PLACE

Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment

PLACE SUBMISSION

Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative by the House Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability

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Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment (PLACE) is a national organisation that champions and supports community-led approaches to social and economic challenges. We exist because top-down, one-size-fits-all approaches have consistently failed to meet the needs of diverse communities. Despite decades of effort and significant investment, many Australians are still left behind, including children experiencing developmental delay and/or autism and their families. We believe that only when we take a holistic, community-led approach that actively empowers those experiencing the greatest need can we create real change.

PLACE is focused on addressing disadvantage in its many forms. Early years development is a particular focus area given the growing body of evidence linking support in the first 2,000 days of life to good life outcomes. Thriving Kids is an opportunity to support children and families in a holistic, community-led way, with a focus on early intervention. Communities across the country are leading place-based initiatives that demonstrate different approaches to supporting children and families built on genuine partnership and local ownership. What’s missing is the infrastructure to connect this work, elevate it in policy discussions, and remove the funding and reporting barriers that constrain it.

In the first half of 2025, PLACE engaged with 75 place-based initiatives across Australia to understand the opportunities and conditions needed for place-based change to thrive. Several key challenges emerged with existing service delivery models used to address complex challenges, including:

The need to centre community voices in the design and delivery of programs
The need to build trusted relationships
The need to break down siloed and fragmented services
Workforce challenges, including staff shortages and skills gaps.

We’re committed to walking alongside communities as a support system and a hub for shared learning, partnership, and policy innovation. Our work is based on evidence that communities understand their own contexts best, and that sustainable change requires shared decision-making and local leadership. We operate on three core principles: communities know best what matters to them; local leadership produces better outcomes; and decisions should be made with communities through genuine partnership, not for them.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Community-led place-based approaches to design, implementation and delivery will give Thriving Kids the best opportunity to improve outcomes for children experiencing developmental delays and autism.

Children and families can face significant barriers to accessing services and supports, leading to many children being left behind. These barriers can be even greater for children and families experiencing other types of disadvantage. Thriving Kids is an opportunity to expand the support available for children through trusted community-based settings they are already connected to such as child and maternal health and early childhood services.

To fully realise the potential of this opportunity, Thriving Kids must be developed with community and avoid traditional top-down purchasing approaches. By taking the time to work with communities and understand the challenges local families face, services can be built on trust and matched to community need, while also being integrated within the local service system.

We recognise there is a challenge to being able to do this work with community well in advance of the transition commencing on 1 July 2026, so we have outlined an approach to building the role of community early and over time.

Community-led solutions are already being used across Australia to improve outcomes in complex areas including disability. Programs and initiatives that are rooted in community are more likely to meet local needs, be trusted, integrate with other services and empower community members through shared decision making and control. One example of this is Our Place Doveton: a place-based initiative embedding health services into local playgroups to better support refugee families and children.

Working in a place-based, relational way requires a systemic shift away from short-term funding contracts, siloed and fragmented services and top-down governance and accountability, and instead centres the voices of community in the design and delivery of programs and moves decision making closer to communities. Thriving Kids is an opportunity for government to begin to shift towards a more community-led, contextually responsive approach and see real change in outcomes over the medium to long term.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Community-based approaches should be an integral part of Thriving Kids, particularly for disadvantaged communities, with a significant portion of funding allocated for place-based approaches.
Collaborative commissioning, via locally connected, skilled regional commissioners, should be used to enable place-based Thriving Kids approaches to be implemented at a national scale.
Community engagement must be funded both in the design and implementation of Thriving Kids.
Funding must be sufficiently long term to provide stability and allow for services to mature.

CASE STUDY: INTEGRATED HEALTH AND EDUCATION SUPPORT AT DOVETON COLLEGE

Our Place Doveton is a place-based initiative centred in Doveton College with priorities set in consultation with the local community and delivered in partnership with government, health providers and philanthropy. Doveton College became an Our Place site in 2012, to coordinate services and supports to meet community needs with a focus on children, families and employment pathways.

Our Place Doveton and its partners identified that many refugee-background families were not engaging with health services or receiving key health checks as their children developed. However, many of these families were engaging with a weekly settlement playgroup at Doveton College. In a pilot that embedded a maternal and child health (MCH) nurse into the playgroup, families were able to build trusted relationships with health practitioners. They received timely and tailored health information, appointments and referrals for their children, some for the very first time.

“We saw families who hadn’t accessed MCH before now attending Key Ages and Stages visits. Families now come to appointments with more confidence and questions. They’re more prepared.”

MCH Nurse

“The program shows how an integrated, place-based approach can help to break down barriers and improve access to support families in need. The success of the Doveton pilot points to a scalable model for improving MCH engagement in culturally diverse communities to ensure more families can access the services and support they need early in their child’s life.”

Elfie Taylor, Our Place Early Years Director

THE RESULTS WERE TRANSFORMATIVE:

Double the number of health checks booked.
Some families attended the MCH nurse for the first time.
Parent-initiated engagement increased by 25%.
Families developed stronger knowledge about child development and reported making positive changes at home, including nutrition, dental care, sleep routines and managing screen time.
Families were connected to a range of services, including GPs, dental clinics, speech pathology, and community education programs.

COMMUNITY-LED PLACE-BASED APPROACHES TO SUPPORTING CHILDREN

A community-led, place-based approach to delivering Thriving Kids would be consistent with the Australian Government’s Early Years Strategy 2024-2034, which commits the government to:

Support local solutions to local problems, including through community-led shared accountability, local solutions based on evidence and shared decision-making, building on existing localised initiatives and exploring flexible funding models.
Foster shared decision-making by ensuring communities have important roles in designing and delivering local solutions that empower their community.
Better integration, collaboration and coordination of polices, programs and services.
Improving access to early childhood education and care, especially for children from disadvantaged backgrounds who are least likely to participate due to systemic barriers.

Place-based approaches can improve outcomes for children experiencing developmental delay and autism by expanding the support available to them in settings they are already connected to, such as child and maternal health, early childhood education, and community settings. Integrated and accessible supports can leverage established trusted relationships between families, services and communities, without the current over-reliance on assessments, diagnosis and approvals.

To realise this opportunity, Thriving Kids must be implemented in collaboration with communities, who understand the challenges that local families face and can contribute their knowledge and skills to the solutions. This is especially true for communities experiencing disadvantage, where families face significant barriers to accessing and using mainstream services. Fragmented funding and services, and ‘one-size-fits-all’ approaches don’t encourage participation and integrated service models. Designing the implementation of Thriving Kids in partnership with community will lead to more integrated services that build on trusted relationships, adapt to local cultural needs and take a wholistic, social determinants of health approach to supporting children with developmental delay and autism.

In 2024, the Department of Social Services held consultations on foundational supports with people with disabilities, their families and other stakeholders. The “what we heard” webinar hosted by DSS on the feedback they received highlighted the importance of integrated, locally connected services. Trust is critical, with the webinar hosts saying: “A really key thread through all of the consultations was the need for trusted relationships with individuals and organisations that are independent.” Place-based initiatives are uniquely positioned to deliver this, as they are embedded in community and are built off long-term relationships and a unique understanding of local needs.

Community-led, place-based approaches support positive change for children in disadvantaged communities. Place-based initiatives Logan Together (Logan, Queensland), the Hive (Mt Druitt, New South Wales), Our Place Doveton (Victoria) and By Five (Wimmera Southern Mallee, Victoria) have been correlated with improvements over time in the number of children developmentally vulnerable on one or more domains of the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC). Communities for Children Facilitating Partners, a provider-led coordination and commissioning initiative in 52 communities has also demonstrated improvements in AEDC outcomes, with evaluations showing positive impacts for children, parents and communities and a significant benefit-cost ratio. These results should not be taken lightly. They are based on the design of the initiatives with community, and their continuing involvement, in areas that are traditionally very difficult to generate and sustain improved outcomes.

Collaborating with community can also identify and support innovative local solutions to workforce challenges, including improving transport options, increasing flexibility for local workers and families, and collaborating across providers to get the most value out of limited specialist capability.

When experts, funders and communities work together, what is developed is more likely to work in the context of that community and support better outcomes. It is critical that this collaboration is implemented well and supported by government.

CASE STUDY: EXISTING COMMONWEALTH PLACE-BASED PROGRAMS IMPROVING OUTCOMES FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES EXPERIENCING DISADVANTAGE

The Communities for Children Facilitating Partners (CfC FP) program supports children and families in 52 disadvantaged communities across Australia. The program takes a whole-of community approach. While the focus is on providing services for early childhood development and wellbeing for children, the approach has flow-on benefits to the broader community.

In each community, a Facilitating Partner organisation uses evidence, local knowledge and experience to tailor services that will meet the needs of that community. They also provide funding to Community Partner organisations to target support and engage with parents as early as possible, through services such as parenting support, peer support, case management, home visits, community events and life skills courses.

There is clear evidence from both program-wide and provider-specific evaluations that CfC FP is cost effective and contributes to improved child, youth, parenting and community outcomes. Particularly critical is the importance of community engagement to determine priorities, coordination across service providers, and flexibility to fund services that meet community needs.

Despite the success of CfC FP, it has not been expanded beyond 52 communities experiencing significant disadvantage.

COLLABORATIVE COMMISSIONING AS A PATH FORWARD FOR THRIVING KIDS

Delivering place-based approaches for Thriving Kids demands collaboration with communities, people with lived experience, and service providers nationwide. Traditional government procurement and contracting methods will not achieve this.

Collaborative commissioning via skilled regional commissioners offers a more equitable and reliable approach to engaging communities in the development of Thriving Kids programs across the country that can support integrated, community-led responses that build trust and centre community voices in service design and delivery.

Under a regional collaborative commissioning model, state/territory and federal governments provide Thriving Kids funding to regional commissioners, who then work with local communities to co-design and commission services and programs using a coordinated, integrated approach. Regional commissioners are able to consider both the local context and the broader ecosystem, and are well-placed to support service integration and wholistic, community-led responses to complex issues. This approach enables place-based approaches to be delivered at scale: rather than the government having to hold individual agreements with hundreds of service providers across the nation, governments can instead focus on creating the broader policy and funding environment that will support community-led responses.

There are several existing organisations who could take on the role of commissioner, with many already using this model to design and deliver local services. This could include Primary Health Networks (PHNs), local councils or existing community-led organisations such as Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs). The implementation pathway should have flexibility to respond to local needs and contexts.

Allocating a portion of Thriving Kids funding to regional commissioners to support community engagement and co-design will help to ensure that children and their families have access to services that match their needs while also supporting the goal of building on existing services rather than adding new layers.

It is imperative that a regional commissioning approach be supported with long-term, stable funding, with governments ready to fund programs and initiatives identified by communities. Short-term, insecure funding cycles are one of the key barriers to enabling place-based change, and Thriving Kids is an opportunity to change this pattern. Funding needs to be set aside for both program design and delivery, with sufficient resources and capacity building put in place to ensure communities can participate in a meaningful way in co-designing the services they need. Without a long-term funding commitment, trust falls, organisations spend more time applying for grants than doing the work, and competition and siloing continues. If we want to see real benefits for children and families, funding commitments need to take a long-term approach that provides stability and allows for services to mature.

Given the short timeframe to implement Thriving Kids, implementation may need to take an iterative approach that allows for timely delivery of services across Australia, while also having the flexibility to adapt to the needs of each community and the capacity to develop over time. This recognises that program delivery will not be perfect from day one but with the right policy and funding environment, Thriving Kids can evolve over time to effectively meet community needs.

For example, the initial focus could be on setting the right funding and policy conditions for program delivery and supporting children and families through the transition. Governments select and enter into funding agreements with regional commissioners, initial community engagement on services is done where possible, and service delivery commences.

In the next phase of delivery, regional commissioners would focus on co-designing services and building shared decision-making models, with program delivery evolving over time. While some communities may be ready to engage in co-design for services from 1 July 2026, other communities may need more traditional program models alongside capacity building, with the aim of transitioning to co-design and greater community control. PLACE Australia will also support this community capacity building, by identifying key skills required for place-based work and developing a Workforce strategy to be released in June 2026. This flexibility to adapt and grow over time is a key benefit of regional commissioning and can help mitigate implementation and delivery risks associated with new programs. This is particularly important for Thriving Kids given its role in the broader transformation of Australia’s service system for children with disabilities.

COLLABORATIVE COMMISSIONING IN PRACTICE: BENEFITS

PHNs use a collaborative commissioning model to design and deliver primary and mental health services. Some benefits of this approach include:

PHNs bring expertise in co-design and commissioning, navigating complex systems, supporting capability development, managing government funding, reporting against a national performance framework and meeting tight timeframes.
PHNs generally have a high degree of trust across institutions and communities, in part due to their independent governance.
PHNs are experienced at pooling funding from multiple governments, portfolios and programs, with many PHNs commissioning services with funding from state governments already.
PHNs provide the infrastructure and expertise to work alongside existing initiatives and universal services to support children and their families while working effectively with government.
PHNs have experience working with communities to deliver place-based approaches to complex challenges.

CASE STUDY: COLLABORATIVE COMMISSIONING WORKING WITH COMMUNITY TO DELIVER INTEGRATED SERVICES

Currently, through the Logan First 2,000 Days model, Brisbane South PHN leads the Thriving and On Track (TOTs) initiative and is co-leading the implementation and integration of the Logan First 2,000 Days model.

With data showing a significant number of children in Logan presenting to school with developmental delay, the need for early intervention services across the community is great. Often the demand for services far exceeds the capacity of service provision, with many families waiting for extensive periods to access public early intervention supports and diagnostic assessment.

Through community conversations, the Logan community has specifically asked for support to ensure their children meet developmental milestones. The TOTs initiative aims to improve the wellbeing of children in their early years of life through timely identification of developmental concerns and support to access primary health and early intervention systems. TOTs meets the objectives of the Foundational Supports as it provides:

Early intervention services in a universal, accessible and trusted environment to children and families.
Diverts children with developmental delay away from the NDIS through initial screening and engagement of allied health supports to support short-term intervention and capability-building in families.
Supports children and their families who require further supports into the child health system and through the NDIS if required.

TOTs is delivered in Early Childhood Education Centres (ECECs) and Community Hubs across Logan and Inala and builds the capacity of families and early childhood educators to support children’s development.

In FY24, TOTs delivered the following:

Over 550 early childhood educators were trained to have supportive conversations about development with their families.
200 children accessed a secondary developmental screening by a Child Health Nurse in their ECEC post a discussion with families about their child’s development.
96 children and their families were supported to access individual allied health support in community hubs across Logan.
Allied health capacity building support to 300 educators across 45 ECECs.

TOTs has been evaluated as a successful program in terms of diverting children from the NDIS system, providing improved access points for children and their families to obtain support early and improved capability of educators to identify developmental concerns and seek support.

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BRINGING THRIVING KIDS TO LIFE: A STORY FROM ONE PLACE

To understand how a place-based approach to delivering Thriving Kids could work in practice, let’s consider Bottlebrush Hill, a fictional regional town. It has pockets of deep disadvantage, a large First Nations population, and a growing number of young families. The town is home to several early education providers and health services, but participation rates are low and outcomes for children entering school are well below the state average. Many children with developmental delay and/or autism do not have their needs identified or supported.

PHASE 1: SETTING THE CONDITIONS (FIRST 12 MONTHS)

The Commonwealth and state governments provide a regional commissioning body with funding to deliver Thriving Kids, and the body allocates specific funding to develop a place-based approach for Bottlebrush Hill. The regional commissioner has experience with collaborative commissioning and already has a relationship with the Bottlebrush Hill community from service coordination work.

The regional commissioner brings together community representatives and existing service providers to discuss opportunities to support children experiencing development delays and autism and their families in Bottlebrush Hill. In the short-term, they identify that embedding workers from local health services into early education settings and primary schools will provide immediate support to families who need it. This is put in place from 1 July 2026, and leads to:

Better identification of children with developmental delays, and more supportive conversations with families based on the trust they have with local education and health services.
More health supports offered in educational settings, reducing the need for families to take children out of school for appointments.
Better referrals to further health services and assessments from educational settings.

Rather than spending their time selecting and negotiating with hundreds of providers, governments are able to focus on ensuring the broader funding and policy landscape is able to support the evolution of Thriving Kids to a community-led approach over time.

PHASE 2: EVOLVING TO MEET COMMUNITY NEEDS (FROM YEAR 2 OF DELIVERY)

There is also an acknowledgement that much more can be done, especially for many Bottlebrush Hill families who are not engaged with services. The regional commissioner works with the Bottlebrush Hill community to build their capability to identify issues and solutions, including hearing from diverse voices across the community.

They then take the time to work with community and providers to co-design a more mature approach, including commissioning new services. This approach is put in place from 1 July 2027, and includes:

An outreach approach for families not engaging with services, to identify barriers and build trust.
Cultural programs developed with the local community to make educational and health settings welcoming for all.
Partnering with Bottlebrush Hill cultural organisations - including local Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, libraries and volunteer groups - to provide culturally appropriate and effective information to parents.
A community transport system for isolated families, coordinated by a provider and run by local volunteers.
Collaborative models of care between health, education and community providers that go beyond colocation and empowers families to be involved in how services work together to support children.

As a result, more families in Bottlebrush Hill are supported to help their children connect with the services they need and to thrive. By building on trusted relationships across the community, providers are able to be more effective and achieve better outcomes.

The regional commissioner continues to work with communities and providers to listen to experiences, review the data, and adapt service delivery. They also report on outcomes and ensure accountability for funding to Commonwealth and state governments.

References

Our Place, 2025. Embedding Health Support into Playgroup: Lessons from Doveton College. Embedding Health Support into Playgroup: Lessons from Doveton College - Our Place
Commonwealth of Australia (Department of Social Services), 2024, Australian Government, The Early Years Strategy 2024-2034, dss.gov.au/early-years-strategy/resource/early-years-strategy-2024-2034
Department of Social Services, 2025. Foundational Supports: What we Heard Webinar Transcript. https://engage.dss.gov.au/foundational-supports/
Geatches, L., Preston, C., and Putnis, A. for Equity Economics and Development Partners, 2023, Where are we? Place-based approaches to tackling community challenges in Australia, Where are we? Place-based approaches to tackling community challenges in Australia; and https://www.byfive.com.au/whats-happening/significant-improvement-in-aedc-results-for-our-region
Department of Social Services, 2025, Supporting childhood development. Supporting childhood development | Department of Social Services
Department of Social Services, 2024. Families and Children Activity: Review of Children, Youth and Parenting Programs Evidence Paper. [URL truncated in source]