National Disability Services Submission: Foundational and Disability Supports Available for Children and Young People in New South Wales | External submission

Submission No 116

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

Organisation: National Disability Services
Date Received: 18 September 2026

National Disability Services Submission: Foundational and Disability Supports Available for Children and Young People in New South Wales (September 2026)

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About National Disability Services

National Disability Services (NDS™) is Australia’s peak body for disability service organisations, and Australia’s biggest and most diverse network of disability service providers. Our valued members collectively operate several thousand services for more than 300,000 Australians with disability and employ a workforce of more than 100,000 people.

NDS is committed to a sustainable and diverse disability service sector, underpinned by the provision of high quality, evidence based practices and supports that strengthen, safeguard and provide greater choice for people with disability in Australia.

Acknowledgement of Country

NDS acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the lands, waters, and skies where we live, learn and work. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and future and honour the enduring cultural authority, knowledge systems, and Ways of Knowing, Being and Doing that continue to strengthen communities across Australia.

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Purpose and Scope

NDS welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to the reopened Inquiry into Foundational and Disability Supports Available for Children and Young People in New South Wales (NSW).

This submission builds on NDS’s April 2025 submission and should be read alongside it as a companion document. Rather than restating the evidence and recommendations previously provided, it focuses on issues that remain unresolved, developments since that submission, and emerging implementation issues as Foundational Supports move from policy design to delivery.

A substantial body of evidence and advocacy has developed since NDS’s April 2025 NSW submission. This includes:

NDS’s national submission to the Commonwealth Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative and subsequent evidence provided to that inquiry;
the final report of the Commonwealth Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative and the Australian Government’s response;
NDS submission relating to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026;
NDS’s 2026 submission to the NSW Inquiry into Supported Decision-Making;
NDS State of the Disability Sector Report 2025
No Child Left Out; The National Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Disability Reform Committee;
Youth Action’s youth hub focus work.

Together, these materials reinforce the need for Foundational Supports to operate as part of a connected ecosystem across disability, health, education, family and community

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services, with clear pathways, continuity of support and equitable access for children and young people.

Additionally, we urge the Committee to consider relevant national inquiry findings including:

the Independent Review into the National Disability Insurance Scheme (2023);
Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative; and
Australian Government - NDIS reforms.

Together, these materials demonstrate the need for Foundational Supports to be designed as part of a coherent national and state support ecosystem, rather than as a stand-alone program or substitute for supports withdrawn elsewhere.

As outlined in NDS’s submission into the Thriving Kids initiative, NDS’s four national priorities for foundational supports for children are:

Embed best practice and functional assessment, with access based on developmental and functional and consideration of family need, rather than delayed by diagnosis.
Commission quality providers with proven expertise, strong governance, inclusive practice and established community relationships.
Establish a nationally consistent strategy that leverages existing systems, with agreed Commonwealth, state and territory responsibilities.
Build genuine partnerships with families and providers, supported by seamless transitions and entry points that work for children and families

NDS acknowledges the significant work undertaken by the NSW Government to progress Thriving Kids as the first phase of Foundational Supports. As the program moves through procurement and implementation, many elements of service delivery, access pathways

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and operating arrangements are still being finalised, with further detail expected to emerge over time. While publicly available information indicates that Thriving Kids is intended to focus on children aged 0 to 8 years with developmental delay and/or autism and low to moderate support needs, the Inquiry’s terms of reference extend more broadly across childhood and young adulthood. This includes consideration of pathways for older children and young people, system integration, workforce capacity, regional access, safeguards, and the interface between Foundational Supports and the NDIS.

This submission therefore focuses on the system settings required to provide clear and responsive pathways, continuity of support and equitable access across childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, recognising that support pathways must respond to functional need, life stage and family circumstances.

Executive Summary

Since NDS’s original submission in 2025, significant progress has occurred through the development of Thriving Kids as the first phase of Foundational Supports. Reform is now moving from policy design to implementation, creating an opportunity to address the broader system settings required to support children, young people and families across New South Wales.

NDS commends the NSW Government for its leadership in progressing Thriving Kids and developing the NSW approach, including its significant consultation with children and families, communities, service providers, advocates and sector representatives. This work provides a strong foundation for implementation and for the continued development of the broader system of Foundational Supports required across childhood, adolescence and young adulthood.

Building on this progress, NDS considers that the next phase must provide greater clarity about future cohorts, nationally consistent access arrangements, pathways beyond early

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childhood, continuity of support, system interfaces, and the workforce and provider capacity required for implementation.

While Thriving Kids provides greater clarity for younger children, the NSW Government’s response to the Inquiry focused largely on its implementation (NSW Government Response to the Interim Report of the Inquiry into Foundational and Disability Supports Available for Children and Young People in New South Wales, 2026).

Foundational Supports are being developed during a fundamental reset of the NDIS, with significant consequences for participants, families, providers and the service systems around them. NDS supports the intent of reforms to strengthen the Scheme’s sustainability, quality and integrity and ensure it remains focused on people with significant and lifelong disability. This reform carries a heavy responsibility to get implementation right. Changes to access, planning, support determinations, pricing, provider regulation and market arrangements will occur alongside the design and rollout of Thriving Kids and broader Foundational Supports.

In this context, NSW has an important role in protecting continuity of support and ensuring the state-funded service system is ready for the consequences of national reform. To support the transition to Thriving Kids and the broader Foundational Supports system, NDS is calling on the NSW Government to invest in three connected enablers:

Workforce transition and development, including attraction, retention, supervision, professional development aligned to best practice and practice leadership.
Enabling infrastructure and systems required to establish, coordinate and deliver supports safely and efficiently.
Innovation and local coordination that enables providers to improve practice, collaborate across systems and develop more efficient and responsive service models.

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Together, NDS’s recommendations (below) 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 would provide the core elements of a NSW Foundational Supports roadmap. Recommendations 2.1 to 5.2 identify the service system, provider, workforce, equity and accountability settings required to deliver that roadmap effectively.

NDS identifies five priorities to guide the next phase of reform:

Reform priority 1: System Direction, Scope and Continuity

Establish a clear NSW roadmap for the broader Foundational Supports system, including future cohorts, support pathways, responsibilities across government and service systems, and continuity of support as reforms are implemented.

Reform priority 2: Integrated Service Systems

Strengthen connections across disability, health, education, family and community services through clear pathways, navigation, coordinated service delivery and shared responsibility for outcomes.

Reform priority 3: Sustainable Providers and Workforce

Build provider and workforce capacity through sustainable commissioning, coordinated workforce planning and investment in the diverse professional and practitioner workforce required to deliver safe, effective and accessible supports across NSW.

Reform priority 4: Equity and Priority Cohorts

Design and commission Foundational Supports to respond to barriers experienced by Aboriginal communities, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and children, young people and families experiencing intersecting disadvantage.

Reform priority 5: Rights, Inclusion and Accountability

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Embed the rights, voice and agency of children and young people through accessible information, supported decision-making and meaningful participation, underpinned by transparent monitoring, evaluation and public accountability.

NDS supports the successful implementation of Thriving Kids alongside the development of a broader, connected Foundational Supports system that provides clear pathways, continuity and equitable access across childhood, adolescence and young adulthood.

The recommendations that follow focus on the system settings required to translate reform into effective implementation. They recognise that Foundational Supports will operate within a broader ecosystem spanning disability, health, education, employment, family and community services, and that successful implementation will depend on clear interfaces, sustainable provider and workforce capacity, equitable access and transparent accountability.

Recommendations

Priority 1: System Direction, Scope and Continuity

The implementation of Thriving Kids has provided greater clarity regarding supports children aged zero to eight with low to moderate support requirements. However, significant questions remain regarding pathways beyond early childhood and the broader architecture of Foundational Supports. Children, young people, families and providers require greater certainty about who will be supported, how support will be accessed and how continuity of support will be maintained as reform progresses. Adolescence and the transition to adulthood are also critical periods requiring clear pathways and age-appropriate supports to maintain participation and continuity of support.

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These issues are particularly urgent as Foundational Supports are being developed alongside significant reforms to NDIS access, planning, support determinations, pricing, provider regulation and market arrangements. Poor sequencing, insufficient operational detail or inadequate transition safeguards could disrupt essential supports, shift costs and responsibilities to families and NSW-funded systems and destabilise quality providers who currently deliver services to children and young people with disability.

NSW must therefore plan Foundational Supports as essential system infrastructure that is operational, accessible and adequately resourced before children and young people experience any reduction or loss of NDIS-funded support, or are exposed to unintended gaps, delays or disruption arising from the implementation of reform.

Recommendation 1.1: Publish NSW priorities and an implementation roadmap

That the NSW Government publish clear priorities and an implementation roadmap for foundational and disability supports for children and young people in NSW, aligned with national agreements and extending beyond the current Thriving Kids cohort.

This should:

Set out the NSW vision, intended outcomes and design principles for a connected Foundational Supports system, including current and proposed cohorts, access arrangements, support pathways and transition arrangements.
Continue to work through intergovernmental processes to establish nationally consistent definitions, eligibility and assessment principles, service standards and data requirements, while allowing delivery models to respond to local communities and NSW service-system arrangements.
Publish and test how nationally agreed access and eligibility settings will be applied in NSW, including the assessment framework and criteria used to distinguish low, moderate, high, complex and fluctuating support needs, with transparent review

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pathways and safeguards against children and young people falling between eligibility thresholds.

Clearly describe how assessment, central intake, referral, navigation and provider allocation will operate, including the respective responsibilities of government agencies, navigation services and commissioned providers.
Clarify responsibilities across the NSW Department of Communities and Justice, NSW Health, the NSW Department of Education, the Commonwealth, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), local services and commissioned providers, including the future role of NDIS Partners in the Community and how their information, navigation, referral and coordination functions will connect across systems.
Describe the governance, commissioning, workforce, infrastructure, data, safeguarding and accountability arrangements required to implement and sustain the broader system.
Set out implementation milestones, sequencing, dependencies and transition arrangements, including how continuity of support will be maintained as Foundational Supports are established and NDIS arrangements change.
Establish transparent implementation monitoring, review points, escalation arrangements and public reporting, with corrective action where access, continuity, quality or equity outcomes fall short.
Show how equitable access and delivery will be achieved across metropolitan, regional, rural and remote NSW, including in thin markets and for Aboriginal and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

To achieve this, NSW requires a clear system vision, defined pathways across childhood and adolescence, and strong safeguards to maintain continuity of support during reform.

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Recommendation 1.2: Define pathways across the full age range and through key life transitions

That the NSW Government define and fund coordinated support pathways across childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, with immediate attention to children aged nine and over and young people who sit outside, leave or do not enter the NDIS.

This should:

Define the relationship between early childhood, school-age, youth and adult Foundational Supports, prioritising children aged nine and over who fall outside the current Thriving Kids eligibility criteria, with specific attention to children aged 9 to 12 who sit outside the current Thriving Kids cohort, as well as young people who are ineligible for, leave or do not enter the NDIS.
Base pathways on functional need, life stage and family circumstances rather than diagnosis or chronological age alone and ensure that NDIS eligibility decisions do not leave children and young people without an appropriate support pathway.
Provide early identification, developmental surveillance, referral, navigation and no-wrong-door access through trusted community entry points, including place-based youth hubs where appropriate.
Establish coordinated pathways through school entry, transitions between education settings, adolescence, school completion and movement into further education, employment and community participation, with responsibility for navigation and coordination clearly assigned at each transition point.
Ensure continuity of relationships, information, communication supports and planning across transitions, including connections with health, mental health, vocational education, disability employment, community services and broader inclusion initiatives.

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Commission contemporary, developmentally appropriate and youth-informed supports that maintain engagement through adolescence and reflect young people’s goals, interests, relationships, identity and aspirations for education, employment and community participation.
Monitor disengagement, unmet need and service drop-off at key transition points, including school completion and movement into adult services, and use this information to improve pathways and commissioning.
Ensure pathways are operational before related changes to NDIS access or supports take effect, with appropriate overlap between existing and new arrangements to prevent gaps during transition.

Recommendation 1.3: Prevent service gaps during reform

That the NSW Government, working with the Commonwealth and the NDIA, establish continuity-of-support and transition safeguards to minimise the risk that any child, young person or family loses essential support before an appropriate alternative is operational and accessible.

NDS members report instances of children and families experiencing NDIS plan reductions and increased uncertainty about future eligibility before alternative support pathways are clear, operational and accessible.

This should:

Establish a clear no-gap transition principle so that children, young people and families remain connected to appropriate support until an alternative is operational and accessible.
Publish measurable service standards for assessment, access decisions, referral, provider allocation, service commencement and transition, and publicly report

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performance against these standards, including where eligible children and young people remain without support.

Publish clear continuity pathways for children and young people leaving or not entering the NDIS, those outside the Thriving Kids cohort, those whose needs change over time, and those who remain ineligible for either system despite having developmental, functional or support needs.
Establish structured transition and handover arrangements, including clear responsibility for planning and coordination, consent-based information sharing, communication with families and escalation where continuity is at risk or replacement support is unavailable.
Ensure children and young people remain connected to appropriate existing supports until an alternative has been confirmed and commenced, with funded overlap and transition assistance where required to protect continuity, safety and developmental outcomes.
Provide accessible information, navigation and escalation pathways for children, young people, families, providers and referrers where there is uncertainty, delay or disagreement about transition arrangements.
Monitor access decisions, service gaps, wait times, unmet need and transition outcomes, with early review points and corrective action where implementation is causing disruption or system performance falls short.

Priority 2: Integrated Service Systems

Children, young people and families rely on disability, health, education, family and community services. Poorly connected systems can result in fragmented pathways, duplication and delays, leaving families to navigate system boundaries themselves.

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NSW’s former Early Childhood Intervention Coordination Program (ECICP) demonstrated the value of place-based interagency coordination, strengthening collaboration and referral pathways between government and non-government services. This experience provides a useful foundation for rebuilding local coordination within a connected support ecosystem.

Existing initiatives, including the NSW Education Disability and Inclusion Program’s Sector Capacity Building Program, demonstrate the value of investing in capability-building, collaboration and inclusion across service systems and provide useful foundations for Foundational Supports implementation.

NDS members continue to report inconsistent access for early intervention providers working with schools and early learning settings, including varying local practices, restrictions and cost-recovery arrangements. These barriers can undermine capacity building, transition planning and support in children’s natural learning environments.

Members also report uncertainty about where responsibility sits when a child’s goals cross education, health, disability and family contexts. Clear statewide arrangements are needed so children do not miss out on support because service systems apply different expectations, boundaries or priorities.

Recommendation 2.1: Create a statewide education interface framework

That the NSW Government establish statewide education and service-system interface arrangements to strengthen collaboration between schools, early childhood education and care (ECEC) services, health services, the NDIS and Foundational Supports providers, enabling coordinated support across the broader service ecosystem.

This should:

Define roles, responsibilities and accountability across education, early childhood, health, disability, family and community services, including where children’s goals and support needs cross service-system boundaries.

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Establish consistent statewide arrangements that enable schools and ECEC settings to work collaboratively with appropriately qualified NDIS and Foundational Supports providers, where this supports the child’s best interests and developmental, educational, inclusion and participation outcomes. These arrangements should cover consultation, capacity building, transition support, safeguarding, consent and information sharing, and address unnecessary inconsistencies, administrative barriers and access-charging practices.
Strengthen prevention, early identification and inclusion through collaboration across early learning, schools, families, health services and providers, recognising ECEC as a key service-system partner and investing in educator capability.
Leverage existing child and family health services, developmental surveillance and developmental screening pathways to support early identification, referral and access to Foundational Supports, ensuring children and families can be connected to support through routine contacts with health services.
Support a single point of contact, designated coordinator or lead-provider approach where appropriate, particularly where children and families engage with multiple services or systems.
Fund the implementation and maintenance of referral pathways, including workforce training, warm referrals, local relationship-building, information-sharing arrangements and ongoing coordination across government, mainstream and community services.
Ensure the additional supervision, infrastructure, travel and coordination costs required for cross-system collaboration are funded and not shifted to schools, early learning settings, families or providers.

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Co-design practical guidance with children and families, educators, health professionals and providers, and review its implementation using feedback, access data and service outcomes.

Recommendation 2.2: Publish demand and service mapping

That the NSW Government publish the methodology, assumptions and results used to model population need and demand and map service capacity for Foundational Supports to support service planning and capacity building that responds to the needs of communities across NSW.

This should:

Disaggregate population need and projected demand by age, cohort, geography and service type, including metropolitan, regional, rural and remote communities and thin markets.
Explain how prevalence, functional need, current and projected NDIS participation, demographic change and unmet demand have been treated in the modelling.
Map existing services and referral pathways across Foundational Supports and the broader service ecosystem, including provider capability, workforce capacity, service access points, waitlists, service gaps and points where children, young people and families disengage or fall between systems.
Establish statewide visibility of service availability, waitlists, referral outcomes and unmet demand, with clear responsibility for identifying and responding to emerging gaps.
Compare projected demand with actual service use and unmet need as implementation progresses, regularly update forecasts and adjust commissioning, workforce investment and resource allocation where experience differs from initial assumptions.

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Use population need, demand and service mapping to guide equitable commissioning and market stewardship, including flexible and place-based approaches where geography, population size, workforce shortages or thin markets affect service viability.
Publish the findings in an accessible format so children, young people, families, providers, communities and service partners can understand where services are available, where gaps remain, and how investment decisions are being made.

Priority 3. Sustainable Providers and Workforce

The success of Foundational Supports will depend on a sustainable provider market and a skilled, stable and appropriately supported workforce capable of delivering safe, effective and accessible services. NDS’s April 2025 submission identified significant workforce pressures across early childhood intervention and allied health, including difficulties attracting and retaining professionals, shortages in regional, rural and remote communities, and barriers affecting the early childhood intervention teaching workforce.

These pressures have intensified as providers navigate uncertainty about future funding, commissioning and service models alongside broader NDIS reform. NDS data indicates that 73 per cent of responding NSW providers operated at a loss or broke even, 77 per cent received requests for services they could not fulfil, and casual workforce turnover in NSW was 31 per cent, compared with 26 per cent nationally. These conditions reduce providers’ capacity to absorb unfunded transition, supervision, training, coordination and system-development responsibilities. These findings are consistent with those reported in the State of the Disability Sector Report 2025, which identified ongoing financial pressure, workforce challenges, policy uncertainty and provider sustainability risks across the disability service sector.

Commissioning and implementation arrangements must therefore fund the full cost of safe and effective service delivery and invest in the workforce, infrastructure and sector capability required to establish and sustain Foundational Supports. This includes

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recognising the different workforce, service-delivery and market conditions across disability, health, education, ECEC, family and community services, and ensuring that quality providers remain capable of supporting children, young people and families throughout reform. Consistent with the findings of the Inquiry, commissioning arrangements should support multi-year funding, relational contracting, place-based approaches and other mechanisms that strengthen provider sustainability, community capability and continuity of support.

Recommendation 3.1: Commission sustainable, quality and place-based services

Experience from the NDIS demonstrates the importance of establishing quality, safeguarding and market-visibility expectations from the outset. As at 30 June 2026, NDIA data showed that approximately 94 per cent of active NDIS providers were unregistered, highlighting the importance of establishing clear quality, safeguarding and accountability expectations for Foundational Supports from commencement.

NDS recommends that the NSW Government commission Foundational Supports through approaches that select quality providers, maintain community capability and fund the full cost of safe, effective and sustainable service delivery.

This should:

Establish a shared quality framework for all organisations contributing to Foundational Supports, including health, education, ECEC, disability, family and community services, and for-profit, not-for-profit, community-controlled and community-based providers. The framework should set consistent expectations for best practice, safeguarding, inclusive practice, workforce capability, professional and clinical governance, collaboration, outcomes, transparency and accountability, while recognising the different roles and regulatory arrangements of each service system.

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Assess commissioned providers on capability, expertise, governance, safeguarding, workforce practices, outcomes and connection to the communities they serve, rather than organisational structure alone.
Provide longer-term funding where performance is satisfactory, with transparent indexation and cost-adjustment mechanisms that recognise applicable award increases, Fair Work Commission gender undervaluation adjustments, portable long service leave levies, workers compensation premiums and other changing statutory employment costs, consistent with the NSW Government’s Secure Jobs and Funding Certainty principles.
Fund the full ongoing cost of safe and effective service delivery, including workforce supervision, professional development, practice and clinical governance, safeguarding, data and reporting, evaluation, community engagement, travel, coordination, collaboration and enabling infrastructure, including an appropriate sustainability margin that enables reinvestment in service quality, workforce capability, innovation, organisational resilience and continuity of support.
Provide dedicated mobilisation and transition funding for service redesign, data and digital capability, change management, workforce readiness, collaboration and referral infrastructure, innovation, evaluation, supervision and practice leadership.
Use relational and place-based commissioning approaches, with sufficient flexibility and funding to respond to regional, rural and remote communities, thin markets and areas of culturally specific need.
Build on trusted local capability and enable equitable participation and partnerships with smaller, specialist, community-led, Aboriginal community-controlled and culturally diverse providers.
Invest in shared system infrastructure, including Communities of Practice, interagency networks, mentoring, local coordination and shared learning, drawing

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on successful approaches such as the former Early Childhood Intervention Coordination Program.

Recommendation 3.2: Develop, implement and monitor a funded sector-wide transition and workforce plan

That the NSW Government, in partnership with the Commonwealth, the NDIA, service providers, education and training institutions, professional bodies, unions and other relevant sector partners, develop, fund, implement and monitor a sector-wide transition and workforce plan to maintain and grow workforce and provider capability across Foundational Supports, the NDIS, health, education, ECEC, community services and disability employment.

This plan should:

Forecast workforce demand alongside population need and projected service demand across Thriving Kids, broader Foundational Supports and connected service systems, identifying the workforce numbers, roles, skills and geographic distribution required for implementation.
Align workforce planning across disability, health, education, ECEC, community services and disability employment, recognising that differences in funding, employment conditions and workforce incentives can drive movement between systems and reduce continuity for children and families.
Support workforce attraction, retention and capability through funded supervision, mentoring, professional development, practice leadership, leadership development and clear career pathways.
Strengthen workforce supply through supported student and graduate pathways in paediatric, early childhood intervention and disability practice, including funded supervision, partnerships with universities, TAFEs and training organisations, and targeted incentives for regional, rural and remote communities.

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Recognise and address shortages in inclusive education, early childhood intervention, allied health and specialist teaching roles required to support inclusion and early intervention.
Strengthen Aboriginal workforce participation and leadership and develop culturally responsive workforce pathways that reflect the communities being served.
Invest in provider transition and sector capability, including workforce planning, change management, service integration, data capability, operational readiness, and the development of new service models.
Support coordinated, place-based workforce solutions in regional, rural and remote communities, including collaboration between providers and service systems where no single organisation can sustainably meet local demand.
Monitor and publicly report on workforce supply, vacancies, turnover, geographic distribution, provider sustainability and service availability throughout implementation, with strategies adjusted where workforce gaps place access, quality or continuity at risk.

This recommendation is consistent with NDS’s call for a funded NSW Disability Workforce Strategy and Implementation Plan that aligns workforce planning across the NDIS, Foundational Supports, Thriving Kids, health, education, ECEC, community services and disability employment.

Recommendation 3.3: Recognise and invest in the broad suite of professionals who will be pivotal to delivering foundational supports

That the NSW Government recognise and invest in the broad range of professionals and practitioners required to deliver Foundational Supports, including the specialist, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary capability needed to respond to children, young people and families with differing levels and types of need.

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This should:

Recognise the full range of professional and practitioner roles contributing to Foundational Supports across disability, early childhood intervention, health, education, ECEC, family and community services.
Recognise early intervention teachers as an integral part of the skilled early childhood intervention workforce and review accreditation, employment and regulatory barriers that may limit their ability to work across service settings.
Enable appropriately qualified professionals and practitioners, including teachers and allied health professionals, to work flexibly within multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary models where this reflects the needs and preferences of children and families.
Embed key worker functions within multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches where appropriate, rather than prescribing a stand-alone role or a single service model.
Fund the supervision, professional development, practice leadership and professional and clinical governance required to maintain quality, safety and capability across the diverse workforce delivering Foundational Supports.
Build consistent capability across the workforce in supported decision-making, inclusive and family-centred practice, cultural responsiveness, trauma-informed practice, communication access and working across service-system boundaries.
Enable professionals and practitioners to contribute to capacity building in families, schools, ECEC services and community settings, while ensuring this complements and does not replace funded intervention where it is required.

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Priority 4. Equity and Priority Cohorts

Children, young people and families experience different barriers to accessing and benefiting from support, shaped by culture, language, geography, disability, family circumstances and experiences of disadvantage. Aboriginal children and families, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and children and young people affected by out-of-home care, child protection involvement, family violence, trauma, homelessness, justice involvement or family crisis may require targeted, culturally safe and flexible pathways.

Equity must be embedded from the outset in the governance, design, commissioning, delivery and evaluation of Foundational Supports. A uniform service model will not produce equitable outcomes across NSW. Implementation must recognise different community contexts, address structural and practical barriers to access, and invest in trusted organisations and culturally responsive approaches.

Children, young people and families experiencing intersecting disadvantage should not be expected to navigate fragmented systems or demonstrate their need repeatedly. Foundational Supports should provide proactive identification, warm referral, coordinated navigation and continuity across disability, health, education, ECEC, child protection, housing, justice, family and community services.

Recommendation 4.1: Establish Aboriginal-led design, governance and commissioning

That the NSW Government develop and implement a dedicated Aboriginal Foundational Supports approach through Aboriginal-led design, governance and commissioning, in partnership with Aboriginal children and young people, families, communities, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) and Aboriginal-led peak bodies.

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This should:

Establish Aboriginal-led governance and shared decision-making at state, regional and local levels, with Aboriginal children and young people, families, communities, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and Aboriginal-led peak bodies as core partners in design, implementation and evaluation.
Recognise and invest in ACCOs and Aboriginal-led providers as core service-system partners, including through dedicated, alternative or direct commissioning approaches where appropriate.
Develop culturally safe, holistic, family- and community-centred service models that reflect local priorities, connection to culture and community, and the circumstances of regional, rural and remote communities.
Provide flexible, longer-term and full-cost funding that enables Aboriginal organisations to build and sustain workforce, governance, infrastructure, service capability and community relationships.
Invest in Aboriginal workforce attraction, retention, training, supervision and leadership pathways across Foundational Supports and connected health, education, ECEC, disability, family and community services.
Require mainstream and non-Aboriginal providers to demonstrate cultural safety, Aboriginal community engagement and accountable partnerships with ACCOs and Aboriginal-led providers.
Fund and support the development of cultural capability across the broader workforce, including training, supervision, community engagement and practice development, recognising that many Aboriginal children and families will access supports through mainstream providers.

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Apply Indigenous data governance principles to the collection, ownership, interpretation and reporting of information, with Aboriginal communities involved in determining how data is used to improve access, experience and outcomes.
Measure and publicly report on access, service availability, continuity, cultural safety, family experience and outcomes for Aboriginal children and young people, with corrective action where inequities or service gaps are identified.

Recommendation 4.2: Embed culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) governance, commissioning and program infrastructure

That the NSW Government embed culturally and linguistically diverse community leadership in the governance, design, implementation and evaluation of Foundational Supports, commission culturally diverse providers as core service partners, and invest in the infrastructure required for culturally responsive and accessible delivery.

No Child Left Out: Designing Thriving Kids for a Diverse Australia highlights the significant equity gap experienced by culturally and linguistically diverse children and families in accessing early intervention and disability supports. Its findings reinforce the need for culturally responsive governance, commissioning, navigation and information strategies within Foundational Supports.

This should:

Establish a NSW culturally and linguistically diverse advisory or governance mechanism with representation from children and young people, families, people with lived experience, culturally diverse providers, multicultural organisations and community leaders.
Commission culturally diverse and multicultural providers as core service partners through equitable, longer-term and relational funding arrangements that recognise their trusted relationships, cultural knowledge and community reach.

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Build cultural responsiveness into mainstream and specialist service delivery, including through workforce development, accountable community partnerships and monitoring of access, experience and outcomes.
Provide multilingual, Easy English and accessible information designed and tested with communities, supported by qualified interpreters, bilingual and bicultural workers and appropriate communication supports.
Fund community engagement, navigation and outreach through trusted channels, including community leaders, multicultural organisations, faith and cultural networks, settlement services and local community organisations.
Ensure eligibility, assessment, referral and service-delivery arrangements respond to cultural, language, migration and settlement circumstances and do not create avoidable barriers to access.
Ensure children and young people with identified developmental, disability or functional support needs are not excluded from Foundational Supports solely because of visa or residency status.
Provide culturally safe and accessible feedback, complaints, review and safeguarding mechanisms, including interpreter and advocacy support where required.
Measure and publicly report on equity of access, wait times, service continuity, family experience and outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse children and young people, with corrective action where inequities or service gaps are identified.

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Recommendation 4.3: Prioritise children, young people and families facing intersecting disadvantage

That the NSW Government explicitly identify and resource priority pathways for children and young people affected by out-of-home care, child protection, family violence, trauma, homelessness, justice involvement or family crisis.

The importance of coordinated, family-centred and trauma-informed responses is reflected in the work of the Child and Family Supports Alliance NSW (CaFSA) and the NSW Out-of-Home Care Strategy. Both emphasise the importance of integrated service delivery, early intervention, therapeutic responses and coordinated pathways for children, young people and families experiencing vulnerability, trauma and intersecting disadvantage.

This should:

Establish coordinated pathways across DCJ, health, education, ECEC, disability, housing, justice, family and community services, with clear responsibility for proactive identification, warm referral, navigation and continuity of support.
Ensure children, young people and families are not excluded, delayed or passed between systems because their circumstances or support needs cross service boundaries or do not align neatly with individual program criteria.
Recognise trauma, family circumstances, safety, communication needs and existing relationships in functional assessment, referral and support planning.
Provide a designated coordinator, lead agency or single point of contact where children, young people and families engage with multiple systems or face heightened risks of service fragmentation.

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Fund flexible, place-based and whole-of-family supports through trusted community settings, including prevention, family wellbeing, peer support, outreach and practical assistance where these are required to enable participation.
Ensure parent coaching and family-capacity-building approaches complement rather than replace funded intervention, recognising that families’ capacity to participate may be affected by disability, mental health, family violence, language barriers, transport limitations, employment responsibilities, financial hardship and limited informal support.
Provide culturally safe and trauma-informed responses, particularly for Aboriginal children and families and culturally and linguistically diverse communities, with access to specialist advocacy and communication support where required.
Monitor access, wait times, service continuity, unmet need and outcomes for children, young people and families experiencing intersecting disadvantage, with corrective action where inequity or service gaps are identified.

Priority 5. Rights, Inclusion and Accountability

Foundational Supports should uphold the rights, voice, choice and agency of children and young people and strengthen their participation, inclusion, capability and belonging. Children and young people must be supported to communicate their will and preferences, participate in decisions and exercise meaningful choice about the supports they receive, recognising their evolving capacity and the role of families, carers, kin, trusted supporters and advocates.

Supported decision-making capability develops over time and should be embedded from childhood. Children and young people, families, educators, providers and other service partners require accessible information, communication supports, practical resources and appropriate capability building so supported decision-making becomes the primary approach across service systems.

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These rights must be supported by transparent assessment and allocation processes, accessible review and complaints pathways, independent safeguards and public accountability for access, equity, service quality, continuity and outcomes.

Recommendation 5.1: Embed supported decision-making, inclusion and public accountability

That the NSW Government embed the rights, voice, choice and agency of children and young people across the design and delivery of Foundational Supports, with supported decision-making established as the primary approach from childhood.

This recommendation is consistent with the positions advanced in National Disability Services’ 2026 submission to the NSW Inquiry into Supported Decision-Making, which emphasised supported decision-making as the preferred approach to strengthening autonomy, participation and choice for people with disability.

This should:

Build supported decision-making capability from childhood through developmentally appropriate opportunities for children and young people to communicate their will and preferences, make choices and participate meaningfully in decisions.
Provide accessible, developmentally appropriate information and communication supports so children, young people and families understand available supports, service options, decisions and review processes.
Recognise children and young people’s evolving capacity and ensure families, carers, kin, trusted supporters and advocates are equipped to support, rather than replace, their participation in decision-making.
Require informed choice and consent throughout assessment, referral, information sharing, support planning and service delivery.

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Enable children, young people and families to participate in decisions about the type, intensity, setting and provider of support, including the ability to raise concerns about a proposed service or provider without losing access to support.
Support continuity of trusted relationships and providers where appropriate and preferred, particularly during transitions between programs, providers, funding arrangements and life stages.
Provide accessible and timely review, complaints and escalation pathways where a child, young person or family disagrees with an assessment, referral, allocation or service-delivery decision.
Establish safeguards for central intake, assessment and service allocation, including transparent criteria, appropriate management or separation of functions, conflict-of-interest protections and access to independent review.
Fund practical supported decision-making capability building for children, young people, families, carers, educators and providers, including accessible resources, communication tools, workforce training, supervision and practice guidance.
Record and transfer communication preferences and decision supports, with consent, so that children, young people and families do not need to repeatedly re-establish how they communicate and participate when moving between services or systems.

Recommendation 5.2: Establish transparent monitoring, evaluation and public accountability

That the NSW Government establish a transparent outcomes, monitoring and accountability framework for Thriving Kids and broader Foundational Supports from commencement.

This should:

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Establish clear outcomes, performance indicators and implementation milestones covering access, timeliness, service quality, continuity, inclusion, equity and outcomes for children, young people and families.
Publicly report on access, wait times, referral outcomes, unmet demand, service availability, continuity of support, participant and family experience, complaints, safeguarding, provider sustainability and workforce capacity.
Disaggregate reporting by age, cohort, disability and support need, geography, cultural and language background, and other relevant circumstances to identify inequities and groups falling between service systems.
Establish early implementation reviews and independent evaluation, with findings published and used to inform service design, commissioning, workforce investment and continuous improvement.
Create accessible mechanisms for children, young people, families, providers, communities and service partners to provide feedback and identify emerging implementation issues.
Set clear thresholds, responsibilities and escalation processes for corrective action where monitoring identifies service gaps, inequitable access, support disruption, safeguarding concerns or emerging provider-market risks.
Report transparently on actions taken in response to identified issues, including changes to policy, commissioning, funding, service design or implementation arrangements.

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Immediate Implementation Priorities

Alongside longer-term reform, NDS identifies four immediate priorities to guide implementation:

Priority	Immediate focus
Publish the NSW implementation roadmap and clarify pathways	Clarify future cohorts, nationally consistent access and eligibility arrangements, responsibilities across systems, and pathways for children aged nine and over, ensuring supports are operational before related NDIS changes take effect, with clear communication for children, young people and families throughout implementation.
Establish the system interfaces required for implementation	Establish consistent arrangements across health, education, ECEC, disability, family and community services, with clear responsibilities and funded navigation, referral, coordination and information-sharing pathways.
Build provider and workforce capacity before demand increases	Fund provider mobilisation and transition, workforce forecasting and development, sustainable commissioning, enabling infrastructure and the diverse professional capability required to deliver Foundational Supports.
Embed equity and accountability from commencement	Embed Aboriginal-led and culturally responsive approaches, targeted pathways for children and families facing intersecting disadvantage, supported decision-making, transparent monitoring of access and unmet need, and early independent evaluation with corrective action where implementation falls short.

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Conclusion

The reopening of the Inquiry provides an opportunity to build on the progress made through Thriving Kids and address the broader system of supports required for children and young people across New South Wales.

As reform progresses, NSW needs nationally consistent and clearly understood access arrangements; coordinated pathways across health, education, ECEC, disability, family and community services; continuity through system and life transitions; and sustainable providers and workforces capable of delivering high-quality and equitable support. Particular attention is required for future cohorts and for children and young people whose needs fall outside current program or eligibility boundaries.

Successful implementation will require coordinated action across governments and service systems, investment in provider and workforce capability, Aboriginal-led and culturally responsive approaches, and transparent monitoring of access, unmet need, continuity and outcomes. This provides an opportunity for NSW to build a connected, sustainable and accountable support ecosystem that responds to the differing needs of children, young people and families across the state.

NDS acknowledges the leadership shown by the NSW Government in progressing Thriving Kids and stands ready to work in partnership with the Government, the Committee, children and young people, families, communities, providers and other service partners to build on this foundation and develop an effective Foundational Supports system across childhood, adolescence and young adulthood.

Contact

National Disability Services

NDS website

September 2026

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