NDIA Accountability Project

Submission 309 — The Benevolent Society — Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative

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benevolent.org.au

Contents

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The Benevolent Society

The Benevolent Society has been operating since 1813. Our history reflects a passion for helping people live life, their way. We know that anyone in the community could, at some point in their lives, need support from us. We have rigorously campaigned and advocated to create meaningful policy and legislative change for all Australians, especially those at greatest risk of exclusion and disadvantage.

We are unwavering in our conviction that people can build their best lives, even in the most challenging settings, with the right supports and interventions. Our campaigning was integral to:

  • Free legal aid
  • Age pensions
  • Specialist maternity care and establishing the Royal Hospital for Women
  • An end to child labour
  • The Goodstart Early Learning syndicate
  • Early social enterprise entrepreneurship through setting up Social Ventures Australia, and
  • Australia’s first social benefit bond supporting The Benevolent Society’s Resilient Families Program.

The Benevolent Society is a multi-service provider, with services ranging across age groups and cohort types. We provide early childhood services, disability services, services to support older Australians to live well in the community, and services to support people in times of crisis.

The Benevolent Society has a deep understanding of how service systems interact with each other, the needs of our client groups and how the perspective of clients can be best leveraged into broader conversations. We think about our service delivery in the context of the bigger picture – we understand that no one sector or organisation controls all the levers necessary to deliver choice, control and quality of life opportunities to the people who access human services or to deliver social change.

The Benevolent Society brings a system leadership mindset to all that we do. Complexity demands collaboration: we are better together. Our experience tells us that collaboration between organisations produces the best outcomes for vulnerable Australians, especially when collaborations are grounded in the resources and knowledge of local communities.

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Executive Summary

The Benevolent Society welcomes the opportunity to contribute into the design of the Thriving Kids program.

As one of Australia’s oldest not-for-profit organisations, we have a long history of supporting children, families, and communities to thrive. Our work across child development, disability services, allied health, and family support has demonstrated both the opportunities and the barriers that families face in accessing early developmental support.

Thriving Kids represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reshape early intervention so it is equitable, person-centred, and outcomes focused.

For too long, access to developmental supports has been determined by diagnosis or eligibility rules rather than children’s needs. The evidence is clear: intervening early, with the right support at the right time, improves outcomes for children and reduces the long-term costs to education, health, and social systems.

The Benevolent Society has significant expertise around working with children to support early intervention and individualised support through our involvement in the Early Childhood Approach (ECA).

This expertise provides a strong foundation for what a future Thriving Kids program may look like, and our learnings in delivering the program can be leveraged. We have streamlined referral processes, introduced innovations such as the Rapid Assessment Team (RAT) to reduce wait times, and strengthened relational practice through the key worker model. Families are supported to move seamlessly between community connections, early supports, or funded NDIS plans, with communication that prioritises clarity and reassurance.

The following discussion of the first four Terms of Reference includes an analysis of how our practices support families within the care delivery sector. Beginning with an example of how Thriving Kids could be structured using insights from the successful ECA model, this submission draws on our specialised experience. We provide practical examples of excellence based on the ECA model to demonstrate how it can serve as a scalable, evidence-based platform for delivering positive impact.

The Benevolent Society is happy to provide additional detail or information about our comments in this submission if that would be of assistance and would welcome the opportunity to host interested Ministers or officials at our services, to demonstrate how policy and strategy are reflected in service delivery.

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Recommendations

The Benevolent Society recommends the disability reforms include:

  1. Design Thriving Kids as a universal entitlement, ensuring every child can access timely and appropriate developmental supports regardless of background, diagnosis, or income. Truly keeping children at the centre will require a commitment to:

    1.1. reject copayments and means testing, which create barriers for families already under financial stress and risk delaying intervention during critical developmental windows,

    1.2. prioritise the funding of services that are culturally safe and responsive to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families as well as Culturally and Linguistically Diverse families, and

    1.3. invest in building services in communities that have none, so all families have access to local supports in their community.

  2. Use the Early Childhood Approach (ECA) as a proven and scalable foundation for Thriving Kids to reach children with developmental concerns, by:

    2.1. Embedding services firmly within mainstream settings such as maternal child health, playgroups, and schools to maximise reach and accessibility.

    2.2. Guaranteeing families timely access to trusted, local supports that facilitate early identification and intervention.

    2.3. Integrating and coordinating services to deliver consistent, effective outcomes across communities.

  3. Establish market conditions that ensure a sufficient pool of qualified allied health and early childhood professionals by:

    3.1. Prioritising funding models that support providers’ active role in workforce development and establish structured career pathways for allied health and early childhood professionals, and;

    3.2. Strengthening support for the Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCO) sector to deliver culturally safe services through targeted capacity building, workforce training, and genuine co-design partnerships, in collaboration with sector leads such as SNAICC.

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Guided by ECA: A transferable model of success

The Early Childhood Approach (ECA) is a flexible, evidence-based model that can be adapted and scaled to meet diverse community needs.

Benevolent is one of the largest national partners delivering the Early Childhood Approach (ECA) on behalf of the NDIA. Around one in five children nationally enter the ECA through Benevolent’s partnership, this is despite operating only in South East Queensland. Through this program, we provide a range of supports for children under nine years with disabilities or developmental delays, and their families/carers, designed to help children develop the skills they need and achieve better long-term outcomes.

Children supported through the ECA make measurable gains in communication, motor skills, and social participation. Around 80% of our monthly referrals are for children with developmental concerns who do not yet have a diagnosed disability, demonstrating the ECA’s critical role in reaching children early, regardless of diagnosis. Expanding the ECA offers a practical and scalable solution.

By embedding services within mainstream settings, such as maternal child health, playgroups, and schools, families could access support in environments they already trust. A place-based, culturally safe expansion would also allow the model to respond to the specific needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and CALD communities. While a fully funded national roll out would also ensure families do not face out-of-pocket costs, which would disproportionately exclude children in low income, regional, and remote households.

Context

Benevolent currently supports 16,700 children with funded NDIS plans, including 8,650 children with developmental delay as a primary disability and 4,800 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as a primary disability. In addition, we are working with 4,000 children to determine their most appropriate pathway for support, including mainstream and community connections; early, short-term supports; access to a funded NDIS plan.

Our teams manage a high volume of demand, averaging 650 referrals per month - nearly double our contracted capacity of 336 first meetings. This has resulted in wait times of 4 to 5 months for initial appointments. To bridge this gap, we conduct over 2,000 monthly check-ins, maintaining ongoing support for families as they await further services.

The ECA Workforce

Our ECA team is one of the largest in the country, with a workforce of 155 staff (133 FTE), including:

  • 97 Child Development Specialists (teachers, early childhood educators, psychologists, social workers).
  • 8 Speech Pathologists, 9 Occupational Therapists, and 3 Physiotherapists.
  • A management and coordination team providing leadership, oversight, and support.

This multidisciplinary team enables relational best practice, with each family supported by a key worker who coordinates multidisciplinary input. Services are provided at no cost to families, though residency eligibility criteria apply.

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An example of innovative early support

For children under six with developmental concerns who need short-term intervention, we provide early supports that combine relationship-based best practices with multidisciplinary expertise. This ensures timely access to targeted interventions, helping prevent more intensive needs from developing. We are also advancing innovative service delivery models. For example, our partnership with Brown’s Plains EYP has strengthened workforce skills and expanded our reach. (see relevant appendices and insets).

Additionally, we are dedicated to supporting the Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO) sector to improve outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Our partnership with the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH) exemplifies how we can broaden this work through collaboration with ACCOs. Between May and August, 323 referrals came through this pathway, with 75 referrals directly from IUIH—accounting for 13.65% of all referrals where the parent and/or child identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.

Results and Impact

  • Provision of early supports has increased by 50% this financial year, with our service operating at 41% of national targets compared to the 27% national average.
  • Families consistently report that early supports make a tangible difference to their child’s development and their own confidence as parents. In our most recent parent survey of 76 families, the Early Supports program received an average satisfaction rating of 4.95 out of 5 stars. Importantly, 100% of families reported feeling confident about the next steps for their child. 82% of families said they would “strongly recommend” early supports to others and the remaining 18% agreeing they would recommend.
  • Among 93 families surveyed using our Early Supports Goal Tracking tool the majority reported growth: 35% achieved goals partially, 29% achieved goals as expected, 13% achieved a little more than expected, and 15% achieved much more than expected. Taken together, these results show that 82% of children met or exceeded their developmental goals within the program.
  • Our workforce remains engaged through ongoing professional development, team-based reflection, and psychosocial risk assessments.

How Thriving Kids could work – A client journey

This example shows a client journey under Thriving Kids, based on lessons from the ECA model, starting with a parent’s request for support and outlining the key assessments - while recognizing some children may still need to transition to an NDIS plan. (For a larger, clearer version of this image, see Appendix 1.)

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TOR 1. Evidence-based information and resources for parents

Parents and carers are a child’s first and most important teachers. They are often the first to notice developmental concerns, but too frequently, they lack access to clear, evidence-based information about what is typical, what may require support, and where to go for help. Families frequently report that advice differs depending on who they speak to. It could be GPs, early childhood educators, maternal and child health nurses, or allied health professionals, leading to uncertainty.

One clear example of how ECA-style models can deliver impact (particularly around early support) when properly funded is Benevolent’s In Sync program, delivered with NDIS funding.

Resources should be accessible, culturally appropriate, and available in multiple languages and formats. Parents, as the agents and advocates of their children, need to equipped with reliable resources through the Thriving Kids Program. They should also be embedded in universal settings such as maternal child health visits, playgroups, and early learning centres, so that parents encounter them naturally during family life. Ensuring that developmental assessments are provided at no cost to parents is critical so that financial stress does not prevent families from accessing early support. This is particularly important for families on low incomes, who are currently the most likely to delay or miss out on developmental checks due to cost.

Making assessments affordable is only part of the solution. Across the sector there is a significant shortage of skilled professionals able to deliver assessments, leading to long waits and inequitable access. Addressing this requires government investment not only in funding the assessments, but also in building workforce capacity so that families can access timely, high quality developmental assessments wherever they live.

Outcome measures should reflect what matters to families, not only what is clinically measurable. This includes children’s wellbeing, confidence, and participation in everyday activities.

The In Sync Program

Benevolent’s In Sync program demonstrates how an ECA-aligned approach can deliver measurable improvements for children and families.

In Sync was developed through a research and development process to test the hypothesis that therapies are more effective when supported by the parent–child relationship. The program strengthens parents’ responsiveness to their child’s unique cues and provides them with simple, practical strategies they can use in everyday routines. Therapy is delivered through play and positive interactions, embedding developmental support into the rhythms of family life.

Results from the program demonstrate this approach delivers outcomes for children:

  • 80% of children achieved improvement in their developmental goals within six months.
  • 70% of parents improved their understanding of their child’s experience, leading to more responsive and effective interactions.

Parents reported that In Sync helped them:

  • Build their child’s vocabulary.
  • Manage behaviour or sensory challenges.
  • Recognise developmental cues and milestones.
  • Maintain strong, positive connections with their child.
  • Embed strategies easily into everyday family life.

The program has been launched in New South Wales and South Australia and shows strong potential for expansion into other jurisdictions.

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For example, a family may consider success not simply whether their child meets a developmental milestone, but whether their child feels included at preschool or can play confidently with peers.

Learnings for Thriving Kids

The success of In Sync illustrates the potential of the ECA model, it demonstrates that:

  • Evidence-based, family centred interventions can achieve measurable developmental outcomes in short timeframes.
  • Strengthening parent–child interactions amplifies the impact of therapy and embeds developmental support in everyday life.
  • Programs already piloted under NDIS structures can be scaled nationally through Thriving Kids.

In Sync shows that the model is not only viable but cost effective, delivering significant developmental gains without reliance on diagnosis-based gatekeeping. This is exactly the type of proven approach that should be scaled up as part of a fully funded, nationally consistent Thriving Kids program

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TOR 2. Effectiveness of current programs and initiatives

Australia has invested in a range of early intervention initiatives, but these programs are fragmented and inconsistently funded. In Benevolent’s experience the Early Childhood Approach (ECA) has successfully bridged these gaps - providing a coordinated, evidence-based model that engages families early, supports children’s development, and connects them to a wide-range of services.

Two key initiatives have supported this success: the establishment of Community Early Years Place (EYP) Hubs, and the Rapid Assessment Team (RAT), which streamlines pathways and reduces delays for families seeking support.

Community Hubs change the way families access support. Our delivery of initiatives such as the Early Childhood Approach (ECA) has shown that outcomes are strongest when supports are delivered through multi-disciplinary, universal, and integrated hubs. Hubs provide a welcoming, family centred environment that is both non-clinical and therapeutic, reducing stigma and ensuring families feel safe and supported. By bringing together allied health, early childhood education, family support, and community services under one roof, hubs allow families to access the right mix of supports at the right time, while building stronger connections with their local community.

Beyond the direct benefits for families, hubs also deliver significant system level value. By co-locating services, hubs reduce duplication, streamline referral pathways, and create natural opportunities for collaboration between professionals. This integrated model eases pressure on overstretched systems by allowing multidisciplinary teams to work together around the child, rather than families navigating fragmented services on their own.

Hubs also provide a strong platform for workforce sustainability, enabling practitioners to share expertise, engage in case conferencing, and access ongoing professional support. For government, this model represents a cost effective investment

Browns Plains Early Years Centre

In partnership with the Metro South Hospital and Health Service (MSHHS), the Benevolent Browns Plains hub provides a space for young expectant mothers (aged 21 and under) and their children, while remaining open to all families in the community.

The hub’s multidisciplinary team, bringing together midwives, child and family workers, allied health practitioners, and community support services, ensures families have access to developmental checks, child health assessments, and early intervention supports in a familiar, non-clinical environment.

Services include speech and language therapy, supported playgroups, parenting programs, and access to psychologists, all designed to help identify developmental concerns early and embed strategies in daily routines.

Within these sessions, practitioners carry out observations and assessments (such as the ASQ), complete eco mapping with families, and co-create developmental goals with clear trackers. Families typically receive up to six sessions, with a review at the start of each session to monitor progress and adapt supports as needed.

This model enables children to be supported within their natural play environment, while giving families confidence that their child’s development is being actively monitored and strengthened.

The Browns Plains Early Years Centre shows how hubs act as soft entry points for developmental support, combining health, allied health, and family services under one roof.

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that maximises existing resources, strengthens local service ecosystems, and ensures that every child can access the supports they need within their own community. Similarly, hubs offer great value on investment. Multi-disciplinary, universal, and family-centred hubs reduce stigma, provide safe environments, and ensure children receive the right mix of supports at the right time. Co-location reduces duplication, streamlines referrals, and fosters collaboration, while also supporting workforce sustainability through shared expertise and professional development.

Benevolent’s Rapid Assessment Team (RAT) tackles lengthy waitlists by streamlining how families enter the Early Childhood Approach (ECA). In July 2025, Benevolent established these teams to improve pathways for families entering the ECA. This innovation responds to the challenge of long waitlists for formal meetings, currently averaging five months, which can delay timely access to early intervention during critical developmental periods.

Families referred to the Early Childhood Approach (ECA) often arrive with limited or incomplete information. To address this, referrals are screened, and those most suitable are allocated a Rapid Assessment Team (RAT) call. Families first complete the Ages & Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3), and intake staff attach this alongside referral evidence to determine RAT eligibility. A 60-minute virtual call, led by an allied health professional or early childhood teacher, then provides families the chance to discuss their child’s development and concerns. During the call, practitioners explain available support pathways, including community and mainstream connections for children with mild concerns needing short-term or single-area support; Early Supports for children with mild-to-moderate developmental delays requiring multidisciplinary input for a short period; and NDIS-funded plans for children with more significant delays needing longer-term, intensive therapy.

Since implementation in July 2025, the Rapid Assessment Team has achieved:

  • 104 RAT calls completed, avoiding the need for 104 first formal meetings.
  • 74% of children referred either into Early Supports or exited to community and mainstream pathways.
  • 26% of children supported to progress to NDIS scheme access.
  • 25% of children exited to community and mainstream services, 50% directed to early supports, and 25% referred for funded NDIS access.
  • Positive feedback from families, who reported greater clarity and reassurance that their child was on the right pathway.

The RAT model ensures that children receive the right support sooner, reducing the risk of developmental concerns escalating while waiting for services. For families, the process provides a clear, supportive conversation about their child’s development and the most appropriate next steps, without the stress of long delays. For the system, the Rapid Assessment Team (RAT) reduces pressure on formal meetings. Because RAT calls are conducted over the phone and take around one hour, a practitioner can complete two RAT calls in the time it would normally take to conduct one formal meeting. This efficiency means staff can both triage families more quickly and reallocate time to deliver more early supports directly. As a result, children and families move through waitlists faster and receive the right type of support sooner.

Learnings for Thriving Kids

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The Benevolent Society’s ECA program illustrates that the building blocks for Thriving Kids already exist within the NDIS landscape. By expanding and fully funding this approach, government could ensure every child, regardless of eligibility can access to the early developmental support they need, when they need it.

  • Relational, family-centred approaches supported by a key worker model lead to better outcomes.
  • Embedding culturally safe partnerships, such as with IUIH, improves access and equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.
  • The current challenge is whether design, funding, and workforce investment can be aligned to scale it through Thriving Kids.
  • The Rapid Assessment Team demonstrates how innovation within the ECA framework can improve timeliness, clarity, and equity for families. The model:
    • Reduces wait times for children requiring early supports.
    • Ensures families are matched to the most appropriate pathway quickly and with confidence.
    • Uses existing NDIS funding flexibly and efficiently.
  • The RAT program is a strong example of how Thriving Kids could adopt and scale targeted innovations within the ECA to deliver more timely, equitable, and family centred support nationwide

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TOR 3. Equity and Intersectional Issues

Developmental delay does not discriminate by postcode, income, or cultural background, yet children’s access to timely support often does. Equity must be at the heart of the Thriving Kids program. Families living in disadvantaged, regional, and remote communities report the greatest difficulty accessing developmental assessments and therapies, with long waiting lists and significant travel requirements. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, culturally safe, community-led services are critical. Trust and engagement are stronger when programs are designed and delivered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations.

Thriving Kids must place Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) at the centre of service design and delivery for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. By embedding developmental supports within ACCOs, families can access help in culturally safe environments that build on culture as a protective factor. Thriving Kids should commit to resourcing ACCOs as equal partners in program delivery, with pathways for leadership, co-design, and innovation.

Families from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds often face barriers such as the absence of interpreters, culturally tailored resources, and bicultural workers - leading to delayed help-seeking or disengagement from services. Language differences and cultural views on development can create confusion and mistrust of mainstream supports. Thriving Kids must address these challenges by providing accessible interpreter services, recruiting bicultural workers, and offering culturally appropriate materials to ensure CALD families receive timely and effective early intervention.

Caution is needed when considering copayments or means testing for Thriving Kids, as these measures risk deepening existing inequities and limiting access for families already facing financial hardship. Families already experiencing financial stress are more likely to delay or forgo developmental assessments and therapies because of cost, even when they have serious concerns about their child’s development. These delays have lifelong

Grandmother’s Story

Grandmother has been caring for her granddaughter (5 years) from the age of 3 months in a kinship care arrangement. Both identify as First Nations people. The granddaughter has developmental delays that are impacting on her grandmother’s ability to continue to care for her granddaughter.

The family was overwhelmed. When the IUIH/Benevolent ECA Partnership team visit, they identify through yarning that while the NDIS was the family’s primary concern additional concerns exist around schooling, mental health, and carer fatigue. The family are becoming concerned about their ability to care for their granddaughter.

The grandparents were able to access free IUIH supports due to the partnership and warm referral. They were linked in with a paediatrician and allied health professionals - this flowed to referrals for further supports and allowed Grandmother to gain access to the NDIS through the partnership.

Moving forward the partnership team connected Grandmother to external support that assisted with the granddaughters’ schooling concerns. One key area was school exclusion with the school requiring the granddaughter to be collected by midday every day. The partnerships team advised Grandmother the school had a responsibility to be inclusive. Another Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service was brought into advocate. They organised a community Elder to accompany Grandmother to the school and discuss the exclusion and its effect on the family’s life.

Overall, an incredible outcome was achieved for the family.

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consequences, as the critical early years of brain development are lost while families wait until they can afford support.

The current system already prioritises those who can afford to pay privately, who have flexibility to take time off work, and who can manage the travel often required to access services. This creates a two-tiered system: children from families with resources receive timely support, while those without are left waiting during the most crucial developmental window. From an economic perspective, copayments may appear to reduce immediate program costs, but in reality they increase long term expenditure. Children who miss out on early supports are more likely to require intensive, high cost interventions later in life, placing greater pressure on health, education, and social care systems. Copayments would disproportionately harm rural, remote, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and CALD communities, contradicting the evidence that universal, free access leads to the best outcomes for both children and systems over time.

Equity requires that Thriving Kids be designed as a universal entitlement, ensuring every child, regardless of background or diagnosis, can access timely and appropriate developmental supports. Evidence consistently shows that early intervention delivers strong returns on investment, reducing the need for more intensive and costly supports later in life. By embedding universal access to early supports, Thriving Kids can prevent the escalation of developmental concerns into lifelong disadvantage, while also strengthening Australia’s future workforce participation and productivity.

Learnings for Thriving Kids

  • Thriving Kids must be designed as a universal entitlement, rejecting copayments and means testing to ensure every child can access timely supports, regardless of background or family income.
  • Partnering with ACCOs and resourcing CALD-specific supports such as interpreters and bicultural workers ensures services meet families where they are and build trust.
  • Copayments create long-term costs. While they may reduce immediate program expenditure, they delay intervention, entrench inequities, and lead to higher demand for expensive services later in life.
  • Universal access to early supports delivers strong returns on investment by reducing health, education, and social costs, while strengthening Australia’s future workforce participation and productivity.

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TOR 4. Workforce support and training

No reform can succeed without a stable, skilled, and supported workforce - this will be the backbone of Thriving Kids. However, significant shortages and pressures, especially in regional and rural areas, hinder timely and equitable access to services. Targeted strategies are needed to attract and retain allied health professionals through incentives, training pipelines, and sustainable funding. Current models often neglect professional development, clinical supervision, and equitable pay, contributing to workforce instability.

Early intervention requires training allied health professionals to engage parents and embed strategies in daily life. Children with complex needs need experienced practitioners supported by funding that reflects care intensity. Expanding accreditation, graduate pathways, and clinical governance is vital. The workforce also holds integrated community hubs together, offering families accessible, stigma-free support. Strengthening this requires investment in multidisciplinary teams skilled in collaboration and trusted by families.

Early intervention should focus on the parent-child relationship. Allied health professionals must be trained to actively engage parents, co-create goals, and integrate developmental strategies into daily routines. This model was used to inform the In Sync program. Expanding this will require targeted funding focused to train a sufficiently sized workforce in the relational approach, ensuring high levels of competency across the sector and building the capability needed to deliver consistent, evidence-based outcomes.

Children with complex developmental needs require experienced practitioners capable of tailoring interventions. However, current hourly rates under existing funding models do not adequately support the workforce development, case conferencing, and reflective practice required for complex care. To address this gap, we recommend structured pipelines for allied health and

Workforce Capability and Relational Practice

To deliver the relational approach at the heart of our programs, we have developed a structured and evidence-informed training model for our ECA teams.

All new team members receive training in Play Connect Learn, led by Dr Jacqui Barfoot of the University of Queensland’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. This consists of a two day program followed by shadowing a block of six sessions. New starters then lead six sessions under the supervision of a trained team member, ensuring skills are embedded in practice.

Clinical and reflective supervision is provided monthly, with additional fortnightly training delivered by peers within the team, reinforcing the relational approach in everyday contexts. Staff also undertake an annual one day refresher to consolidate learning and maintain fidelity to the model.

The onboarding process is carefully structured across a three month block, during which new staff members progress gradually toward full independence in their roles. This includes direct observation, supported practice, reflective feedback, and ongoing mentoring.

This model demonstrates that high quality workforce preparation is inherently labour intensive. Training requires significant investment of time, staff capacity, and supervision resources to ensure new team members are ready to deliver relationally informed practice with confidence and consistency.

While this results in a skilled and effective workforce, it also highlights the need for sustained government investment in workforce training and development if Thriving Kids is to be delivered at the scale and quality required.

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behaviour support workers, alongside differential pricing models that reflect the intensity of complex work. Accreditation pathways and graduate programs, such as IBIS and the Allied Health Graduate Pathway, should be expanded to strengthen early-career development. Investment in robust clinical governance and supervision frameworks will also be essential to sustain quality care.

The workforce is often described as “the glue” that holds integrated early childhood hubs together, yet this role remains underfunded and under recognised. The South Australian Royal Commission highlighted the importance of these soft entry points, where families can access supports in familiar environments without stigma or complexity. To strengthen this aspect of Thriving Kids, we recommend funding to co-locate multidisciplinary teams within community hubs, enabling families to access multiple supports in one place. This requires investment in highly skilled, practically minded staff who can build strong collaborative relationships across sectors and act as trusted guides for families.

Learnings for Thriving Kids

The Benevolent Society brings deep expertise in workforce development across early childhood, allied health, and family support. We stand ready to partner with government to build the workforce required to deliver Thriving Kids at scale.

  • Recognising and valuing roles such as Lead Practitioners, Key Workers, and Early Childhood Teachers.
  • Embedding minimum professional standards and, where appropriate, professional registration.
  • Funding regular opportunities for innovation, supervision, and reflective practice, so practitioners can continuously improve.
  • Introducing pay parity and targeted retention incentives, particularly in regional and remote contexts.

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Appendix 1

How Thriving Kids could work as a client journey

This example shows a client journey under Thriving Kids, based on lessons from the ECA model, starting with a parent’s request for support and outlining the key assessments - while recognising some children may still need to transition to an NDIS plan.

Thriving Kids

Developmental Concerns Identified

Information & Guidance Support & Services Diagnosis Support Support & Services