Submission No 122

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

Organisation: Dr Amy Wright, Sydney School of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney Date Received: 17 September 2026

THE UNIVERSITY OF

SYDNEY

DR AMY CONLEY WRIGHT

Professor of Child & Family Social Work

Sydney School of Education and Social Work

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

Rm 710 Education Building, A35 | The University of Sydney | NSW 2006| Australia P M E

17 September 2026

Attn: The Secretariat

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

Legislative Council

NSW Parliament House, 6 Macquarie Street, Sydney NSW 2000

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

Professor Amy Conley Wright

Professor of Child and Family Social Work Sydney School of Education and Social Work The University of Sydney

Subject: Thriving Kids should build family capability alongside providing direct support to children

I welcome the opportunity to make this submission. The introduction of Thriving Kids represents a significant opportunity to get foundational supports right for children with developmental delay and/or autism in New South Wales and their families.

I am Professor of Child and Family Social Work at the University of Sydney. My research examines policies and services for children and families, including in the areas of disability policy and family support, and I have led major NSW statewide evaluations of child and family policies and services. My current research includes a particular focus on how families develop the knowledge, skills, relationships and resources to support children with disabilities to flourish. I am also the parent of a child with disabilities. I therefore bring both research expertise and lived experience to these issues.

I strongly support the Committee’s recognition in its interim report of the importance of parent capacity building, peer support and whole-of-family wellbeing (NSW Parliament, 2026). I also welcome the inclusion of peer support and parenting programs within Thriving Kids (NSW Government, 2026).

My central recommendation for implementation is that family capability building should be an explicit objective of Thriving Kids, alongside providing high-quality direct supports to children.

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1. Invest in capabilities that remain with families

Children spend only a small proportion of their lives with professionals. Parents and other family members support their development, communication, relationships, participation and growing autonomy across childhood and beyond.

There is a substantial evidence base for family-centred approaches in early childhood disability services. A systematic review of 42 studies of family-centred early intervention identified outcomes including improvements in parents’ knowledge, empowerment and wellbeing as well as child developmental outcomes (McCarthy & Guerin, 2022). Research on parent-mediated interventions for autistic children also indicates that parents can learn strategies that support aspects of children’s communication, interaction, behaviour and adaptive functioning, although effects vary across interventions and outcomes (Cheng et al., 2023; Conrad et al., 2021).

Thriving Kids should build on this evidence but take a broader view of what supporting families can achieve. The objective should not simply be to train parents to deliver therapeutic techniques. It should be to strengthen the knowledge, skills, relationships, resources and networks that enable families to support their child’s development, participation, relationships, voice and autonomy as they grow and circumstances change.

Parents and families should therefore have access to evidence-informed opportunities to understand their child’s development and communication; support participation and relationships; navigate education and service systems; advocate effectively; create opportunities for inclusion; and support their child’s growing voice, choice and autonomy.

These are capabilities that ultimately remain with families after a particular program or professional intervention ends.

2. Make parent peer support a substantive part of Thriving Kids

Parent peer support should be treated as a substantive form of support rather than an inexpensive adjunct to professional services.

Systematic reviews show that parents value the distinctive forms of emotional, informational and practical support available from other parents with similar experiences. Peer support can provide shared understanding, experiential knowledge, opportunities to learn from others and greater social connection (Shilling et al., 2013; Wong & Shorey, 2022). A 2023 systematic review found evidence suggesting benefits for parent wellbeing and quality of life, while also identifying limitations in the quality of the quantitative evidence (Lancaster et al., 2023).

A distinctive feature of peer support is that parents bring experiential knowledge that professional services cannot readily replicate. They can offer each other emotional support and validation alongside practical knowledge grounded in shared experience.

Thriving Kids should therefore invest in sustainable peer networks and parent-to-parent learning, including opportunities for relationships to continue beyond participation in a

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discrete program. Evaluation should examine not only parent wellbeing, but whether peer support strengthens knowledge, confidence, social connection, problem-solving and families’ capacity to navigate systems and support their children.

3. Build family capability without transferring responsibility and overburdening families

Investment in family capability must not become a mechanism for transferring responsibility from governments and services to parents and families.

Families differ considerably in their time, financial resources, knowledge, social networks and capacity to navigate service systems. Research on family-centred early intervention identifies family resources, service resources, parent agency and the wider service environment as factors affecting how families experience and benefit from support (McCarthy & Guerin, 2022). Research on parent-mediated autism interventions similarly cautions that family and contextual factors can influence feasibility, participation and outcomes (Trembath et al., 2019).

Thriving Kids should therefore add to the capabilities and opportunities available around a child, not make access to appropriate support contingent on a family’s capacity to provide more unpaid intervention or navigate complex systems. Family capability building should complement, not substitute for, adequate professional, educational, community and disability supports.

4. Take a life-course view of what early support is intended to achieve

Thriving Kids is an early childhood program, but disability and family support needs do not end when a child reaches a particular age. The prospect of some children moving from the National Disability Insurance Scheme to the time-limited Thriving Kids program raises an important question for families about what support will be available as their children grow.

The Independent Review of the NDIS did not envisage foundational supports as a stand-alone replacement for the NDIS. Rather, it recommended a connected system in which mainstream, foundational and individualised supports operate as a continuum, with support matched to need (Independent Review of the NDIS, 2023). The Committee’s interim report has similarly identified the risk of a sharp drop-off in support as children move beyond early childhood programs (NSW Parliament, 2026). Building knowledge, relationships and networks that families can draw upon as circumstances change can extend the value of early investment beyond a particular intervention.

This does not mean expecting families to fill future service gaps. Family capability is one part of a functioning disability support ecosystem, not a substitute for that ecosystem. Early supports should leave children and families with greater capabilities while ensuring children continue to have access to the formal supports they need as they grow.

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Recommendations

I recommend that the Committee’s final report call for:

1. Family capability building to be an explicit objective of Thriving Kids. Parent and family supports should strengthen knowledge, skills, confidence, relationships and capacity to support children’s development, participation, voice and autonomy, not simply train parents to implement particular therapeutic techniques.

2. Parent peer support to be treated as a core component of foundational supports. Thriving Kids should invest in sustainable peer networks and parent-to-parent learning, recognising experiential knowledge and the rapport that comes from shared experience as complementary to professional expertise.

3. Family capability building to complement, not substitute for, adequate and continuing formal supports. Thriving Kids should operate as part of the continuum of mainstream, foundational and individualised disability supports envisaged by the Independent Review of the NDIS. Program design should guard against transferring additional responsibility and unpaid work to families and ensure that building family capability is not used as a substitute for access to appropriate supports as children grow and their needs change.

4. Mandate evaluation to measure what children and families become able to do, not simply what services they receive. Evaluation should include outcomes such as parent knowledge and confidence, social connection, capacity to navigate and advocate, and capacity to support the child’s participation, development, relationships, voice and autonomy.

In closing, Thriving Kids provides an opportunity to build an early support system that not only provides timely assistance to children but strengthens the relationships and capabilities surrounding them. The test of foundational support should not only be what services are delivered, but what children and families are better able to do because those supports were available.

I would be pleased to provide further evidence to the Select Committee on family capability building and parent peer support, or to appear before the Committee to discuss how these approaches could be incorporated into the design and evaluation of Thriving Kids.

Professor Amy Conley Wright Professor of Child and Family Social Work School of Education and Social Work The University of Sydney

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References

Cheng, W. M., Smith, T. B., Butler, M., Taylor, T. M., & Clayton, D. (2023). Effects of parent-implemented interventions on outcomes of children with autism: A meta-analysis. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 53, 4147–4163. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05688-8

Conrad, C. E., Rimestad, M. L., Rohde, J. F., Petersen, B. H., Korfitsen, C. B., Tarp, S., Cantio, C., Lauritsen, M. B., & Händel, M. N. (2021). Parent-mediated interventions for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 773604. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.773604

Independent Review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. (2023). Working together to deliver the NDIS: Final report. Australian Government. https://www.ndisreview.gov.au/sites/default/files/resource/download/working-together-ndis-review-final-report.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Lancaster, K., Bhopti, A., Kern, M. L., Taylor, R., Janson, A., & Harding, K. (2023). Effectiveness of peer support programmes for improving well-being and quality of life in parents/carers of children with disability or chronic illness: A systematic review. Child: Care, Health and Development, 49(3), 485–496. https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.13063

McCarthy, E., & Guerin, S. (2022). Family-centred care in early intervention: A systematic review of the processes and outcomes of family-centred care and impacting factors. Child: Care, Health and Development, 48(1), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.12901

NSW Government. (2026). Thriving Kids. Department of Communities and Justice. https://dcj.nsw.gov.au/community-inclusion/disability-and-inclusion/thriving-kids

NSW Parliament. (2026). Foundational and Disability Supports Available for Children and Young People in New South Wales: First report. Select Committee on Foundational and Disability Supports Available for Children and Young People in New South Wales, Legislative Council. https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/parliamentary-business/committees/inquiry-details?committeeInquiryId=3080

Shilling, V., Morris, C., Thompson-Coon, J., Ukoumunne, O., Rogers, M., & Logan, S. (2013). Peer support for parents of children with chronic disabling conditions: A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 55(7), 602–609. https://doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.12091

Trembath, D., Gurm, M., Scheerer, N. E., Trevisan, D. A., Paynter, J., Bohadana, G., Roberts, J., & Iarocci, G. (2019). Systematic review of factors that may influence the outcomes and generalizability of parent-mediated interventions for young children with autism spectrum disorder. Autism Research, 12(9), 1304–1321. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2168

Wong, T. S. M., & Shorey, S. (2022). Experiences of peer support amongst parents of children with neurodevelopmental disorders: A qualitative systematic review. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 67, e92–e99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pedn.2022.09.004