Submission No 119

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

Organisation: Lifestart Date Received: 18 September 2026

Inquiry into Foundational and Disability Supports

for children and young people in NSW

Lifestart submission

Lifestart

Inquiry into Foundational and Disability Supports Available for Children and Young People in New South Wales

Organisation: Lifestart Disability Services Date: September 2026

About this response

Lifestart Disability Services (Lifestart) 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.

Lifestart is a not-for-profit charitable organisation founded in 1996 by a group of families seeking coordinated and holistic supports for their children with developmental delay and disability. We have worked in New South Wales for thirty years and in the last 12 months supported more than 15,000 children and young people aged 0 to 30, and their families, from eight locations across Greater Sydney and by telehealth. We are the NDIS Partner in the Community for five regions with a combined catchment of 2.6 million people. We provide allied health therapy, behaviour support, and inclusion support and training for schools, early learning services and community organisations. We are funded by the NSW Department of Education to deliver the Start Strong Pathways program. Our workforce is 47% allied health and 48% education and teaching.

Lifestart has worked with hundreds of schools and early learning services across New South Wales. Since 2018, our Start Strong Pathways program has supported 800 children with developmental delay or disability to connect with early learning.

Over thirty years we have delivered intervention under every major funding model in New South Wales: state block funding, individualised Commonwealth funding and the NDIS. We are now preparing to deliver under foundational supports. Each model has shown us what helps children, young people and families, and how limitations affect them.

Lifestart welcomes Thriving Kids and the investment behind it. Our submission focuses on where the Government’s commitments will benefit from detail to work in practice: transitions at age nine, navigation and referral, and delivery in schools and early learning services. Each recommendation builds on a commitment the Government has already made, or on commitments New South Wales made under the National Agreement on Foundational Supports 2026-2031.

While the Government response focused on the implementation of Thriving Kids, we support the broader focus of this inquiry: foundational and disability supports for children and young people in New South Wales. We understand that no decision has yet been made about the cohorts that will follow Thriving Kids, and that this rests with First Ministers. We recommend the Committee request planning across the full age span now. The NDIS Review found that limited planning, coordination and collaboration across jurisdictions has left the supports available outside the NDIS inconsistent and difficult for people with disability to navigate. Designing each cohort’s supports separately, as each decision is made, risks building that same inconsistency into foundational supports, and leaving families to navigate it.

That gives the Committee an opportunity that Thriving Kids alone does not: to shape how foundational supports are built against the principles set out in the National Agreement on Foundational Supports, rather than as a program placed alongside existing services.

In summary

In response to the NSW Government response to the First Report, Lifestart makes the following recommendations.

1. That the NSW Government design foundational supports for children and young people aged 9 and over as a distinct approach and in place before NDIS access changes take effect.

   Responds to Recommendation 4. This process should:

   • Develop a unique approach for children aged 9 and over, rather than a duplicate of Thriving Kids for an older age group.
   • Apply evidence-based learnings from Thriving Kids to the design.
   • Design supports that children can return to at different ages and stages, including the move to high school and adolescence.
   • Include funded investment to integrate foundational supports with education, health and community supports, consistent with the National Agreement on Foundational Supports and the Thriving Kids Service Principles.
   • Involve children and young people directly in design decisions.
   • Ensure every child aged 8 in Thriving Kids has a documented transition plan, so that they do not have to start over when accessing supports for children aged 9 and above.

2. That the NSW Government fund a statewide navigation and referral system for foundational supports, beyond what is planned under Thriving Kids.

   Responds to Recommendation 6. This system should:

   • Be funded as a statewide function to avoid a fragmented system.
   • Cover Thriving Kids and future foundational supports for children and young people aged 9 and over, so that the navigation function supports children and families across the lifespan and makes transitions seamless.
   • Fund a government-led initiative to equip GPs, paediatricians, child and family health services, early learning services and schools to know what is available and how to connect families in and support them out, rather than leaving this to service providers and families.
   • Have implementation timelines published in advance, with a firm commitment to delivering this component early in the service implementation.

3. That the NSW Government recognise that delivering foundational supports in education settings is consistent with the National Agreement on Foundational Supports and co-commission supports across education settings.

   Responds to Recommendation 13. This should:

   • Build on Thriving Kids supported playgroups, peer support and parenting groups, with evaluation showing children and families benefit as intended.
   • Include a capacity-building model that supports educators and families to apply developmental strategies within everyday learning environments, creating continuity between specialist support and a child’s daily activities.
   • Co-commission allied health support at a service level between DCJ and Education, drawing on models from other state jurisdictions.
   • Go beyond establishing an in-reach protocol and develop streamlined operational arrangements that minimise administrative burden for schools, early learning services and providers.
   • Deliver supports within children’s learning routines by default, rather than removing children from their learning environment.
   • Measure the outcomes of in-setting delivery, including gains in educator capability.
   • Integrate Thriving Kids into the broader service system.

4. That foundational supports build the capacity of parents, carers and the people around the child.

   Responds to Recommendation 15. This should:

   • Extend capacity building beyond parents and carers to the people around the child, including educators, extended family and kin, and community services, so that what a family learns is supported in the settings the child is in.
   • Fund caregiver capacity building as a core component of foundational supports for all children and young people.
   • Include home-based delivery and coaching within family routines.
   • Fund warm referrals to Carer Gateway, mental health and family support services, given respite and mental health supports are out of scope.
   • Fund interpreters, translation services and culturally responsive communication supports to ensure equitable access for families from culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
   • Measure caregiver confidence and capability consistently across providers.

5. That families, carers, children and young people with lived experience hold decision-making roles in the implementation and evaluation of foundational supports.

   Responds to Recommendation 16. This should:

   • Establish a standing lived experience group with defined decision-making authority.
   • Compensate participants and offer varied formats, including short sessions, online, out of hours, in-language and child-friendly options.
   • Include children and young people in decisions through age-appropriate methods.
   • Involve families in shaping service specifications and outcome measures.
   • Build in scheduled review points, so experience and evaluation can modify the program.
   • Publish what was heard, the decisions made and what changed as a result.

6. That the NSW Government publish and fund a Sector and Workforce Development Plan for foundational supports.

   Responds to Recommendation 14. The plan should:

   • Index foundational support contracts annually, consistent with the Secure Jobs and Funding Certainty commitment.
   • Price contracts to cover clinical supervision, travel and non-contact time.
   • Provide transition support to retain experienced early childhood intervention staff.
   • Fund student placements in community-based providers, with loadings for regional and rural placements.
   • Include joint workforce planning between DCJ, NSW Health and Education.

7. That implementation timelines are published in advance with a firm commitment, and the Committee holds government to them.

   Responds to the Government response overall and Recommendation 6.

   • Implementation timelines, including for the statewide navigation and referral system, are published in advance with a commitment and early in the Thriving Kids implementation.
   • The Committee seeks clear implementation milestones and publication dates for each commitment supported in principle by the Government.
   • The Committee reaffirms Recommendations 4 and 13 in its final report and considers them in scope under the National Agreement on Foundational Supports and the Thriving Kids Service Principles.

Why these recommendations

Time-limited support needs a way back in

The Government did not support Recommendation 4. Its response says Thriving Kids provides time-limited support. DCJ will issue guidance on roles and responsibilities for transition out of the program, and families of children who may need support after age nine will receive information about pathways and next steps.

Thriving Kids is for children aged eight and under with developmental delay and/or autism who have low to moderate support needs. Autism is lifelong, and the impact of developmental delay often changes as a child grows. Time-limited support before age nine will not always remove the need for further blocks of time-limited support at different ages and stages. Many children and young people will need this as school, friendships and independence place new demands on them. The system should let them re-engage when those needs arise, without starting a new access process each time.

A child who reaches nine having received only Thriving Kids will have had lower-intensity, time-limited support, not the individualised early intervention available under an NDIS plan. Across our therapy, school and community programs, Lifestart regularly supports families of school-aged children whose needs change significantly as they move into primary school and adolescence. Families commonly seek support at transition points, particularly when social participation, learning demands and emotional wellbeing become more complex. In our experience, information about pathways helps a family when there is a service for their child to move to. The community consultation proposed a step-up, step-down model for the same reason.

Navigation should not rest only on families

The Government response commits to clearly defined access and referral touchpoints for Thriving Kids, with information provided online and shared through existing community networks.

This approach places the responsibility for navigation on families. Families rely on the professionals they already see. Through our work, we regularly see families given inaccurate information about the services available and how to access them. Families then spend time contacting multiple services and are passed between them before they reach the right support. Without accurate advice at the first point of contact, many families are lost in the system and never reach support.

Individual efforts by providers and community organisations to educate GPs, nurses, paediatricians and teachers do not have a broad or lasting effect. Thriving Kids service packages cover small areas. If each provider builds its own referral map and informs its own local networks, the same work is paid for many times, and a family’s experience of getting help depends on where they live. Under the National Agreement, navigation and information for the workforces who refer children are State responsibilities. A government-led model to upskill referrers would give every family accurate advice, wherever they first raise a concern. Recommendation 2 asks the Government to fund a statewide navigation and referral system, including a government-led initiative to equip GPs, paediatricians, child and family health services, early learning services and schools to refer.

Supports work best inside schools and early learning services

The Government response limits delivery alongside schools and early learning services to some circumstances, under protocols DCJ and Education will set. Its response to Recommendation 15 adds that Thriving Kids does not provide early learning or education services.

Lifestart has delivered supports in education settings since our first program opened in a classroom at Turramurra Public School thirty years ago. We have since worked with hundreds of government, Catholic and independent schools, long day care centres, preschools and family day care services. Across these settings, we see children make the most progress when therapists and educators plan together and strategies become part of everyday routines. Under state block funding, that collaboration time was funded. Under individualised funding, it is tied to one child’s plan, and access is negotiated school by school. Our whole school approach shows what is possible when collaboration is funded: educators who received coaching on the floor reported greater confidence including children with disability.

Both portfolios sit within the NSW Government. The Government response places education services and education funding outside Thriving Kids, in the Education portfolio. Support for children with developmental delay and autism in early learning services and schools has long fallen between disability and education portfolios. If departments continue to draw that line, foundational supports will replicate the gap that has always existed. Schools and early learning services will continue to include these children without funded specialist support, and practitioners will continue to negotiate access one setting at a time. Co-commissioning between DCJ and Education is how the NSW Government can close that gap.

Coaching an educator to support a child in the room is early intervention delivered in the child’s everyday setting, rather than an education service. The research points the same way. A systematic review found children whose therapist and teacher worked together made the greatest gains. Victoria and Queensland build allied health teams into their education systems. Under the National Agreement on Foundational Supports, New South Wales has agreed that targeted supports should be available in the settings where children live, learn and play. Recommendation 3 asks the Government to make delivery in these settings the standard approach, with streamlined arrangements.

Capability needs to reach everyone around the child

The Government response recognises parents and carers as critical partners, and Thriving Kids will include supported playgroups, peer support and parenting groups.

Lifestart agrees that parents and carers are critical partners and would add that they are not the only ones. A child’s week is shared with educators, extended family and kin, and the services their family uses. Building a parent’s capability only goes so far if the people around the child cannot support what the parent has learned. Parents also need support around them, including carer, mental health and family support services, to keep using what they have learned.

Recommendation 4 asks that capacity building extend beyond parents and carers to the people around the child, with home-based coaching in family routines, warm referrals to carer, mental health and family support services, and interpreters and translation services so every family can take part.

Families should shape implementation decisions

The Government response to Recommendation 16 says commissioning will follow government procurement policies, and that family perspectives will continue to be prioritised in implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

Consultation and co-design give people different levels of influence. The good practice guidelines for engaging people with disability under Australia’s Disability Strategy use the International Association for Public Participation spectrum to show how much influence participants have over a decision. At the consultation level, people with disability are a source of information and government makes the decision. At the higher levels, people with lived experience work in partnership on the decision or make it themselves. The Committee heard that stakeholders wanted co-design beyond consultation, with ongoing governance roles rather than one-off input.

Lifestart was founded by families who wanted choice and involvement in their children’s supports. The consultation that informed design is complete. The decisions that remain are implementation decisions: service specifications, how eligibility is applied at intake, what happens at exit, and what the evaluation measures.

Thriving Kids is a new program. No child has yet completed a Thriving Kids pathway, and its design rests on consultation held before any service was delivered. To reach its intended outcomes, the program should adapt as children and families report what is and is not working.

Under the National Agreement, governments agreed to involve families and carers in service design, implementation and system improvement. Families can shape service specifications and outcome measures and can review implementation through a standing group, without affecting how tenders are evaluated. Recommendation 5 sets out how, including scheduled review points so experience and evaluation can modify the program.

The workforce transition needs a plan

The Government response to Recommendation 14 commits DCJ to work with providers, industry bodies and agencies on sector and workforce transition activities.

Setting-based work depends on supervision, travel and time with educators and families outside direct sessions. Recommendation 6 asks that the transition activities form a published plan with timelines and a budget, and that contract pricing covers these costs.

Concluding comments

Lifestart supports Thriving Kids and wants it to succeed. The recommendations above are drawn from what families and providers told the Government during consultation, from the commitments New South Wales has already made under the National Agreement on Foundational Supports, and from our thirty years of delivering developmental, educational and disability supports across New South Wales. Foundational supports present an opportunity to build a more connected, accessible and sustainable support system for children, young people and families. As both a service provider and long-term partner to government, Lifestart would welcome opportunities to contribute to implementation, workforce development and evaluation as foundational supports are established. We would be pleased to discuss any of the recommendations with the Department, and to provide further information to the Committee.

Birgitte Maibom

Chief Executive Officer, Lifestart Disability Services Ltd P: redacted: s47F - Personal privacy | M: redacted: s47F - Personal privacy | W: lifestart.org.au

Sources

National Agreement on Foundational Supports 2026-2031, Federal Financial Relations, signed February 2026.

Independent Review into the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Supporting Analysis, 2023, as summarised in NSW Parliamentary Library, Foundational and disability supports for children and young people, briefing paper prepared for the Committee.

NSW Government, Foundational Supports for Children Community Consultation Report, January 2026, prepared by Insight Consulting Australia for the Department of Communities and Justice.

Select Committee on Foundational and Disability Supports Available for Children and Young People in New South Wales, First Report, February 2026. NSW Government Response to the First Report, May 2026.

Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031, good practice guidelines for engaging people with disability, Disability Gateway.

Cirrin, F. et al. (2010), Evidence-Based Systematic Review: Effects of Different Service Delivery Models on Communication Outcomes for Elementary School-Age Children, Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 41, 233-264.

Victorian Department of Education, Student Support Services and School Readiness Funding. Queensland Department of Education, specialist support staff.