NDIA Accountability Project

Submission 294 — First Peoples Disability Network — Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative

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First Peoples Disability Network Submission:

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

Recommendations

  1. Dedicated First Nations Thriving Kids stream: Set a funding floor with needs-based loadings for remote and very remote communities, aligned to Closing the Gap.

  2. Co-govern through the ECD Policy Partnership: Embed Priority Reform 1 with SNAICC, NACCHO and FPDN in shared decision-making roles.

  3. Make ASQ-TRAK the screening standard: Mandate use wherever First Nations families are screened, with funded training and Toy Kits, plus parent-mediated coaching supports.

  4. Fund First Nations Navigators and safe transitions: Provide caseload bands and pay parity to link health, ECEC and schools; introduce decision-gates before any NDIS access changes affecting children.

  5. Commission ACCO/ACCHO-led colocation and mandate culturally responsive mainstream services: Form consortia to co-locate screening, parent support and allied health with ECEC/schools under shared outcomes and MOUs. Ensure all mainstream services are meaningfully regulated to deliver culturally responsive services to First Nations clients.

  6. Build the workforce pipeline: Create paid cadetships and Allied Health Assistant roles in ACCOs, fund clinical supervision networks, and offer micro-credentials for educators and MCH nurses to act as lead practitioners.

  7. Publish six-monthly, disaggregated reporting: Report by Indigeneity, remoteness and language on reach, screening uptake (incl. ASQ-TRAK), navigator coverage, time-to-first support and AEDC-aligned outcomes (Target 4).

  8. Resource rural and remote delivery: Fund mobile multidisciplinary teams, travel and interpreters, and telepractice, with appropriate loadings.

  9. Embed First Nations data governance and a Child Development Passport: Offer a consented, opt-in passport that follows the child across systems.

  10. Hold NDIS access steady until supports are ready: Guarantee no adverse access changes for children in any region until foundational supports meet coverage and wait-time thresholds.

  11. Require a First Nations Post-Diagnosis Road Map: Co-design with ACCOs/ACCHOs and have navigators deliver and maintain it, covering therapies, school inclusion supports, mental-health pathways, carer respite and NDIS linkages.

Executive Summary

FPDN welcomes the Inquiry and the ambition of Thriving Kids to strengthen early identification and supports for children under nine with mild-to-moderate developmental needs. Yet without genuine partnership with First Nations organisations and families, the program risks repeating long-standing failures of mainstream systems that are often culturally unsafe and inaccessible for our communities (Disability Royal Commission [DRC], Volume 9). We urge the Committee to ensure Thriving Kids is co-designed and delivered through Aboriginal community-controlled services, as well as culturally responsive mainstream services with culturally adapted screening, family-led interventions, and strong links across maternal and child health, primary care and education.

This submission:

  1. Centres First Nations children with disability and their families;

  2. Draws on rigorous evidence including AEDC data showing only 33.9% of First Nations children were developmentally “on track” across all five domains in 2024;

  3. Reinforces Australia’s first qualitative study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander autism experiences, which highlights mis/under-diagnosis, confusing post-diagnostic pathways, and school safety and mental-health risks, underscoring the need for navigators, parent networks, culturally safe training, and respite within Thriving Kids (Lilley, R., Sedgwick, M., & Pellicano, E. (2019). We look after our own mob: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander experiences of autism. Sydney, Australia: Macquarie University, https://www.positivepartnerships.com.au/uploads/MACQ-48737-We-Look-After-Our-Mob AW2 SCREEN.pdf); and

  4. Aligns with positions advanced by First Nations and disability peaks on community control, cultural safety and a carefully phased transition.

We propose practical recommendations to operationalise the Terms of Reference (ToR), including a dedicated First Nations stream, mandatory use of ASQ-TRAK for screening, a funded First Nations workforce pipeline, and navigators to connect health, early learning and schools. With $2B committed from 1 July 2026, Thriving Kids can close gaps only if it embeds self- determination from design to delivery.

Terms of Reference

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

  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.

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

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

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

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

Responses

ToR 1: Evidence-based information and resources for parents

  • Adopt ASQ-TRAK as the preferred tool when working with First Nations families (interview-administered, validated, co- designed) and ensure funded training and materials are available.
  • Provide parent-mediated supports (coaching and home-based strategies) as the default first-line intervention, integrated with ACCO-led perinatal and child health programs.
  • Develop Easy Read, in-language resources and audio-visual guides with ACCO partners; ensure resources are WCAG 2.2 compliant and culturally safe.
  • Embed a feedback loop so parents can rate usefulness and cultural safety of resources; publish results.
  • Fund assessor training and supervision to minimise misdiagnosis and diagnostic substitution for First Nations children, recognising culturally patterned communication (e.g., eye-contact norms) and language, complementing mandated ASQ- TRAK use and ensuring earlier, more accurate identification in urban, regional and remote settings.

ToR 2: Effectiveness of current programs

  • Map existing pathways across MCH services, primary care, ECEC and schools; address fragmentation by funding ACCO- led local consortia with shared outcomes.
  • Fund multidisciplinary screening and brief intervention clinics co-located with ECEC/schools; include speech, OT, social- emotional supports and parenting programs.
  • Integrate data-sharing agreements and care-coordination protocols (with consent) to reduce duplication and waitlists.
  • Fund and connect First Nations parent peer-support groups (urban, regional, remote) to address findings of social isolation, with micro-grants and facilitation from ACCOs, ensuring language-appropriate, culturally grounded materials.
  • Include a flexible respite entitlement for carers within Thriving Kids foundational supports, with travel/interpreter loadings for remote delivery via ACCOs/ACCHOs, critical for sustained family wellbeing.

ToR 3: Equity and intersectionality (First Nations)

  • Set access equity targets and report by Indigeneity, remoteness, language and disability type; close interpreter and transport gaps.
  • Back bilingual early learning and culturally adapted practice, including community language programs and Elders-in- residence models.
  • Resource remote outreach (mobile teams, telepractice) and embed cultural brokerage roles.

ToR 4: Workforce gaps and training

  • Create cadetships/traineeships for Aboriginal Health Workers, Allied Health Assistants and educators within ACCOs/ACCHOs.
  • Fund clinical supervision networks and rural generalist pathways; pay parity for Navigator roles.
  • Deliver micro-credentials enabling educators and MCH nurses to act as lead practitioners using culturally adapted tools, with referral pathways to specialists.

ToR 5: Best practice (domestic & international)

  • Align with Te Whariki principles (whanau engagement; holistic development; relationships) when adapting pedagogy in Australian ECEC settings.
  • Scale First 1000 Days Australia as a culturally led, family-centred model across pregnancy to age two, linked to ACCO services.
  • Adopt ASQ-TRAK and emerging ASQ-STEPS for monitoring developmental progress in culturally safe ways.

ToR 6: Seamless transitions across systems

  • Fund First Nations Navigators to bridge health, ECEC, schools and community supports; set caseload bands and coverage targets by region.
  • Introduce a consented Child Development Passport so assessments and plans follow the child, with First Nations data governance.
  • Set transition decision-gates: no adverse NDIS access changes until navigator coverage and wait-time thresholds are met in each region.
  • To address confusing/absent post diagnosis guidance, require a First Nations “Post-Diagnosis Road Map” (co-designed with ACCOs/ACCHQs) that navigators must deliver and maintain, covering therapies, school inclusion supports, mental- health pathways, carer respite and NDIS linkages.

Governance & funding architecture

Establish a ring-fenced First Nations stream within Thriving Kids, with a floor share of Commonwealth funding plus needs-based remote loadings.

Use the Early Childhood Care & Development Policy Partnership (PR1) as the national co-governance mechanism; formal roles for SNAICC, NACCHO and FPDN.

At state/territory level, create co-commissioning tables (Health, Education, ACCO peak) and at local level fund ACCO/ACCHO-led consortia with school/ECEC MOUs.

Adopt First Nations data governance principles for all monitoring and reporting.

Implementation roadmap & transition safeguards (2026—27)

  • July 2026 — June 2027: staged regional rollout of navigators, screening and parent-mediated supports; publish regional readiness dashboards.
  • Decision-gates: No tightening of NDIS access for children until (a) navigator coverage >= agreed threshold; (b) time-to- first support <= agreed weeks; (c) evidence of screening uptake (incl. ASQ-TRAK).
  • Commissioning: multi-year funding to ACCO/ACCHO consortia; travel and interpreter loadings for remote delivery.
  • Workforce: cadetships, AHA roles, paid supervision and rural generalist rotations.

Monitoring, evaluation & public reporting

  • Publish six-monthly reports disaggregated by Indigeneity, remoteness and language.
  • Core indicators: reach; screening uptake (incl. ASQ-TRAK); navigator coverage; time-to-first support; school inclusion supports in place; AEDC-aligned outcomes (Target 4), plus Autism specific equity metrics such as:
    • Time from “first concern” to diagnostic decision; proportion receiving post-diagnostic support within 6 weeks.
    • School inclusion: bullying incidents, days of exclusion/partial attendance, and mental-health referrals resolved to treatment (school-linked).
    • Parent connection: % families linked to a peer group within 30 days of diagnosis.
  • Embed a learning system (rapid-cycle evaluation) and commission independent evaluations with ACCO leadership.
  • Allocate a research envelope for ACCO-led, community-directed studies on early identification and the life-course for autistic First Nations people, embedded in Thriving Kids’ learning system.

Conclusion

Thriving Kids can be transformative, but only if it centres First Nations children with disability and empowers the community- controlled sector to lead design and delivery. The Committee has a unique opportunity to hard-wire cultural safety, co-design and accountability into the program’s architecture, align it to Closing the Gap Target 4, and protect families through a phased transition. FPDN stands ready to partner with Parliament, governments and peak bodies to co-design a First Nations stream of Thriving Kids that delivers earlier identification, stronger family supports and inclusive education, so our kids grow strong in culture and thrive.

References

  • House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability — Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative: Terms of Reference.

https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary Business/Committees/House/Health Aged Care and Disability/ThrivingKidsini tiative/Terms of Reference

  1. https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/eb9fb8d3-3a5b-427e-bee5-8b19547e3364/aihw-ihw-294-ch4-children- thriving.pdf

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