Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative – NDIS Independent Advisory Council Submission

The contents of this document are OFFICIAL.

September 2025

The Independent Advisory Council represents the participant voice in the NDIS and provides advice to the NDIA Board.

Introduction

This submission, prepared by the Independent Advisory Council (IAC) to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), responds directly to the Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative, terms of reference questions.

All IAC advice has a basis in human rights and there is an expectation that the Thriving Kids initiative should align to the obligations under human rights instruments Australia is signatory to, in particular the UN Convention on the Rights or People with Disability (UNCPRD).

For a concept like Thriving Kids to be effective, the IAC wishes to highlight the importance of an integrated system. This requires funding for the workforce and

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mechanisms that hold the parts of the system together to allow for smooth transition points for families and children. Specifically, this includes funding for key workers to support families across systems, linkage services such as navigators that connect families to appropriate supports within their communities and peer workers who build family capacity through shared lived experience. This means states, territories, and the Commonwealth must jointly commit to funding these essential workforce roles and the mechanisms that enable them to provide the ‘glue’ between different parts of the system. The IAC also notes that best practice support is tiered, with the right level of support being available where and when families need that support, delivered by appropriately skilled workers using family-centred and strength-based approaches.

Please note the IAC uses a contemporary notion of family, i.e. family is an interdependent group of people who are bound together over time by ties of mutual consent, birth and/or adoption or placement (including alternate families for children with disability in out of home care).

The goal of Thriving Kids should be grounded in a family-centred approach, characterised by provider practice that conveys dignity and respect to families, where information is exchanged so that informed decisions can be made. This collaborative family-provider partnership is a key element of family-centred practice that includes an emphasis on the child and families’ strengths rather than deficits. This program should be genuinely inclusive offered though mainstream and natural settings within community. Families must be seen as equal partners with interventions individualised, flexible and responsive to the needs of the child within the family context. This is particularly important when partnering with First Nations, culturally diverse and LGBTIQASB+ families. Intervention should focus on strengthening and supporting the whole family functioning, with families as the ultimate decision-makers.

The information provided in this submission is consistent with research cited in past advice provided by the IAC on early childhood intervention (ECI) and supporting families and carers. Specifically, the following published formal advice: Promoting

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best practice in ECI in the NDIS (March 2020) and Support for families and carers (November 2020).

The IAC would also like the Inquiry Committee to consider how this announcement has led to confusion and distress for many families. Community education and communications should be provided to explain the new levels of support for children with developmental delay and autism. Within this context, NDIS eligibility for children must be made clearer, explaining in plain English the criteria for when children will continue to have access to NDIS supports.

The IAC expects further development of Thriving Kids to include engagement with families and peer support organisations at state, territory and Commonwealth levels to ensure the design meets the needs of those using and impacted by the system.

Terms of reference questions

1. Examine evidence-based information and resources that could assist parents in identifying if their child has mild to moderate developmental delay and supporting parents in providing support to these children.

The IAC emphasises that family-centred, strengths-based, capacity-building approaches are the cornerstone of effective early childhood intervention (ECI). Evidence-based best practice elements include:

• Accessible information and resources are available through mainstream services such as child and maternal health clinics and schools. These provide information on developmental milestones and what to expect, as well as linkages to where to get support.
• Tools to help identify mild to moderate developmental delay with clear information to support family decision-making on when professional support is needed and what families can provide.

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• Capacity building for families and caregivers occurs in their natural environment within the family routine at a pace the family can participate in.
• Peer support networks have been reported as highly effective. Parents can learn from other parents through structured strengths-based programs that build practical knowledge and pathways to action. Programs like Now and Next and parent-to-parent workshops can assist with community-based and culturally appropriate pathways.
• The development of community-based peer support networks that embed the role of peer workers in supporting the best outcomes. This initiative should be structured with training and development for community peer workers.

2. Examine the effectiveness of current (and previous) programs and initiatives that identify children with developmental 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.

The IAC has recommended that ECI programs and initiatives should occur in natural settings to support inclusion and reduce over-medicalising children. Recommendations include:

• Contemporary ECI approaches that use natural environments such as the home, child and maternal health settings, childcare, early childhood education, playgroups and school rather than clinic-based services.
• Engage in a family-centred approach to build the capacity of the child, family, and caregivers rather than relying on specialist intervention.
• A focus on participation and inclusion alongside skill development.
• Engaging multidisciplinary teams with a key worker model.

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3. Identify equity and intersectional issues, in particular, children who identify as First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse.

The IAC identifies ‘Culturally Responsive Practice’ as best practice in ECI, this means:

• Creating welcoming and culturally inclusive environments where all families are encouraged to participate.
• Practitioners should be knowledgeable and respectful of diversity.
• Providing services and supports in flexible ways responsive to each family’s cultural, ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic characteristics.
• Cultural safety practice viewed as a process and not an endpoint.

The IAC recommends:

• ECI should be embedded in local communities and develop genuine community connections.
• Services should be designed with and by communities.
• Key worker support and outreach for vulnerable and disadvantaged families.
• Interpreters to facilitate meaningful engagement between families and ECI providers.
• Services should connect families to their cultural communities, not just mainstream services.
• Information and additional support are needed for families that are not computer literate and do not speak English as a first language.

Culturally appropriate service delivery requires:

• Services are delivered in culturally sensitive ways that respect family values, beliefs, and practices.
• Recognition that families may have different views about disability, child rearing and what constitutes support or intervention.
• Family-centred approaches that allow families to define their own priorities rather than imposing Western models.

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• Understanding that extended family structures and community relationships may differ from mainstream assumptions.

For First Nations communities, the Thriving Kids initiative must be delivered in partnership with First Nations people and communities. Embedded in cultural safety and draw on community strengths with local mainstream services, First Nations workers and peer-support to develop trust, continuity and culturally grounded pathways for families.

Within LGBTIQASB+ communities ECI must provide safe, affirming environments for children and families, with providers and workforce trained in inclusive practice that recognises diverse family structures and identities.

4. Identify gaps in workforce support and training required to deliver Thriving Kids.

The IAC has reported an over-reliance on allied health and an underutilisation of diverse roles in natural settings. The IAC recommends a broadening of the ECI workforce through the utilisation of:

• Early childhood educators as the primary workforce group that works with young children and their families. They already play an essential role in supporting young children with delays and disabilities in mainstream early childhood settings through supporting their inclusion and participation. The early childhood sector’s experience and commitment is exemplified in their joint position statement with Early Childhood Intervention Australia on the Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Education and Care (2012). Educators have also played a role in early childhood intervention systems across the country to varying degrees, working within teams to provide a holistic approach to child development and family support.
• Early childhood special educators are teachers with postgraduate qualifications or experience working with young children. Their role is to adapt the environment and resources to support learning and development and the transition to primary school.

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• Developmental Educators are skilled multidisciplinary disability specialists with expertise in fostering the skills, independence, and quality of life of individuals with developmental disabilities. They use a practical approach to work holistically across the lifespan to address issues that may affect the function, independence, and social inclusion of individuals with disabilities, their families, and carers.
• Peer workers could assist in addressing workforce shortages. When trained and supported, their lived experience offers valuable insights into building families’ capacity. Peer workers can be used to lead group programs, work on an individual basis with families to build their capacity, and act as therapy assistants. Peer workers enable providers to deliver supports and services complementary to those offered by other professionals, which may previously have been unavailable.
• Therapy assistants expand the reach of therapists, particularly into rural and remote communities, and enhance service access for children and their families. Therapy assistants could also provide focused developmental support for children in natural settings where intensity and frequency of support are needed to help fulfil goals under the supervision of therapists.
• Social Workers have an important role within the ECI workforce, providing linkages to services, building family capacity and supporting inclusion through a family led approach. They can partner with families to navigate complex systems, address barriers, and strengthen connection to services. By focusing on the whole of family context, social workers can ensure that early intervention is not only clinically effective but also culturally safe, inclusive and responsive to family’s needs.

The IAC recommends that all ECI workers engage in:

• Family-centred practice not just a child-focused intervention
• Strengths-based approaches rather than deficit models
• Coaching skills to build parent and carer capacity
• Natural environment intervention strategies
• Cultural safety practice as an ongoing process, not an endpoint

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• Collaborative teamwork approaches and multidisciplinary teams

5. Draw on domestic and international policy experience and best practice.

The IAC compared Australian ECI practice with practices in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Scotland.

The IAC found shared international principles in:

• multidisciplinary teams as essential
• Evidence-based interventions required
• skilled professionals training parents and carers rather than direct delivery
• a focus on natural settings with support to make them effective
• peer training as interventions

The key differences found that Australia tended towards a transition to mainstream after “getting the child ready,” with professional intervention as the primary mechanism. International guidance emphasised that professionals should guide the parents and carers in a natural setting from the beginning, support inclusion simultaneously with skill development, and build sustainable family capacity as the intervention.

6. Identify mechanisms to allow a seamless transition through mainstream systems for all children with mild to moderate support needs.

The IAC identified these mechanisms in previous exploration:

• ECI pathways should provide tiered support, including:
  • Information and connection for all families with questions or concerns about their child’s development.
  • Short-term early intervention in natural mainstream environments (day care, preschool).
  • Longer-term support only for those who require it, with consideration for NDIS pathways.

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• Standardised referral and handover protocols between child and maternal health services, general practitioners, allied health and school systems with shared outcome goals and review points to support transition without gaps.
• Engaging multidisciplinary teams with a key worker model to support transitions through systems.
• Ensure planning is family-centred, strengths-based, builds the family’s capacity, is facilitated by a person trusted by the family and knowledgeable about the system, and takes place at the family’s pace.
• Ensure strong transition planning for children going to school.
• Strengthen the emphasis on participation and inclusion by working to ensure ECI practice is better aligned with the National Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) (COAG, 2009), based on the belief that children’s lives are characterised by belonging, being and becoming.
• The outcomes-framework should be consistent across all ECI, Thriving Kids and NDIS ECI supports and services. With a focus on building functional skills that enable children to participate more fully in everyday life. This means supporting families to set and work towards goals that matter to them, using functional, activity focused approaches that consider the child, the family, the task, and their environment. Increased inclusion and participation is both an outcome in itself and a pathway to a broader social, learning and developmental gains.

Conclusion

The advice provided in previous papers by the IAC to the NDIA Board has been focused on the ECI pathway of the NDIS. The same principles and mechanisms apply for Thriving Kids with a strong focus on integrated systems and strengths-based approaches that build on the capacity of families and communities.

Engagement through consultation and co-design, where possible, is essential for any changes in the services and supports for families and children. This change should

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not be done quickly or without good mechanisms and commitment for a smooth transition and integration between different systems and levels of government.

The IAC strongly supports the Thriving Kids initiative being underpinned by the principle of self-determination, with a focus on ensuring that families and children are supported holistically to learn, develop and grow while maintaining choice and control.

Communicating ongoing engagement in ways that do not cause further distress is vital. It’s also important to give families access to information and knowledge about the choices and options available to them. This includes being clear about when children aged 8 and under will be eligible for NDIS and what families can access if they are not on NDIS.

For further information all IAC advice is published on the IAC website.

Independent Advisory Council

Independent Advisory Council

advisoryconcil@ndis.gov.au

National Relay Service: relayservice.gov.au

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