Additional Statement to the Thriving Kids Parliamentary Committee – Rob Ryan
(from 28th November 2025)
I would like to start by way of an apology for not being able to talk at the Committee Hearing. I tried several attempts online to speak with no success. I am not sure if the issue was at my end or at the Parliament House Committee room, but either way it was disappointing to miss the chance to talk with you in person. Thank you for the opportunity to provide some of the information I wanted to convey to the committee. I have provided these comments in numbered form to make it easier for the committee to review and I would be happy to discuss further if you had any additional questions.
- Place parents and carers at the centre of the Thriving Kids model by recognising them as the primary agents of change in their children’s lives.
- Parenting is one of the strongest determinants of a child’s lifelong wellbeing, and effective support must strengthen the daily interactions between parents, carers and children.
- Parenting skills are learned and learnable, and when we treat them as such, parents and carers are more willing to seek help and more confident in their role as their child’s first teacher.
- Capacity-building approaches empower parents and carers, giving them the confidence, skills and problem-solving tools they need to navigate challenges now and in the future.
- Parenting support must be accessible in many forms, from peer support (e.g., MyTime) to brief coaching, online information (e.g., Raising Children Network) and structured programs, so families can get help early, in ways that fit their lives and their needs.
- Evidence informed practice frameworks help practitioners make every interaction with parents and carers count, ensuring consistent, strengths-based support across health, education, disability and family services.
- Our recent work with early intervention services shows that even brief, well-designed coaching can make a meaningful difference, helping parents and carers build skills quickly and improving outcomes for children.
- We have also developed a conversation toolkit for professionals who have valuable knowledge to share with parents and carers through everyday conversations. As these conversations can be emotional and challenging, this toolkit offers simple, practical strategies to boost confidence, support meaningful conversations and improve outcomes for children.
- Fund the Glue. The cost of back of house activity such as supervision of staff, training, governance, administration and essential infrastructure is fundamental to the success of any service. Dedicated and adequate glue funding is integral to effective functioning of services, but it is often unfunded or reliant on short term grants. Funding the glue also reduces red-tape and administrative burdens by streamlining contracting, reducing the number of contracts and funding for longer periods to ensure sustainability.
- Navigation is not just about finding services. It is important to build self-advocacy for parents, families and children as a skill to help them navigate complexity and then how to use the service or service pathways. A local peer lead in a hub context creates significant efficiencies. This has been the case with MyTime where parents frequently report they felt alone until they went to a MyTime group and then were supported by peers, facilitators and co-ordinators to build their skills and navigate the system.
- Prioritise and scale evidence-based parenting programs as core supports, especially those tailored for parents with intellectual disability and for parents of children with disability.
Programs such as Signposts for Building Better Behaviour, smalltalk, MyTime, and specialised one-to-one supports for parents with intellectual disability such as the Parenting Young Children program. The key to the success of these programs is to support long term funding to ensure successful scale up to maximise long term impact and outcomes. Short term funding of programs does not work. Strengthen national, scalable platforms that already work such as:
a. Raising Children Network (RCN) Raising Children Network * See additional notes from RCN below
b. MyTime and Virtual MyTime MyTime - Supporting parents and carers of children with disability using already established online and place based services like Playgroups, local Community agencies and schools to provide peer led consistent, high-quality information and support.
c. Signposts Signposts Building Better Behaviour training program + Parenting Research Centre provides practical, evidence-based strategies that help parents promote positive behaviour and healthy development in their children.
d. Smalltalk Smalltalk | Giving your kids a great start equips parents with simple, evidence-based strategies to enrich everyday home learning, providing accessible, early-intervention support through universal community settings such as supported playgroups.
- Re-establish a national coordinated workforce and practice support strategy, such as a ‘Healthy Start 2.0’ network, to build capability across sectors.
Anational practice infrastructure is needed to ensure professionals can confidently support parents with disability and parents of children with disability and to build capacity.
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Test the model in several locations before going “live” with the final approach. Find families with several children/young people, navigating multiple services and “test” the model/approach prior to launching. A lot of the draft models often appear as though they are set up for a traditional nuclear family, living in inner city, with only one child and two parents etc. This is not the modern family, and any system must make sense for families living with complexity. It is not linear and there should be multiple redundancies to catch families who fall through the cracks.
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Resource and fund ongoing cross-sectional survey and analysis of parents such as the Parenting Today National Parenting Survey Parenting Today * Parenting Research Centre to capture data and learnings to inform future policy and program investment in Thriving Kids.
Raising Children Network (RCN) — Additional Information
S% raisingchildren.net.au
° the australian parenting website
A question was asked by the Committee about the Raising Children Network, and we indicated the RCN team would be willing to give evidence. However, as it was the last day of the hearings the Committee invited additional information on the Raising Children Network to be provided. Since 2006, Raising Children Network (RCN) has been federally funded to deliver Australia’s national, evidence-based parenting resource. With more than 35 million pageviews annually and approximately 80,000 visits per day, RCN connects parents, carers and professionals with free, plain-language information across child health and development, including dedicated content domains on developmental delay, autism, ADHD and disability. All RCN messages are grounded in scientific and practice evidence, reflecting parent information needs and help-seeking behaviours.
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Key challenges:
- Many families face long waits for diagnosis.
- Navigation remains a challenge.
- Variability in developmental screening and checks across jurisdictions creates inequities.
- Engagement can drop when responsibility shifts between departments (e.g., Health in the early years to Education at school entry).
- First Nations and CALD families often experience later diagnosis and reduced access to supports.
- Many GPs and frontline professionals would like support in referring parents to information on development, early concerns and quality resources.
- Fragmentation persists when families receive different advice across sectors.
Opportunities
- There is an opportunity for better online guidance to relevant and timely programs and supports. This speaks to the development of interactive digital tools, for example:
- service finder / navigation tools
- AI-driven pathfinders.
- Opportunity to leverage RCN to provide one national evidence-base doorway to TK information, and support a distributed model connected with health and education across all states and territories.
- Opportunity to leverage strong digital engagement of some CALD and First Nations communities on social networks, e.g., WhatsApp, Aboriginal TikTok
- Opportunity to expand RCN’s ‘edutainment’ (education + entertainment) video microlearning content into workforce-facing microlearning modules integrated with professional associations.
RCN has continually evolved, expanding content in line with parent and professional needs and adapting its delivery across digital platforms and channels to meet families where they are. RCN is ready to contribute to Thriving Kids by equipping families with consistent, strengths-based, neuro-affirming information. RCN could also help harmonise national messaging around TK as trusted voice to the community.
We thank the Committee for its thoughtful consideration of this evidence and for its commitment to strengthening outcomes for children and families across Australia. The Parenting Research Centre and Raising Children Network looks forward to continuing to support this important national effort and we would be pleased to respond to any further questions from the Committee or to provide further advice should this be helpful to the committee.
To conclude in the words of Ronan Soussa, Ambassador for International Day of People with a disability “early intervention gives the tools to thrive and that is why thriving families (and parents/carers), can help thriving kids, to become thriving adults which leads to a thriving Australia”. This is more than one political cycle - it is important to get this right for our future.
Thank you
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Rob Ryan CEO, Parenting Research Centre 28“ November 2025
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