigate the system and get the diagnosis that has historically been needed to access the NDIS

and other disability supports. They feel that this hurdle places extra pressure on their services, carers and young people. It was also raised that self-diagnosis must be acknowledged, and that supports remain freely available for all young people with disability, not only those with the means to access a medical diagnosis.

“To get any access to services, there’s a very challenging process to go through. And that process relies on a certain level of education, a certain level of privilege” – youth worker

For First Nations communities in particular, access to support cannot depend solely on Western understandings of disability or pathways through formal diagnosis. Understandings of disability, identity, family and support may differ across communities, while stigma associated with diagnosis and disability can also create barriers to accessing assistance. This is particularly concerning given the intersection between disability and First Nations young people’s experiences of systems including out-of-home care and youth justice.

Self-determination must therefore be central to the design and delivery of foundational supports for First Nations young people. This means Aboriginal communities, organisations, young people and families having genuine authority in determining what support looks like, where and how it is delivered, and what culturally safe and relevant practice means in their communities. Foundational supports must be genuinely foundational, accessible without requiring young people to fit a particular diagnostic pathway, and available across the settings in which young people already live, learn and connect. This is critical to ensuring First Nations young people can access support when they want it, in ways that recognise culture, identity, family and community as strengths rather than requiring them to navigate systems designed without them.

8. Regional, rural and remote communities

For young people with disability living outside of metropolitan areas, several additional concerns were raised by the sector. These include lack of transportation, particularly forms that are safe and accessible, and limited options for support.

Youth workers consistently described young people having to use services that were available, rather than services that were appropriate for their needs. In some cases, this meant significant portions of a young person’s NDIS funding were spent on supports that did not deliver the intended benefit or outcomes, leaving fewer resources available to access the right support when it was eventually identified. Participants also highlighted that relatively simple, practical assistance could significantly expand the range of supports young people can realistically access. Transport assistance, including petrol vouchers, was identified as one immediate measure that could reduce barriers to travelling further for appropriate care, increasing young people’s choice and helping

ensure access is determined by what best meets their needs, rather than simply what is closest or available.

“When you’re somewhere like Dubbo or Bega or Lithgow, you’ve got kind of one, two, three options at best. And those are often at capacity, they might not be appropriate” – youth worker

The immediate and long-term impacts of natural disasters were also identified as an underestimated challenge in this space. Lismore, following the extreme flooding 2022, was provided as an ongoing example of the issue. Additional investments were made post-flood to mental health services, which produced two years of real capacity to support demand from young people, and then reverted to baseline funding. Services noted that they were still seeing housing instability, homelessness, and disrupted schooling continue, well past the emergency funded period. Time-limited “crisis” funding models were found to not match the actual recovery timeline, and for young people with disability, this compounds the already scarce availability of support in regional, rural and remote communities.

Youth Action Recommendations and next steps

Design settings to be inclusive and universal from the start The NSW Government should support schools, health services, youth services, sport and recreation, and other community settings to embed inclusive and universal design, encouraging and accepting flexible ways of communicating, participating and engaging. These settings should be connected as part of an ecosystem of care around young people, with clear pathways and relationships between the different people, places and supports in their lives, rather than relying on young people and families to navigate disconnected systems or seek individual adjustments after barriers arise.
Give schools the practical tools that reflect an inclusive learning environment Schools should be supported to implement Universal Design for Learning and given clear guides on what practical inclusive approaches look like, which should be informed and identified by young people themselves. These would likely include regular opportunities for movement, ways for students to step out and return without being singled out, and greater choice in how young people engage and participate.
Make flexibility available without a diagnosis Where possible, inclusive practices and everyday adjustments should be available

to all young people who benefit from them, without requiring a diagnosis or a young person to continually explain or prove their need for support.

Recognise and resource youth services as part of the foundational supports ecosystem The NSW Government should increase investment in youth services to meet the growing unmet need among young people with disability, alongside reviewing existing contracts to recognise the quality support already being provided and where attention is needed. This will build capacity across the youth sector, support universal design, promote disability-responsive and identity-affirming practice, and strengthen connections with health, education, disability and other supports around young people.

Alongside sustainable core funding, Government should introduce a Rapid Community Innovation Grant, to allocate small grants to community organisations and grassroots initiatives providing supports to young people with disability. This should not be restricted by heavy administration burden and remain flexible to allow service providers to quickly address local emerging issues and needs in creative ways. Peer, lived experience and youth-led models must also have access to the Grant, recognising the strength and value of these models for young people with disability.

Invest in youth hubs as part of the foundational supports ecosystem The NSW Government should invest in youth hubs models that provide welcoming, youth-specific places where young people can belong, form trusted relationships and access support on their terms. Hubs should connect youth work with health, disability and other supports, creating a coordinated ecosystem around young people while providing opportunities for connection, participation and growth.

Smaller, flexible community-led initiatives that use a hub model should also be considered. They often provide crucial connections to peers, peer mentoring, and interest-based communities which can be invaluable to isolated young people.

Grow the capability of the people and places young people interact with every day Invest in practical, ongoing and lived-experience-led disability and neurodiversity training for teachers, youth workers, health and community workers, and sport and recreation providers. Training should build understanding while also giving workers practical tools to make their environments more inclusive.

The NSW Government should invest in creating training opportunities that are

accessible to those holding a working with children’s check, including youth workers, teachers, Out of School Care operators, sports or recreation operators, that is low-cost and delivered by lived experience trainers/experts, to support genuinely inclusive community and school environments.

Embed self-determination for First Nations young people in foundational supports. First Nations young people with disability experience the impacts of systems that have not been culturally safe, accessible or designed with their communities. This is particularly important given the intersection of disability with First Nations young people’s experiences of systems including out-of-home care and youth justice. Foundational supports must strengthen self-determination, invest in Aboriginal community-controlled responses, and be shaped by First Nations young people, families and communities.

Investment must ensure that Aboriginal Controlled Community Organisations are engaged to lead place-based and community-led responses in areas where there are significant populations of Aboriginal young people.
Put young people and youth experts in the driver’s seat Close attention must be paid to how foundational supports are implemented in school and community environments in the process of developing any future youth-specific foundational supports model for young people aged nine and over. We recommend that the departments involved engage Youth Action to assist in convening young people with disability and youth sector representatives to advise on what practical interventions and solutions to challenges should look like.