NDIA Accountability Project

Submission 105 — Heale Collab — Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative

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Submission to the Inquiry into the Thriving Kids Initiative

Continuing Affirming Support from a Workforce Reflecting the Community it Serves

Leah Heale Accredited Disability Social Worker Heale Collab info@healecollab.com

CONTENTS

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THRIVING KIDS

Best practices when supporting autistic children and their family include:

  • Providing psychoeducational and therapeutic support
  • Engaging families in collaborative, affirming and holistic planning
  • Embedding supports into daily routines and environments
  • Reducing burden and increasing flexibility
  • Encouraging peer support, inclusion, and community belonging
  • Shifting from deficit-focused to strength-based thinking

Evidence-based programs that utilise these practices include:

  • Family-Centred Approach (FCA)
  • Systemic Autism-related Family Enabling (SAFE)
  • DIR/Floortime
  • Empower-Autism

To support autistic children and their families effectively, mainstream and community services must undergo a systemic shift:

  • Adopting strengths-based, neurodiversity-affirming models in education and community settings.
  • Recognising autistic and neurodivergent communication, play, and learning styles as valid and meaningful.
  • Respecting lived experience as a core form of knowledge.
  • Redesigning service delivery to be flexible, relational, and family-centred
  • Developing and funding programs that encourage peer engagement
  • Embedding post-diagnostic support programs into routine care pathways
  • Embedding autism-adapted, individualised support models into service delivery frameworks
  • Inclusion of autistic adults and parents in programme design, delivery, and evaluation.
  • Building flexibility into funding models to support tailored, family-specific interventions.
  • Cross-sector collaboration between education, health, disability, and social services.

To be successful Thriving kids requires a workforce that represents the community it serves. This can be achieved by:

  • Maintaining social workers as key team members
  • Ensuring small business & sole practitioners are included in the Thriving Kids model.
  • Ensuring neurodivergent practitioners can continue providing valuable support
  • Promoting inclusive workplace cultures that value lived experience
  • Mandating autism-specific training for all professionals in health, education, and community services.
  • Emphasising strengths-based, trauma-informed, and neurodiversity affirming practices.
  • Ensuring mainstreaming does not dilute the availability of autism-informed and neurodiversity-competent practitioners.

KEY CONCEPTS TO INFORM THRIVING KIDS

This submission is written using the Biopsychosocial Model (BPS) and the neurodiversity affirming approach as core concepts. BPS is a framework that understands human health (including neurodevelopmental variations) as resulting from the interaction of:

  • Biological: genetics, neurobiology, physical health, sensory processing, etc.
  • Psychological: cognition, emotions, identity, behaviour, mental health.
  • Social: environment, culture, relationships, social support, stigma, societal structures.

This model underpins the World Health Organisations International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) that is recommended as a planning and policy tool for decision-makers (World Health Organisation 2002).

The neurodiversity paradigm views differences in neurology (such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, etc.) as natural human variation, not inherently pathological. Key components

include a focus on identity, self-understanding and respect for difference, critique of models which aim to cure or normalize autistic people and advocating for changes in environment, policy, and societal attitudes, not just interventions on the individual.

A neurodiversity-affirming approach is one that validates, supports, and accommodates neurological differences without seeking to normalise or fix individuals. The key features of a neurodiversity-affirming approach include:

  • Identity-affirming: Recognizes neurodivergence as a core identity, not a deficit.
  • Strengths-based: Builds on interests, talents, and unique ways of thinking (e.g., hyperfocus, pattern recognition, divergent thinking).
  • Environment-focused: Modifies contexts (schools, workplaces, therapy) rather than forcing individuals to change themselves.
  • Trauma-informed: Acknowledges the harm caused by masking, forced compliance, or misinterpretation of behaviour.
  • Co-designed and autistic-led: Services and interventions are informed by neurodivergent voices and lived experience.

Using a BPS approach to understand neurodiversity means recognizing that autistic people’s lives and outcomes are shaped not just by their neurology, but by how society responds, their personal psychological supports, and the environments in which they function. Social factors that can heavily influence outcomes include workplace/ environmental design, management practices, social attitudes, support systems, educational practices and societal expectations (Doyle 2020). The BPS model allows tailoring support and accommodations to what each neurodivergent individual needs and values (Whelpley et al. 2023).

This integrated approach is also supported in the Australian National Guideline for Supporting the Learning, Participation, and Wellbeing of Autistic Children and their Families, which explicitly calls for individualised, family-centred, and strengths-based approaches delivered by trained professionals within inclusive systems (Whitehouse et al. 2023). Using the biopsychosocial model through a neurodiversity-affirming lens

provides a holistic, ethical, and effective way to support neurodivergent people. It encourages practitioners to understand neurodivergence as part of human diversity while also acknowledging the unique challenges faced due to internal needs and external barriers.

Implications for Thriving Kids

  • Services (health, education, social services) should adopt person‐centered assessment that considers biological, psychological, and social dimensions, including identity, strengths, and preferences.
  • Interventions should include environmental changes (e.g. accommodations), psychological support (e.g. counselling, identity-affirming approaches), and when needed, biological/medical interventions—but always in partnership with individuals.
  • Training and professional development for practitioners to understand neurodiversity, reduce stigma, avoid pathologising differences.
  • Policies need to support flexibility: e.g. in workplace, school, care settings so that environments can adjust to individuals rather than forcing individuals to adjust alone.

EVIDENCE-BASED AND NEURODIVERSITY-AFFIRMING PRACTICES ADDRESSING THE NEEDS OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILY

Autism is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition that affects how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Upon diagnosis families, especially parents, play a central role in supporting their child’s development, behaviour, and wellbeing. However, current systems often fail to address the needs of parents, leading to avoidable stress, reduced

intervention adherence, and poorer outcomes for both the child and the family (McCafferty & McCutcheon, 2020; McConkey, 2023).

The National Guideline for supporting the learning, participation, and wellbeing of autistic children and their families in Australia (Whitehouse et al., 2023) provides a comprehensive, evidence-based framework for best practice in supporting autistic children and their families. It emphasises that interventions should be family-centred, individualised, and culturally responsive, and that caregiver support—including psychoeducation, mental health care, and practical assistance—is essential for the effective implementation of child-focused interventions.

The Guideline also highlights the importance of interventions being developmentally appropriate, neurodiversity-affirming, and delivered in ways that enhance family capacity and child autonomy. These principles reinforce the policy need for coordinated systems of support that include parent training, emotional support, and collaborative planning with families across the lifespan.

Psychosocial and Emotional Support for Parents

Receiving and adapting to an autism diagnosis can be a life-altering experience for families, with parents often experiencing stress, depression, anxiety, guilt, decreased quality of life, increased risk of unemployment, sparser social networks, and isolation (McCafferty & McCutcheon 2020; McConkey 2023). These mental health impacts are exacerbated by challenging behaviours and comorbid conditions like anxiety, OCD, or ADHD in their children (Burton & Fox 2023). Moreover, a two-way dynamic exists: heightened parental stress can worsen the child’s behaviour, creating a feedback loop of distress (McConkey 2023).

Delaying support risks escalating co-occurring conditions and increasing family burden. Families report negative experiences when services fail to adjust communication and

interaction style, build trusted relationships and focus on family functioning, not just individual pathology (Burton & Fox 2023). To decrease these risks early intervention is key to supporting parents that care for autistic children. Parents who are supported early report they gain confidence, children show fewer challenging behaviours, a strengthening of parent-child relationships and higher satisfaction and lower stress (McCafferty & McCutcheon 2020).

Effective support for autistic children and their families must use a biopsychosocial model, promoting strengths, autonomy, and self-regulation (McConkey 2023) while including parents as equal partners in collaborative intervention planning.

Parent-Mediated Interventions & Reducing Parental Burden

Evidence shows that psychoeducational support provided directly to parents of Autistic children can help parents to:

  • Process an Autism diagnosis
  • Build knowledge and confidence
  • Improve family functioning and adjustment
  • Increase their knowledge about their child’s needs
  • Enhance caregiver relationships and child behaviour management
  • Reduce stress and uncertainty (Godwin et al. 2021; Burton & Fox 2023)

Effective intervention approaches do more than target the child; they empower parents to become change agents. Parents who implement intervention strategies within everyday routines report enhanced competence, improved child outcomes, and less behaviour escalation (Bradshaw et al. 2022).

For parent mediated strategies to succeed, caregiver wellbeing must be addressed concurrently, as high stress impairs learning and engagement in interventions

(Bradshaw et al. 2022). Parental adherence to intervention is linked to perceived burden therefore, programs should aim to:

  • Involve coparents and siblings to reduce sole caregiver responsibility
  • Offer telehealth and online options for flexibility
  • Provide consideration for language, literacy, and cultural relevance.
  • Provide respite and childcare
  • Schedule evening or weekend sessions (Bradshaw et al. 2022)

These accommodations promote parental efficacy, shared responsibility, and marital/sibling relationship improvements.

Autistic parents may experience a unique interplay of strengths and challenges in their parenting role. Support for these families must be:

  • Tailored and accessible
  • Respectful of autistic parenting styles
  • Grounded in acceptance and strengths (Marriott et al. 2022)

Strengths-Based Approaches

There has been a long-standing deficit approach to autism, which has resulted in external signals from society, clinicians, caregivers, and teachers being orientated towards identifying and supporting autistic people’s difficulties. This has resulted in limited strength identification and contribute to lower self-efficacy, self-esteem, and self-confidence for autistic children (Taylor et al. 2023).

Strength-based approaches are a method for enhancing well-being in autistic populations when clinical and educational interventions focus on promoting an individual’s general strengths, rather than narrowly concentrating on ‘autistic strengths’ (Taylor et al. 2023). Strength-based approaches improve autistic children:

  • Mental wellbeing
  • Positive identity and self-advocacy
  • Anxiety reduction
  • Self-esteem and confidence
  • Communication and social relationships
  • Motivation and sense of belonging
  • Capacity for learning (Murthi et al. 2023; Taylor et al. 2023; Lee et al. 2023)

Holistic, Systemic and Evidence Based Approaches

Interventions that target the family system, rather than a focus on the individual, are a well-established and effective approach (McConkey 2023). Recommended as best practice, the Family-Centred Approach (FCA) promotes parental empowerment and child outcomes through parent- therapist collaboration in all stages of the intervention process (Lage & Snider 2020). The premise of FCA is that children’s well-being and care are best supported within a family context and outcomes include:

  • enabling parents to embed therapy into daily life,
  • building advocacy skills, and
  • sustaining outcomes regardless of therapist turnover (Lage & Snider 2020).

Systemic Autism-related Family Enabling (SAFE) is an innovative family therapy-based program that draws from Family Therapy techniques, Attachment Narrative Therapy and known preferences of autistic individuals (McKenzie et al. 2022). SAFE respects parental knowledge and incorporates children’s interests and enhances:

  • Family communication
  • Shared understanding of autism
  • Problem-solving skills
  • Reduced isolation and increased closeness (McKenzie et al. 2022; Stancer & Dallos 2020)

The program involves 5 x 3-hour sessions facilitated by two therapists trained in the SAFE intervention model offered to around 6 families. SAFE incorporates a multi-sensory approach and is supported by a detailed manual setting out a structure for each session and a toolkit of activities which can be used flexibly according to family need and the age and symptoms of the child (Stancer & Dallos 2020).

A systematic review of DIR/floortime (developmental, individual difference, relationship-based) showed substantial progress in different levels of functioning of autistic children with DIR/floortime (Divya et al. 2023). Home-based DIR/floortime improved:

  • emotive functioning
  • communication
  • daily living skills
  • parent-child interactions

DIR/floortime is a cost-effective, completely child-led approach. If started early by healthcare professionals, it can be vital in improving social and emotional development among autistic children.

The Empower-Autism group-based program offers blended psychoeducation and psychotherapeutic support and demonstrated sustained benefits in caregiver mental health and family well-being at 12 months post-intervention (Leadbitter et al. 2025). The program’s outcomes have also included:

  • increased self-care
  • enhanced autism acceptance and positivity
  • a mitigation of stigma and isolation experienced within the community
  • a more attuned parenting of their autistic child (Leadbitter et al. 2024).

The Empower-Autism program was not judged to be clinically appropriate for those caregivers with severe, enduring, and complex mental health needs, significant learning disability, or significant current family safeguarding concerns (Leadbitter et al. 2025). This is likely the case for any group-based program so tailored and individualised approaches will need to be provided for these particularly vulnerable groups.

COMMUNITY & MAINSTREAM PROGRAMS SUPPORTING CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES

Mainstream and community services, including child and maternal health, primary care, early childhood education, and schools, play a critical role in supporting autistic children

and their families. However, to be truly effective, these services must evolve beyond deficit-based models and actively embrace neurodiversity-affirming, strengths-based, and inclusive approaches. This requires not only shifts in practice and training but also deep structural and cultural reform.

Schools and Early Childhood Settings: A Core Microsystem

Schools are one of the most significant microsystems in an autistic child’s life (White et al. 2023). Because children spend a large portion of their developmental years in educational environments, schools are ideally placed to deliver inclusive and impactful support. Research shows that strengths-based approaches which emphasise students’ interests, abilities, and motivations can improve participation, learning outcomes, and wellbeing.

Neurodivergent pupils can experience emotional distress at school more often than their neurotypical peers with this often resulting in attendance difficulties. Multiple factors such as sensory differences, uncertainty at school, social challenges, poor understanding of neurodiversity and a lack of appropriate alternatives to mainstream schools, commonly coalesced to create distress. Neurodivergent students report they do not feel that the current education system met their needs (Fielding 2025).

To realise the full potential of neurodivergent students, teacher attitudes, training, and resources are essential. Without adequate professional development and systems that promote inclusive pedagogies, schools can inadvertently perpetuate harm.

Reframing Play and Promoting Inclusion

Authentic, child-led play that respects autistic play styles has been found to enhance wellbeing and learning and supports development through enjoyment and meaning

(O’Keeffe & McNally 2025). There is a need for play-based curricula that reflect authentic autistic play, rather than forcing conformity to neurotypical norms. Early childhood and teaching professionals must be supported to recognise, understand, and value autistic play cultures, which are essential for wellbeing and development.

Schools and community programs can promote social inclusion through inclusive, strengths-based practices (White et al. 2023). Encouraging family and child participation in community activities, peer groups, shared play and leisure builds belonging, reduces isolation, and strengthens family bonds (McConkey 2023). It is recommended that strengths-based intervention frameworks are introduced across education, health, and community services focusing on:

  • Identifying individual strengths
  • Encouraging positive identity and autism acceptance
  • Supporting social connection and mental wellbeing (Taylor et al. 2023; Murthi et al. 2023)

Community-based programs that encourage peer engagement, friendships, and inclusive participation must continue to be developed and funded.

Family Blame and Systemic Misunderstanding

There is growing recognition that mainstream systems often pathologise neurodivergence not only in children, but in their families as well. Neurodivergent families are often blamed for school attendance issues and parenting challenges, rather than examining the unsuitability of the environment itself (Benson 2023). This leads to support that focuses on “fixing” families instead of addressing the structural barriers that autistic children face in mainstream settings. For example, autistic families are often offered parenting programs based on neurotypical assumptions, rather than responsive supports that reflect their actual needs (Benson 2023).

Shifting Toward Inclusive, Affirming Support

To support autistic children and their families effectively, mainstream and community services must undergo a systemic shift and:

  • Adopt strengths-based, neurodiversity-affirming models in education and community settings.
  • Recognise autistic and neurodivergent communication, play, and learning styles as valid and meaningful.
  • Respect lived experience, especially that of autistic families and professionals, as a core form of knowledge.
  • Redesign service delivery to be flexible, relational, and centred on the needs of autistic children and their families—not on normative expectations.
  • Develop and fund community-based programs that encourage peer engagement, friendships, and inclusive participation.
  • Embed post-diagnostic support programs into routine care pathways to help autistic children and their families understand and embrace their identity in affirming ways.
  • Inclusion of autistic adults and parents in programme design, delivery, and evaluation.
  • Build flexibility into funding models to support tailored, family-specific interventions.
  • Ensure cross-sector collaboration between education, health, disability, and social services.

GAPS IN WORKFORCE SUPPORT AND TRAINING FOR THRIVING KIDS.

Inclusion of Neurodivergent Allied Health Sole Practitioners

The continued presence of neurodivergent health professionals in the autism support workforce is critical to improving outcomes for autistic children and their families, particularly during a shift toward more generalist service models. Neurodivergent allied

health practitioners frequently become sole practitioners or join small, neurodiversity-affirming organisations due to a complex set of systemic, professional, and personal factors. A key motivator is the need for autonomy over their working hours, environment, caseload, and pace of work. This is because neurodivergent practitioners often thrive in environments where they can control sensory inputs, manage social interactions, and work at a sustainable pace (Holland et al. 2025). This control allows practitioners to maintain wellbeing, prevent burnout, and design services that are tailored to the individual, especially in autism and disability contexts.

Mainstream healthcare environments can be inaccessible or unsupportive for neurodivergent professionals. This includes:

  • Sensory overload in busy, chaotic settings
  • Masking pressures, leading to mental exhaustion, anxiety, and burnout
  • Resistance to accommodations or a lack of understanding from managers
  • Difficulty with interpersonal dynamics, particularly around social cues or indirect communication
  • Executive functioning challenges, such as time management or prioritisation under pressure (Chisnall-Kalouniviti 2025)

Such barriers can make traditional roles untenable, prompting many professionals to seek out more supportive environments—or create their own through sole practice.

Neurodivergent health professionals often bring deep empathy, insight, and innovation to their work, especially when supporting autistic individuals (Chisnall-Kalouniviti 2025). Neurodivergent allied health professionals in sole practice are providing essential, irreplaceable support for autistic children and their families. Their insights contribute to a neurodiversity-affirming, transdisciplinary, and family-centred approach, now widely recognised as best practice (Whitehouse et al. 2023).

The inclusion of neurodivergent health professionals working as sole practitioners as a vital part of the workforce supporting autistic children and their families is not only beneficial, but also essential. The evidence provided highlights the complexity of autistic

children’s needs and demonstrates how this workforce plays a unique and irreplaceable role in fostering improved outcomes through a neurodiversity affirming, family-centred, and transdisciplinary approach.

Social Workers: Addressing Family Systems and Emotional Wellbeing

Autistic children often present with complex needs that extend beyond the child to encompass their family and broader social environment. Social workers are uniquely positioned to address these needs through systemic, trauma-informed and family-centred interventions. Social workers can enhance family engagement in care, which is associated with better outcomes for autistic children (Anthony & Campbell 2020). They also support families to develop effective coping strategies and build protective factors that enhance resilience and reduce parental stress (McCafferty & McCutcheon 2020).

Their work is integral to transdisciplinary teams, where collaboration across disciplines is essential for comprehensive autism support (McConkey 2023). Social workers bring a unique psychosocial lens that complements medical and educational perspectives, helping to bridge gaps in care. Families and children need support not just at diagnosis but throughout their developmental journey. Social workers can play a crucial role in helping children understand their diagnosis in a non-stigmatizing and empowering way, supporting the development of a positive autistic identity (Mullally et al. 2024; Stark et al. 2025).

Neurodivergent Health Professionals: Bridging the Empathy Gap & Improving Outcomes

The inclusion of neurodivergent (particularly autistic) professionals in health and social care brings invaluable insight and bridges the often-cited “triple empathy problem”

which highlights cultural and communication barriers between autistic patients and non-autistic professionals (Smith et al. 2025; Shaw et al. 2023).

Autistic professionals can act as cultural and communicative bridges between systems and autistic children. Their “dual insider positioning” within both the autistic and healthcare communities allows for more empathetic, intuitive support, improving patient experiences and engagement (Shaw et al. 2023; Smith et al. 2025).

Neurodivergent clinicians are more likely to recognize and challenge stigmatising assumptions in professional settings. Their presence helps promote neurodiversity affirming language, autistic community connectedness, and identity-affirming practices (Stark et al. 2025). Their inclusion encourages teams to adopt more inclusive, trauma-informed, and accessible practices. It also helps in designing training and CPD programs that better prepare non-autistic staff to support autistic children effectively (Corden et al. 2022).

The Need for Neurodiversity Affirming Approaches

Across healthcare, education, and social care, professionals frequently lack the knowledge, confidence, or cultural competence to support autistic children effectively. Healthcare professionals often report only moderate levels of autism knowledge and self-efficacy, which can delay diagnosis and result in inadequate support (Corden et al. 2022). This underscores the need for autism-specific training and specialist roles within services (McConkey 2023).

Many autistic children grow up without a clear understanding of what it means to be autistic, often internalising negative stereotypes. This negatively affects their mental health and limits their ability to self-advocate (Mullally et al. 2024). Support delivered by professionals trained in neurodiversity affirming practice leads to better self-understanding, wellbeing, increased communication skills, and stronger autistic identity development (Mullally et al. 2024; Stark et al. 2025; Leadbitter et al. 2024).

Maintain Specialised, Skilled Support

With the transition to mainstream and foundational supports, there is a risk that autistic children and families will lose access to specialised, autism-informed, and neurodiversity affirming care. Generic services often lack autism-specific training, leading to unmet needs and poorer outcomes (Corden et al. 2022).

Effective delivery of neurodiversity affirming, therapeutic content requires specific competencies, ongoing training, supervision and experience (Leadbitter et al. 2024). If professionals lack these competencies, children and families risk increased stress, poorer treatment engagement, and missed developmental opportunities (Burton & Fox, 2023).

Workforce Recommendations

Preserve and Prioritise Social Work Roles in Autism Services: Maintain social workers as key team members in transdisciplinary care settings.

Support Neurodivergent Health Professionals: Ensure that neurodivergent allied health clinicians continue providing valuable support to Autistic children. Promote inclusive workplace cultures that value lived experience as clinical insight.

Preserve Ongoing Role for Small Business & Sole Practitioners: Ensure that small business & sole practitioners are included within the Thriving Kids model.

Invest in Workforce Training Across Sectors: Require autism-specific training for all professionals in health, education, and community services. Emphasise strengths-based, trauma-informed, and neurodiversity affirming practices.

Safeguard Access to Specialist Autism Services: Ensure mainstreaming does not dilute the availability of autism-informed and neurodiversity-competent practitioners. Embed autism-adapted, individualised support models into service delivery frameworks. Build workforce capability in autism-informed, flexible health support to address comorbid conditions and emotional needs (McConkey, 2023).

A Workforce that Reflects the Communities it Serves

To foster acceptance, belonging, and flourishing in autistic children, we must build services that:

  • Promote autistic identity and self-advocacy (Mullally et al., 2024; Stark et al., 2025),
  • Respect and support the emotional needs of families (McCafferty & McCutcheon, 2020),
  • Offer trauma-informed, autism-adapted care across settings (Corden et al., 2022),
  • Include clinicians with lived experience of neurodivergence (Smith et al., 2025; Shaw et al., 2023).

This can only be achieved by maintaining and valuing neurodivergent professionals as key contributors to autism care. Their involvement is not ancillary, it is central to delivering ethical, effective, and truly person-centred support to autistic children and their families.

Social workers bring critical skills, empathy, and insight to the care of autistic children. They support family resilience, improve child outcomes, and foster positive identity development. As services transition to more mainstream models, it is vital that these professionals remain central to autism service provision. Their continued inclusion will ensure a system that is equitable, inclusive, and responsive to the needs of autistic children and their families.

CONCLUSION

Supporting parents of autistic children is not optional; it is essential. The evidence is clear that long-term, meaningful outcomes for autistic children depend on a family-centred, neurodiversity-affirming, and strengths-based approach. Empowering families through psychoeducation, flexible supports, and inclusive community connections lays the groundwork for environments where autistic children can thrive.

To truly meet the needs of autistic children, mainstream and community services must undergo systemic transformation. This includes embracing autistic ways of communicating, playing, and learning; embedding affirming practices into daily life; and ensuring flexible, relational, and trauma-informed service delivery. Post-diagnostic supports must be integrated into routine care, helping families navigate identity, inclusion, and growth.

Achieving this vision requires a workforce that reflects and respects the communities it serves. Neurodivergent professionals and social workers are central—not peripheral—to effective autism care. Their lived experience, empathy, and expertise are critical to building ethical, inclusive, and responsive systems of support. By aligning policy,

practice, and funding with these principles, we can build a future in which autistic children and their families are supported not just to cope but to thrive.

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