2nd October 2025
Submission for the Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative
Dear Thriving Kids Advisory Committee,
AnglicareSA Ltd is South Australia’s largest non-government provider of community services and housing to individuals, families and communities. We provide services across the lifespan and know the impact early childhood services can have on the life of a child. AnglicareSA’s vast suite of services and supports encompasses:
- Children and Families, including early childhood education and care, Autism Specific Early Learning and Care Centre (ASELCC), Inclusive Learning Environments for All Program (ILEAP), family relationship support, Communities for Children and foster care
- young people, including learning and employment opportunities, post care pathways and newly arrived young people
- Disability and Wellbeing programs, including allied health services for children and adults and supported community living for adults
- emergency assistance, loss and grief support, financial counselling, homelessness and tenancy support, and skills and employment support
- housing; rebranded as Believe Housing Australia, providing housing solutions for people at all different stages of life
- older people, including residential and community services
We draw upon our expertise to make the following recommendations in regards to the terms of reference.
- Examine evidence-based information and resources that could assist parents identify if their child has mild to moderate development delay and support parents to provide support to these children.
Some identification of developmental delay currently often occurs in places and spaces that young children and families already access including early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings and developmental health checks. Time and funding constraints in early childhood education and care settings means that some children may not be identified. We recommend that additional support be provided to all ECEC services to support staff to identify delays and have the skills to support families in sharing this information. It is important to note, that one size does not suit all or every community and there exists a barrier for vulnerable or culturally and linguistically diverse families who may not access these services. Community programs, especially those which support culturally and linguistically people, should be explored to support parents to identify delays.
We recommend that formal diagnosis is not a requirement of access to support services to ensure early intervention can commence as soon as possible. Research has shown that access to early intervention reduces the need for ongoing support significantly. https://www.latrobe.edu.au/otarc/research/autism-detection-diagnosis
- Examine the effectiveness of current (and previous) programs and initiatives that identify children with development delay, autism or both, with mild to moderate support needs and support them and their families. This should focus on community
and mainstream engagement, and include child and maternal health, primary care, allied health playgroups, early childhood education and care and schools.
We recommend the committee ensure the scientific evidence has been reviewed in regards to programs that support young children and families well. We recommend that integrated programs such as the Autism Specific Early Learning and Care Centre (ASELCC) run by AnglicareSA and South Australia’s new integrated hubs programs be considered. The current individualised funding model requiring administration for each service type through NDIS is problematic and delays access, limits participation and opportunities. The ASELCC is an evidence-based program which provides a collaborative key worker model for autistic children with varying support needs to thrive. The key findings from the national evaluation, published in 2012, were that families ‘felt more supported’ and described their ‘family life as more settled’ as a result of their child attending ASELCC. Within our current offering, our allied health team are able to support the child and family across multiple environments include education and home and support with the transition to school and parent coaching. The Inclusive Learning environments for All Program (ILEAP) supports autistic children and children with delay in early learning environments with support from allied health and early childhood educators.
ASELCC synthesis Report: https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/bitstreams/8438e4cf-d2f0-42d0-a2e1-f3fe16099622/download
“The big wide world of school”: Supporting children on the autism spectrum to successfully transition to primary school: Perspectives from parents and early intervention professionals
https://reference-global.com/article/10.21307/sjcapp-2020-009
- Identify equity and intersectional issues, in particular, children who identify as First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse.
Early childhood professionals working in the community including allied health professionals need to be appropriately resourced for collaboration including the utilization of key worker models. Professionals should be able to deliver a variety of supports in the frequency and intensity that are clinically required for the particular child or family and support the family to transition into and out of services as needed. This should not be decided by a third party, but rather the clinician with the relevant experience. By funding providers and programs rather than children, we can reduce the red tape to access supports for all children families. This will have a direct benefit to first nations and culturally and linguistically diverse children where current funding access via NDIS requires significant support.
- Identify gaps in workforce support and training required to deliver Thriving Kids.
There continues to exist gaps in responding to complex families especially those with trauma background and training should include strategies on how to engage families in this category.
- Draw on domestic and international policy experience and best practice.
We recommend that thriving kids aligns with best practice frameworks and strategies including The National Guideline for supporting the learning, participation, and wellbeing of autistic children and their families in Australia, The Early Years Strategy (National), National Autism Strategy, the National Guidelines: Best Practice in Early Childhood Intervention and the newly released National Best Practice Framework for Early Childhood Intervention and
the Early Years Learning Framework.
- Identify mechanisms that would allow a seamless transition through mainstream systems for all children with mild to moderate support needs.
We recommend that Thriving Kids has multiple entry points which reflect the potential times, places and spaces when families may identify their children has a developmental delay. We recommend that early childhood professionals including allied health professionals, community services professionals and early childhood education are funded flexibility to be able to quickly provide support, collaborate and refer as required. We recommend services are appropriately resources to provide collaborative practice with a team around the child and family approach rather than siloed supports. We also support clinician led practice where professionals can support the prioritisation of their caseload, flexing supports to the families that need it most.
Conclusion:
Anglicare SA exists to deliver services with deep compassion and care for individuals, families, and communities across South Australia - not just as a service provider, but as a powerful catalyst for justice, respect, and fullness of life for all. We are motivated to support the design and implementation of Thriving Kids to ensure that all children are able to receive the best possible start in life.
Kind regards
Grace Frost
Senior Manager Autism Services AnglicareSA
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