Council of Catholic School Parents NSW/ACT

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

3 October 2025

Preamble

This submission has been prepared by the Council of Catholic School Parents NSW / ACT (CCSP) representing the parents of more than 275,000 students in approximately 630 Catholic schools in NSW / ACT.

CCSP thanks the House Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability for the invitation to make this submission. This submission is made on behalf of approximately 150,000 families who choose to enrol one or more of their children in NSW / ACT Catholic schools.

CCSP is the officially recognised body representing the interests of parents of children and young people in NSW and ACT Catholic schools. The work of the Council is guided by the principles of parental choice, equity and social justice. CCSP provides leadership, advocacy and support to the parents of children and young people in all diocesan and RI&MPJP Catholic schools in NSW and the ACT.

‘Parents’, as the term is used in this submission, is intended to cover both biological and adoptive parents and other carers and recognised kinship carers who are the primary carers of children and young people.

Parents are the first educators of their children.¹ This is not only true for parents in Catholic families or the parents of children in Catholic schools but all parents.

CCSP helps parents who have children and young people with diverse learning needs in a variety of ways including:

• CCSP website, Parent Talk eNewsletter and Facebook.
• Delivery of Supporting Diverse Learning in Catholic Schools - A Guide by Parents for Parents. This guide is available on the CCSP website.
• Delivering a range of parent education webinars supporting parents in their role as primary carers and offering avenues of support if issues are identified.

Our parents and carers have made a deliberate choice to enrol their child in a Catholic school. In NSW, approximately 270,000 students are enrolled in Catholic schools. Of these, just over 62,000 students have been identified in the NCCD annual collection of information about students with a disability.

This submission is in response to the Committee’s Terms of Reference published by the House Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability on 5 September 2025.

¹ Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed., 2023.

General Observations

The Council of Catholic School Parents NSW/ACT acknowledges budgetary challenges currently impacting the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). We are aware of the government’s attempt to manage the increasing cost of the NDIS by referring children under 8 years of age who have mild to moderate delay and autism and their families to the Thriving Kids initiative from 1 July 2026.

We understand Thriving Kids will focus on identifying developmental concerns in a timelier way and establishing a national system of supports for these children.²

On 22 August 2025, Minister Butler, Minister for Disability and the NDIS, stated in his address to the National Press Club that ‘parents and families need guidance to access well-curated, evidence- based support and therapy’.

We strongly support the Minister in his assertion of these needs for families and note his comment that ‘the systems already exist - to be leveraged and focussed’.³

Our members support the Minister in his recognition of the needs of families to access focussed, evidenced-based supports that ensure children requiring additional support are identified as early as possible, allowing families and specialised support services to work together to support the needs of the child and family.

We also note the Minister referred to the recommendation of Bonyhady and Paul in the NDIS Review Final Report released 7 December 2023 that governments rebuild foundational supports.

Terms of Reference

The Council of Catholic School Parents NSW / ACT Council members have provided feedback to some parts of the Terms of Reference.

1. 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.
2. 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.
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.

² Australian Government - Department of Health, Disability and Ageing - Thriving Kids Fact Sheet 22.8.25 ³ Speech from Minister Butler, National Press Club - 20 August 2025

1. 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.

CCSP support the development of evidence-based resources that assist parents to identify potential developmental delays. Parents, as the primary educators, are well placed to work with specialist support services when early signs of developmental delay are first noticed; however, some are not sufficiently equipped with the skills, knowledge and capacity to be the ‘front line’ in identifying developmental delay. The measures used in the identification of mild to moderate developmental delay need to be developed in clear, parent-friendly language, should be translated in multiple languages, and accessible in a variety of formats including short videos, fact sheets, online modules etc.

CCSP believes consideration of the development of foundational supports must begin with a clear understanding of what this includes and an understanding of what existing or new services will be responsible for in delivery of foundational supports. Schools and ECECs, mentioned in the National Press Club speech of Minister Butler as existing services, are already facing significant challenges including staffing shortages, a lack of usable space and ever- increasing workloads. Often, these services are the ones that are the first to advise parents and carers of concerns about possible developmental delays.

The importance of clarity regarding foundational supports, their development and delivery is critical to ensure educational outcomes delivered by schools are not negatively impacted.

2. 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.

CCSP acknowledges current resources available for families often established by the NFP sector that seek to support children with developmental delay and autism. Our parents, particularly those in rural and remote settings, have regularly expressed concern and frustration at the lack of services available as well as the length of time they wait to access a service. This is if support is available in their area. Many families report travelling distances of several hundred kilometre round trips requiring time away from school, not only for the impacted child but often siblings too, as childcare may not be available before and after school when travel to the service is required. We support the exploration of the lived experience of parents and carers related to the lack of consistency and availability of supports.

We also urge the government to consider addressing the ‘siloing’ of health and education when it comes to the development and delivery of these supports. There is a lack of integration and understanding of the ‘front line’ work many of our schools do; to simply add this work to schools increases the burden of administration, management and in many cases places an even greater burden on available resources, suitable spaces and appropriate facilities for families to access support and for support and therapy to be delivered. Schools are primarily places where curriculum is delivered. The development of Thriving Kids should not impact a child’s access to curriculum rather complement and support access.

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

An Aboriginal member of CCSP has responded to this ToR:

Some of our First Nations families have several issues in their lives that impact them such as overcrowded housing and unemployment, resulting in a low socioeconomic status. Some First Nations families may have difficulty identifying behaviour that could be an indicator of developmental delay and autism. Disadvantage may also mean children have not been appropriately assessed or reviewed by specialist services. This leads to our families being fearful that the authorities would see this as neglect, that their child/ren could be removed if they reach out for help. Decolonising the services, consulting with us and making it known that the services’ focus is the child!

Access to culturally appropriate services in all areas needs to be addressed.

What supports could be put into place for our out of home care children? Foster families will need guidance - who provides that? The care organisations such as DCJ already don’t fulfil their whole role or are not capable. A lot of our kids miss out on early childhood education/day care, where early observations can be made, due to lack of access and funding. Cultural sensitivity, awareness and appreciation is needed all over the place.

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

There is a clear shortage of speech pathologists, occupational therapists and psychologists across regional and rural areas. Even when referrals are made, waitlists can stretch from six months to over a year or more, which is far too long for a child in their early years. Thriving Kids must include investment in workforce development and plans to train regional and rural workers. Community hubs located adjacent to schools and EECECs, which are places where families typically visit, need to be appropriately resourced and established to ensure they do not impact the administrative or professional workload of school staff.

Many schools struggle with allocating space during the school day for allied health services attempting to provide therapy for students. If this approach is to be effective, adequate funding and resourcing would be required to ensure sustainability of the program. CCSP encourages the program to go further in ensuring parents are seen not only as recipients of services, but as partners in designing, implementing and reviewing programs.

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

Rural and remote families as well as many metropolitan families experience difficulties accessing support. Across NSW, several mobile health services exist to offer specialist care to vulnerable populations. This includes mobile health clinics operated by the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW and St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney. This same approach could be developed to provide consistent access to populations where access is challenging. Mobile services could provide psychology, paediatric care, speech therapy, occupational therapy and family support to address a range of concerns experienced by parents e.g.: nutrition, sleep patterns and establishing routines among other services, aiding in the provision of a seamless transition through mainstream systems for all children with mild to moderate support needs.

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

CCSP encourages government to engage with parents to collaborate more fully in the Thriving Kids program development, implementation and monitoring to ensure it is an effective mechanism for children, young people and their families, supporting their development as they progress through mainstream systems. CCSP remains committed to working with government to ensure best outcomes for our families.