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Thriving Kids: An opportunity for best practice to become standard practice for children with developmental concerns and their families in Australia
Submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative
House Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability
3 October 2025
The University of Melbourne
Submission authors
This submission has been prepared by the Consortium commissioned by the Department of Social Services to develop a National Best Practice Framework for Early Childhood Intervention (the Framework).
The Best Practice in Early Childhood Intervention Consortium is led by the University of Melbourne including
- Professor Christine Imms, Director of Healthy Trajectories Child and Youth Disability Research Hub
- Professors Bruce Bonyhady and Kirsten Deane, Director and Deputy Director of the Melbourne Disability Institute (MDI)
- Associate Professor Anita D’Aprano, Director of STRONG Kids STRONG Future,
working in partnership with
- Dr Tim Moore, Senior Researcher at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI)
- Ms Denise Luscombe, Chair, Professionals and Researchers in Early Childhood Intervention (PRECI)
- Ms Gretchen Young *, Executive Director of Programs, SNAICC — National Voice for our Children,
- Ms Skye Kakoschke-Moore *, CEO, Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA)
- Ms Karen Dimmock, CEO of ACD — Advocating for children with disability.
- Ms Gretchen Young and Ms Skye Kakoschke-Moore make this submission in their capacity as members of the Best Practice in Early Childhood Intervention Consortium and are also members of the Thriving Kids Advisory Group.
Suggested citation
Imms, C., Bonyhady, B., Moore, T., D’Aprano A., Young, G., Kakoscke-Moore, S., Deane, K., Luscombe, D. & Dimmock, K. (2025). Thriving Kids: An opportunity for best practice to become standard practice for children with developmental concerns and their families in Australia. Best Practice in Early Childhood Intervention Consortium.
Contact
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Thriving Kids: An opportunity for best practice to become standard practice for children with developmental concerns and their families in Australia
Building the capabilities of parents, carers and families to provide children with the experiences and opportunities they need to develop the functional capacities to meaningfully participate in family, community, and early childhood and school settings.
Summary
This submission recommends to the Parliamentary Inquiry that the new National Best Practice Framework for Early Childhood Intervention (the Framework) and related products are used as the foundational resource for the development of Thriving Kids.
The review of best practice in early childhood intervention (ECI) and development of the Framework was commissioned by the Department of Social Services (DSS) in 2024, delivered in May 2025 and approved for publication on the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing website in September 2025. The Framework was developed as part of Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031 (Targeted Action Plan 2.4) and so is designed to address the needs of ALL children with developmental concerns, delay or disability. It also fulfils recommendations of the Independent Review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS, 2023).
The Framework describes aims, outcomes, principles, and practices for ECI practitioners and others who are involved with young children with developmental concerns, delay or disability and their families. This includes services funded by the NDIS, foundational supports recommended by the NDIS Review — now Thriving Kids — and mainstream services. The Framework is therefore designed to ensure that mainstream services become universal, allowing ALL children to thrive.
The Framework is consistent, and aligned, with other national frameworks and strategies, such as the Early Years Strategy and the Early Years Learning Framework. It updates the ECI research base and expands upon previous best practice advice, providing practical guidance to ECI practitioners, families, policy makers and others.
The development of the Framework was informed by up-to-date reviews of the evidence as well as by extensive consultations with ECI practitioners; parents, carers and families; young people; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations and families; other stakeholders, including Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services, practitioners’ professional organisations and ECI referrers; and researchers.
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What the Framework provides
The Framework provides guidance for all those working with or raising children about what works best to support children aged up to 9 years of age with developmental concerns, delay or disability so that they can thrive: Thriving Kids is the goal.
Best practice in ECI means that children with developmental concerns, delay or disability are supported as early in life as possible, leading to improvements in children’s development and wellbeing, now and into the future. Every child and family who needs ECI has the right to receive supports that meet the standards of best practice.
The principles and practices needed for young children with developmental concerns, delay or disability are clearly described in the National Best Practice Framework for Early Childhood Intervention.
We know that best practice is grounded in universal principles (upholding children’s rights, building trusted relationships, ecologically based and strengths-based approaches). Additionally, specific practices capture the essence of quality support and are relevant to all supports and services. These include therapies and supports that are child and family centred; culturally safe and diversity affirming; are inclusive and occur in everyday settings; prioritise connection and collaboration; and are informed by outcomes and evidence.
The Framework was developed through a rigorous and comprehensive research collaboration which included consultation with key stakeholders and end-users: that is, young people with disability, their parents, carers and families, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and community-controlled organisations, and ECI service providers and researchers.
Through our involvement in developing the Framework, we know:
- The principles that underlie best practice in ECI
- The specific practices that are part of “best practice” in ECI
- How to identify when ECI meets the standards of best practice
- How to identify when ECI falls short or is contrary to best practice
- The outcomes that we can expect when best practice happens
What is needed now
The work of understanding, defining and explaining best practice has been completed through the development of the Framework.
Now we need to:
- Support organisations, service providers, families, and communities to recognise and implement best practice
- Ensure that all children and families can receive ECI that meets the standards of the Framework
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- Understand how well the principles and practices of the Framework are being implemented in Australia
The National Best Practice Framework for Early Childhood Intervention is not a ‘static document’ — it requires active implementation.
To ensure that use of the Framework is genuine (extends beyond a “tick the box” exercise), relevant and feasible in different contexts (e.g. diverse types of communities, locations and organisations) and leads to measurable outcomes for children and families we need to move the Framework into an implementation phase.
We require a National Best Practice in ECI Technical Centre. This implementation-focused, evidence-based Technical Centre would take the next steps needed to ensure that children, families, ECI and early childhood education and care organisations, and the wider community benefit from best practice in ECI, and that what is identified as Best Practice is regularly updated as new evidence becomes available.
Where change is needed
Change is needed at all levels — individual practice, organisational practice, service design and delivery, as well as regulation and policy change. All are essential and urgent. Implementing The Thriving Kids initiative based on the Framework will therefore involve:
- Understanding and committing to the delivery of family-centred, culturally safe services by connected, collaborating transdisciplinary ECI teams
- Delivering ECI services and supports in everyday settings rather than clinical settings, to the maximum extent possible
- Adopting a mindset of promoting children’s optimal development and identity, rather than trying to fix or cure the child’s ‘disability’
- Respecting diversity in the way that children function and develop, and adapting environments to maximise their ability to participate — diversity takes many forms, including neurodiversity, cultural diversity and gender diversity
- Ensuring supports and services are designed and delivered to achieve the primary aim of ECI — which is to build the capabilities of parents, carers and families to provide children with the experiences and opportunities they need to develop the functional capacities to meaningfully participate in family, community, and early childhood and school settings
- Ensuring culturally safe services to address Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families’ fear that engaging with ECI practitioners will lead to unwarranted child protection notifications
- Making sure that policy and market settings, regulation and resourcing decisions across the early intervention system support best practice — this includes universal services, Thriving Kids, and services funded through the NDIS.
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Implementing reform
Through the work of developing the Framework, the Consortium have identified six actions needed to ensure the widespread understanding, adoption and effective implementation of the Framework:
- Funding and service systems that promote application of the Framework, and that drive service integration and availability of holistic support for families and children
In reconfiguring the funding and planning processes, key considerations are:
- Strengthening market settings guidance/regulations and building the understanding of best practice in ECI by policy makers as well as system stewards and regulators
- Funding key aspects of the Framework, such as delivering services in everyday settings, and supporting families as well as children
- Providing clear line of sight to identify quickly where processes might inadvertently drive against best practice
- Being equitable — accessible to all, and not a lottery or dependent on individual family resources
In redesigning the service system, key considerations include:
- Ensuring that the universal service system is funded, designed and delivered so as to enable participation and inclusion, and that Thriving Kids and NDIS services are embedded within them
- Ensuring that children and families receiving Thriving Kids and NDIS services continue to have access to universal and other services
- Ensuring that developmental concerns, delay and disability are identified early and that support is provided promptly, and is tailored for each child and family and their community context
- Ensuring that everyone has equitable, timely access to the universal, foundational — including Thriving Kids - and NDIS supports they need, regardless of their circumstances or where they live.
- A monitoring / quality assurance system and mandatory regulatory standards for ECI providers and professionals
In designing an effective quality assurance system, key considerations include:
- Reviewing standards and establishing a quality assurance and standards system to ‘monitor and respond’ — this requires identification of key indicators and metrics that drive service improvements and a regulator with the necessary knowledge of ECI and resources both to monitor and respond
- Identifying what accreditation standards are needed — identify what existing accreditation standards can be strengthened and/or clearly linked to the Framework, and what standards need to be added
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- Enhancing and strengthening the regulatory framework to ensure it is fit for purpose and proportional
- Building national data collection and tracking to ensure continuous evaluation and improvements based on evidence — including evidence from families and young children
- Ensuring appropriate preservice and ongoing professional training in application of the practice framework — universities that train potential ECI practitioners, and others working in the early childhood sector, need to base courses on the Framework to ensure that new practitioners start with a good grasp of best practice
- Ongoing professional development in key aspects of the Framework will also be needed — as will further development of resources for implementation.
- A process for updating evidence regarding ECI practices, for updating regulatory standards, developing further resources and providing education and information to the field
To ensure that the Framework is functioning as intended and remains up to date, a process needs to be developed, or organisations commissioned, to test implementation outcomes, keep abreast of the research, develop appropriate resources, and provide education and information for the ECI sector.
Key considerations include:
- Developing a learning system responsive to new evidence arising from both implementation and primary research
- Ongoing evidence reviews with findings embedded in practice guides and Framework information, education and training
- Provision of practical support for practitioners, families and others in implementing the Framework — this might include communities of practice, assistance and / or advice
- Building new evidence where gaps are known to exist.
- Building knowledge and skills in best practice across the community
In building knowledge and skills, key considerations are:
- Raising awareness and building knowledge and skills in families raising children with developmental concerns, delay or disability about what best practice in ECI service looks like and providing opportunities for families to learn about what they should expect from practitioners, and what best practice means for them
- Providing independent and trusted sources of information about evidence and services; establishing a reliable system of service navigation support; and facilitating peer-to-peer connection
- Ensuring that all ECI practitioners and services are aware of, understand, and are supported to adopt the Framework
- Enhancing the capacity of ECEC and other services supporting children with developmental concerns, delay or disability and their families
- Ensuring knowledge across federal and state government departments and programs about the Framework to ensure that practices are aligned
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- Promoting an understanding of the Framework principles and practices in local government services and the wider community to help build more inclusive community environments for children and families.
- Organisational and leadership support in applying the Framework
To support organisational change and develop leadership, consideration should be given to:
- Creating resources to assist ECI and other organisations and their leaders to support the adoption of the Framework
- Providing guidance on how to translate the Framework into organisational structures, processes and practices to support practitioners and services to deliver best practice
- Providing guidance in staff quality assurance processes as well as appropriate business models that will support best practice
- Creating resources to provide leaders and organisations with guidance regarding developing an understanding, and supporting changing, of the ‘where and how’ of providing ECI expertise across a distributed system that meets children and families where they live, learn and play
- Providing resources for those working in the universal system so that understanding is shared and desired outcomes supported.
- Coordinate the state and federal approaches to design and test system changes relevant to the early childhood period
In seeking to improve the early years ecosystem, key considerations include:
- Building and strengthening a system of tiered supports
- Ensuring smooth transition into, out of, and between services and systems to create a continuum of supports based on needs
- Sustaining the co-designed approach to learning and testing approaches to best practice
- Ensuring universal services are accessible, inclusive and meet the diverse needs of children and families.
Implementing the recommendations
A focused, collaborative and sustained effort is required to build understanding, and support adoption and implementation of the Framework across the ECI sector, with families and with the broader community. This is especially needed because the NDIS over the past 12 years has driven and embedded a clinical model of ECI rather than best practice. These efforts need to be supported by policy settings and resourcing that drives, builds and then reinforces very significant changes. We owe this to the future wellbeing and success of Australia’s children.
Some of this work (e.g., recommendations 1, 2 and 6) needs to be led by government. Other recommendations (e.g., 3, 4 and 5) require the involvement of a wide range of stakeholders and are best undertaken by governments in partnership and co-designed with these stakeholders. In Thriving Kids, key stakeholders are families, young people with developmental concerns, delay or disability,
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities, and practitioners and researchers in ECI. All are essential for the needed changes to occur.
Response to the Terms of Reference of the inquiry
In response to the terms of reference of the inquiry, we would highlight three key issues.
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There is not enough in the terms about inter-sectoral connections. Families raising children with developmental concerns, delay or disability need to engage with health, education and disability sectors routinely. The lack of connectivity leads to inequitable access and poorer outcomes from a child and family perspective. It also encourages shifting of responsibilities and costs for supporting children and families across sectors. These key sectors need to work together.
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The terms ‘mild to moderate’ are problematic. We would suggest ‘all children with developmental concerns, delay or disability’ — with a focus on functioning in everyday settings is needed. There is rarely agreement about what ‘mild’ or ‘moderate’ mean, children have varying developmental profiles across domains, and families find the descriptors dismissive of their concerns and challenges. Children and families have varying levels of need for support — and are best supported in a system that provides a continuum of support in everyday settings. Some children will have access to the NDIS, but the role of NDIS supports — as well as that of Thriving Kids — should be to work in everyday settings, with families and providers, to make settings inclusive and supportive of children’s functioning, participation and wellbeing.
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The crucial importance of placing ‘family’ at the centre of supports for any child’s development. This requires more than providing information. As defined in the Framework, the aim of ECI services is:
To promote the capabilities of parents, carers, families, communities and service providers to provide children with developmental concerns, delay or disability with the experiences and opportunities to build their capabilities, agency and meaningful participation in home, community, ECEC and school settings.
You can download the Framework and all the accompanying resources in two places - on the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing website as well our Healthy Trajectories ECI Framework project site.
- The Australian Government’s Department of Health, Disability, and Ageing website
- The Healthy Trajectories Child and Youth Disability Research Hub website
A webinar to explain the Framework’s development, content and supporting tools and resources will be held on 16^th^ October 2025. Please register your interest to be kept up to date.
National Best Practice Framework for Early Childhood Intervention
All children with developmental concerns, delay or disability and their families thrive in their early years
Aims and outcomes for children, families, communities and services
Principles and Practices
An integrated system providing a continuum of support for children and families
- Universal Supports
- Foundational Supports
- National Disability Insurance Scheme
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