Submission to:

Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative

Via email

3 October 2025

The Australian Music Therapy Association (AMTA) welcomes the opportunity to provide our input to the Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative. AMTA is a government-recognised peak body advocating for access to music therapy and representing over 900 registered music therapy professionals across Australia.

AMTA has long been engaged in consultations about services and supports for children and their families, and we welcome the opportunity to be involved in this process. We look forward to continuing this work via the reforming structures and programs to support children with developmental delay, autism, and disabilities.

Music therapy is an allied health profession where registered music therapists (RMTs) use evidence-based interventions to improve health, functioning, wellbeing and quality of life across mental, physical, cognitive, communication and social domains.

Music Therapy research prominently features work with children and young people with both individual and group work represented. Improvements are evidenced in interpersonal skills (32 citations) including, regulation (emotional, arousal, and sensory-motor); social communication and interactive play skills. Cognitive improvements (23 citations) and improvements in communication related to both non-verbal and verbal communication (21 citations).

About registered music therapists (RMTs)

Registered Music Therapists (RMTs) support Australians of all ages and abilities to improve their lives and achieve therapeutic goals. Registered music therapists (RMTs) are university-qualified and AMTA-certified professionals with specialist expertise in the therapeutic use of music to impact the brain, mind and the body. AMTA’s RMTs are the only professionals in Australia who are qualified, regulated and certified to deliver music therapy.

AMTA is the only government recognised national certifying body for music therapy professionals. AMTA is a member of Allied Health Professions Australia and the National Association for Self Regulating Health Professions (NASRHP). AMTA has clearly defined membership criteria, national professional standards and assessment processes and a clearly defined scope of practice. Music therapists registered with AMTA are required to comply with strict regulatory standards established by NASRHP to ensure consumer safety. NASRHP standards align closely with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) regulatory standards, ensuring high standards of professional competency, ethical practice, and ongoing professional development across self-regulating allied health disciplines. Both frameworks require practitioners to meet rigorous entry-level education, adhere to professional codes of conduct, and engage in continuing professional education to maintain their credentials. However, AHPRA’s regulatory model is designed to minimise risk to the public, and this informs its decision on which health disciplines require statutory regulation. NASRHP provides robust self-regulation for disciplines where risk is effectively managed through professional governance and industry standards.

For more information, visit: www.austmta.org.au

AMTA recommendations

AMTA together with our allied health colleagues, should be engaged in the design and delivery of the Thriving Kids initiative.
All children and their families/caregivers should have access to the necessary volume and intensity of allied health supports to support their development, health and wellbeing. Due to the outcomes music therapy delivers for children with early developmental needs, and for children with autism, Thriving Kids should ensure access to music therapy.
Music therapy should be embedded in mainstream early childhood and school settings nationally. Music therapy in this setting would provide consistent access to staff and child-focused capacity building supports, activity and environmental adaptation advice, and provide therapeutic interventions supporting educational outcomes. Music therapy is already represented in two state-funded early childhood programs (VIC and SA), and as a user-pays arrangement in private practice as well as via the NDIS.
Allied health supports must be provided on the basis of need and value. Despite strong evidence that RMTs achieve significant outcomes in childhood development, music therapy remains excluded from the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS). To address this gap, AMTA strongly recommends that new Thriving Kids MBS items include music therapy delivered by RMTs. This will ensure that children and families can access a therapy that consistently delivers measurable outcomes, impact and value. . Thriving Kids modelling should include the work progressed through PRECIS’ Best practice framework for early childhood intervention process.
Thriving Kids must be culturally safe and inclusive and ensure appropriate and accessible services for First Nations children and families and culturally and linguistically diverse families.

Identifying a mild to moderate development delay

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.

Obtaining accurate and consistent information and advice can be particularly difficult for people with disability. AMTA members often experience having to counter misinformation, support participants to access required supports and services and strongly advocate on behalf of their clients to obtain access to appropriate services. The system of funded supports for children with disability , predominantly offered through the NDIS, is complex. Current systems are associated with lengthy access delays (and in some cases roadblocks) and difficult for people with disability to navigate.

AMTA notes the central role that allied health professionals, including RMTs, perform in providing information and support to parents, families and children about developmental delay. RMTs provide information and direct support to families, as well as working within the relevant sector – health, education, community – to strengthen knowledge, skills, and capability to co-create supportive environments for children’s development and learning. Critically, RMTs support children’s development in therapeutic settings and in their natural learning and home environments, collaborating closely with families, educators and other key supports.

Information available to people with disability should include:

clear, accessible, meaningful and consistent information that is co-designed with people with disability, provided in a variety of formats
transparent and accessible explanations of available choices. Often people with disability and their families are expected to make choices without fully understanding all the available options
locally relevant choices and support options
information and peer support provided by people with lived experience.

Ensuring information is accessible must be a high priority. The information must be culturally sensitive, neurodiverse affirming, trauma-informed, specific to needs of First Nations people, and translated into community languages. It must also be accessible for people with communication support needs. Information should be easily accessed by people with disability and their early contacts with the community, such as maternal, child and family nurses, general practitioners, early childhood settings, hospitals etc.

Families continue to report significant delays particularly in accessing diagnostic services. Recent reports noted it took families up to 2 years to obtain an autism diagnosis for their child. These diagnostic delays can also result in delayed access to appropriate and time-sensitive therapy services. Access delays impact the supports children can receive at home and in their various early childhood and learning environments, and ultimately impact on child developmental outcomes, and family relationships and wellbeing. AMTA asserts that children with developmental needs should not require a formal disability diagnosis to receive services as diagnostic delays can act as service access blocks.

Delays in appropriate supports can also lead to the implementation of inappropriate, unsafe and harmful practices, including some ‘behavioural interventions’ and restrictive practices. Access to appropriate supports and therapies, such as music therapy, that can improve children’s co-regulation, tailors support according to the needs of a child’s unique nervous system and provide carers, families and support people (such as early childhood providers) with strategies for behavioural support can reduce unsafe and harmful practices.

Children and young people do not need a formal diagnosis to access music therapy. Building from child and family strengths, music therapy identifies areas for growth, improvement and support and collaboratively builds an appropriate therapeutic approach to achieve these aims.

Current systems for identification of developmental needs

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.

AMTA expects Thriving Kids may span from health-promoting group programs for children and families experiencing risks to child health and developmental outcomes, to targeted individual therapies to address identified needs. Allied health offers significant contributions across these areas and should be genuinely collaborated with to develop these models, staffing and funding arrangements.

RMTs are well-equipped to collaborate to ensure early childhood education and care is accessible and inclusive, to support the capabilities of education and early childhood systems and staff, and support children and their families to engage in learning, community and social environments.

RMTs are currently funded to provide services for children with developmental delays and/or behavioural needs in community and mainstream educational settings, in specialist programs (such as the South Australian Preschool Boost) and via the NDIS.

Intersectional needs

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

Children and young people with disability living in regional, rural and remote areas have less access to the services and supports they need. This is the result of various factors, including workforce availability and capability, accessible and/or available transport, limited housing and living supports (National Rural Health Alliance, 2023).

AMTA recognises the critical role of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations in providing culturally safe early childhood and health services to First Nations communities. We refer to the National Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Early Childhood Strategy for further actions to address the needs of children who identify as First Nations and further progress the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. We also note the requirement for non-indigenous professionals to ensure they are delivering culturally safe and inclusive services. Increasing workforce

competencies and capabilities in culture-affirming practices will impact positively on access and outcomes for children and young people. Culture-affirming practice is a key priority for AMTA and our members and is an increasing focus of AMTA’s professional standards and accreditation standards for AMTA-certified university courses.

Additionally, the Office of the Public Advocate inquiry identified limited availability of culturally sensitive services for people with disability, their families, support people and communities nationally. There have been numerous papers suggesting solutions to these issues – we expect that this inquiry will consider points and recommendations from previous inquiries and commissions.

AMTA notes that in many cultures, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island cultures, cultural arts and music practices have a strong relationship with social and emotional wellbeing. Music therapy clinicians and researchers have been early adopters of collaborative co-design in a range of cultural contexts1,2; RMTs are poised to engage in meaningful collaboration with culturally and linguistically diverse communities in developing appropriate supports.

Workforce

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

AMTA notes there is currently insufficient information about Thriving Kids to enable the development of a meaningful workforce strategy. That said, we note the breadth of support providers currently working in mainstream and community settings, and their differences in terms of knowledge base, qualifications, expertise, specialist skillsets, regulation and scopes of practice. Any workforce modelling for Thriving Kids should have child safety as a primary principle, and ensure people with the appropriate skills, knowledge and scope are responsible for enabling the best outcomes for children and their families.

AMTA notes that prior to the NDIS, many RMTs and other allied health professionals were employed in community-based disability services and programs. These services, largely state and territory funded, no longer exist. A return to community-based services will require significant community investments, and must promote access to allied health therapies that can support families, support people and other professionals to build children’s developmental skills and capabilities.

Music therapy is available to children and young people, their families and support people via:

health services, e.g. specialist children’s hospitals
some child and youth mental health services, e.g. specialist paediatric hospital networks and non-government organisations
programs in early childhood and education
state-funded mental health programs in schools
community development programs
primary care via private practice
PHN-commissioned programs.

RMTs may deliver individual and group therapy sessions, carer training, education and consultation, share specialist knowledge, support community development, coach others and advise on resources and equipment. Critically, RMTs often work in consultation models with family members, carers and support people (including early childhood, education providers).

1 Williams, K., & Abad, V. (2008). Reflections on Music Therapy with Indigenous Families: Cultural Learning put into Practice. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.15845/voices.v8i1.452 2 Lee, A. D., Reissenberger, G., & Moss, M. (2024). Social and emotional wellbeing for first nation elders through three way design, creation, and reflection. Australian Journal of Music Therapy, 35(2), 19–35.

Music therapy experiences similar geographical limitations to much of the early childhood and health services sector, with most RMTs located in and around capital cities nationally. AMTA has been working to address these issues. As a profession, RMTs were early adopters for new ways of working over the COVID-19 pandemic and many successfully adapted their therapies to online delivery whilst maintaining the interest and engagement of children, young people and their families and continued therapeutic effectiveness. Because of this successful engagement and outcomes achievement via online delivery, RMTs have continued to use this technology in their practice, improving access to regional and rural children and young people where they may not be a local RMT available. Over 60% RMTs provide mobile services, with some providing outreach to rural areas.

Music therapy workforce in regional, rural and remote areas can be inconsistent and limited, impacting access to services for children and young people with disability, their families, carers and support people. As a profession with smaller numbers per capita and smaller FTE per funded program, AMTA frequently advocates for place-based employment; where funding from multiple funding or program streams is pooled at a local level to build a position that is more easily recruited. We see this as an opportunity for greater cross-government collaboration and improving access for rural and regional support. For example, a local rural area could bring together funding across services including acute and rehabilitation services, NDIS, foundational supports, mental health, aged care to build a full-time music therapy role, addressing recruitment issues related to part time roles, attracting a rural workforce and maximising the outcomes from government expenditure.

Best practice

Draw on domestic and international policy experience and best practice.

AMTA highlights the recent process undertaken by PRECI to develop a best practice framework for early childhood intervention. This process engaged broad stakeholders across sectors to develop key values, principles and approaches to early childhood development and support. AMTA strongly recommends this framework is released and expanded upon to build a model for Thriving Kids, based on meaningful consultation and informed by published literature, practitioner experience and lived experience. This model should also include key workforces, including music therapy.

Music therapy is a widely recognised allied health profession in Australia, and is included as a vital support in a number of government and public health schemes. As well as being employed in every specialist paediatric health network, RMTs are employed as allied health professionals in a range of State and Commonwealth funded programs, including:

National Disability Insurance Scheme
Revive National Cultural Policy music therapy pilot funded through Primary Health Networks
Victorian Mental Health in Schools program
Home Care Packages
Commonwealth Home Support Programme
Support at Home Clinical category - allied health and other therapeutic services
QLD Behaviour Boost for schools
SA Preschool Boost for early childhood services
Victorian Allied Health Mental Health Graduate Program

Music therapy has been found to support communication, social skills, mood regulation and motor skills for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities3,4,5,6. Music therapy’s neurodiverse affirming approaches have

3 Yen-Hsuan Yang, Parents and Young Children with Disabilities: The Effects of a Home-Based Music Therapy Program on Parent-Child Interactions, Journal of Music Therapy, Volume 53, Issue 1, Spring 2016, Pages 27–54, https://doi.org/10.1093/jmt/thv018 4 Ke X, Song W, Yang M, Li J, Liu W. Effectiveness of music therapy in children with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Psychiatry. 2022 Oct 6;13:905113. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.905113. PMID: 36276324; PMCID: PMC9582596. 5 Shi Z, Wang S, Chen M, Hu A, Long Q, Lee Y. The effect of music therapy on language communication and social skills in children with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Psychol. 2024 May 7;15:1336421. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1336421. PMID: 38774719; PMCID: PMC11106491. 6 Geretsegger M, Fusar-Poli L, Elefant C, Mössler KA, Vitale G, Gold C. Music therapy for autistic people. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2022, Issue 5. Art. No.: CD004381. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD004381.pub4. Accessed 01 October 2025.

immense potential to improve the lives of children who are neurodivergent. An increasing body of literature highlights the negative impact of behavioural interventions for Autistic individuals, as well as questionable cost-effectiveness of such interventions7,8,9,10,11. Music therapy has a unique capacity to achieve co-regulation and connection by meeting children at their emotional level, tailoring therapies to individual preferences and needs, using multi-sensory engagement through music, building confidence and self-esteem, and adapting to support children’s needs. When neurodivergent children feel safe and are emotionally regulated, they can communicate more effectively and learn and work toward other goals.

Similarly, the unique ability of music to impact the nervous system at subcortical level allows for a ‘bottom-up’ approach to neural maturation. Supporting children to grow and develop with self-discovery and spontaneity, without the need for additional expectations or demands on the child, both leads to greater outcomes and contributes towards mitigation of ‘therapy fatigue’.

Developing a model of care

AMTA strongly recommends that potential models for Thriving Kids are developed in close consultation with people with lived experience of disability, including those with a diagnosis, families and supporters , as well as allied health professionals, including RMTs. Working across the lifespan, from community development through to intensive care, RMTs are well-equipped to design flexible models of care for prevention, early intervention, early childhood, school programs and youth services.

In terms of targeted supports for children with specific developmental needs, AMTA recommends music therapy delivered by RMTs is embedded in environments where children live, play and learn wherever possible – their homes, playgroups, early childhood settings, educational settings. To ensure child- and family-centred care, interdisciplinary therapy approaches, and collaboration must be facilitated through strong and effective systems for interprofessional communication.

While therapies in groups and natural environments are incredibly valuable, they may not be an appropriate approach for all children needing behaviour supports. We recommend making available individualised supports for children with autism, global developmental delay and developmental delay under 9 years. Children may be enrolled in groups when these meet their needs.

Transitions

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

AMTA and our members recognise the concerns voiced by the disability community relating to lack of clarity regarding the distinction between Thriving Kids, foundational and NDIS supports, and the process by which access will be determined. It is essential that the government engages in meaningful collaboration with lived experience and industry stakeholders to determine the distinction between the schemes, and the processes by which decisions will be applied in practice.

AMTA notes the increasing separation between services that are considered ‘health services’ and ‘disability supports’. We understand that these distinctions, while important at a systemic funding level, can have unintended consequences for NDIS participants who fall through the gaps when there is conflict over which system is responsible for different components of care. Young children and vulnerable young people cannot

7 Anderson, L. K. (2023). Autistic experiences of applied behavior analysis. Autism, 27(3), 737-750. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613221118216 8 Leaf JB, Cihon JH, Leaf R, McEachin J, Liu N, Russell N, Unumb L, Shapiro S, Khosrowshahi D. Concerns About ABA-Based Intervention: An Evaluation and Recommendations. J Autism Dev Disord. 2022 Jun;52(6):2838-2853. doi: 10.1007/s10803-021-05137-y. 9 Wilkenfeld, Daniel A. and Allison M. McCarthy. “Ethical Concerns with Applied Behavior Analysis for Autism Spectrum “Disorder”.” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, vol. 30 no. 1, 2020, p. 31-69. Project MUSE, https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/ken.2020.0000. 10 Rodgers M, Marshall D, Simmonds M, Le Couteur A, Biswas M, Wright K, et al. Interventions based on early intensive applied behaviour analysis for autistic children: a systematic review and cost-effectiveness analysis. Health Technol Assess 2020;24(35). https://doi.org/10.3310/hta24350 11 Fernandes FD, Amato CA. Applied behavior analysis and autism spectrum disorders: literature review. Codas. 2013;25(3):289-96. English, Portuguese. doi: 10.1590/s2317-17822013000300016. PMID: 24408342.

afford lengthy service waits that impact on key developmental windows of opportunity and have the potential to cause secondary obstacles to development. Therefore, AMTA advocates for safeguards to ensure children and their families do not ‘fall through the gaps’ between Thriving Kids, ‘health services’ and the NDIS with no clear plan for service provision.

It should be recognised that integrating services into mainstream systems may lead to overlooking children who do not participate in mainstream settings. For example, students of homeschooling and distance education must have as much opportunity to access services as their peers in more traditional institutions.

There is an opportunity for Thriving Kids to be designed differently and increase engagement and collaboration across both government and non-government services, and include Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, early childhood learning services, educational settings and health services. AMTA believes it will be insufficient for these supports to rely on access to existing therapy services in state-funded community health or hospital based outpatient departments that are already overloaded and with lengthy waitlists.

The role of music therapy on a child’s overall development, health and wellbeing

Music therapy is an evidence-based practice and allied health profession that supports Australians of all ages and abilities to improve their lives and achieve therapeutic goals. In Australia, music therapy is provided by registered music therapists (RMTs), certified health professionals who design and deliver individualised and family-centred, music-based interventions. Music therapy is a NASRHP-regulated profession, as is speech pathology and dietetics. Music therapy provides crucial, life-changing supports for children with disability, their families and support people.

Music therapy has significant potential to improve the lives of people with disabilities. From movement to cognition and thinking, social connection, communication, sensory integration and self-regulation, music therapy plays a vital role in supporting people to achieve their therapeutic goals. RMTs help children and young people achieve outcomes in skills and function, activity and participation, and support families to achieve and maintain positive relationships.

RMTs use their professional qualifications, knowledge and skills to work with children and young people with disability, their carers and families to:

assess people’s health and wellbeing
devise therapeutic interventions and programs to preserve, restore or improve physical or psychological wellbeing, functional capacity and quality of life
facilitate music-based interventions to positively impact brain function, neural maturation, physical, sensory regulation, social communication, cognition and emotional and behavioural regulation and community participation
develop strategies for greater inclusion and access to community, early childhood environments and education
deliver treatment and support to achieve positive outcomes and experiences.

AMTA draws the Committee’s attention to AMTA’s Music therapy disability evidence summary 2024.

Music therapy is an engaging, motivating therapy that helps children, families and support people (such as early childhood staff) achieve their goals. Because music is often seen as a natural part of early childhood and parenting, music therapy is often experienced as a less ‘artificial’ therapy and is experienced positively by children and their families. Strategies that are learned in music therapy can be adapted by family members, carers and early childhood staff in other learning environments, improving access to community environments.

Music therapy may involve individual, group, carer training, education and telehealth models. Multidisciplinary work may include co-leading therapy sessions, providing specialist knowledge, team meetings, coaching others, sharing assessment and progress notes, and consultation about resources and equipment.

Contact

AMTA welcomes the opportunity to discuss the development of Thriving Kids further.

Bridgit Hogan
CEO
Australian Music Therapy Association
ceo@austmta.org.au