Inquiry into Thriving Kids Initiative Submission
October 2025
Table of Contents
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ToR 2: Effectiveness of current and previous programs and initiatives
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ToR 5: Domestic and International Policy Experience and Best Practice
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ToR 6: Mechanisms to Allow Seamless Transition Through Mainstream Systems
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ToR 2: Effectiveness of current and previous programs and initiatives
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International reach …………………………………………………………… Error! Bookmark not defined.
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Executive Summary
This submission presents a proven, Australian-developed model of peer-led foundational support, Now & Next. Over the past decade, Now & Next has been implemented and independently evaluated, consistently delivering measurable outcomes. Co-designed with parents and sustained for more than ten years, Now & Next is internationally recognised as best practice and demonstrates how Thriving Kids can be built on approaches that are parent-developed, peer-delivered, and evidence-backed. It now offers government a ready-made, cost-effective model that can be scaled nationally through Thriving Kids.
Parents are the constant in their children’s lives. They make daily decisions that shape participation, learning, and wellbeing. When parents are informed, confident, and connected, their children do better. Yet families too often wait for a diagnosis before seeking and receiving specialist support, losing precious early years when intervention is most effective.
Now & Next fills this gap by providing a structured, peer-led pathway where families learn from each other, set meaningful goals, and maintain hope during these early years. Evaluations consistently show significant improvements in hope, empowerment, and wellbeing across all families, with the largest gains among those without NDIS funding. Starting from lower baselines, these families showed the greatest improvement, evidence of how critical peer-led supports are for parents of children who may not qualify for the NDIS but still need timely, empowering help.
While Now & Next is a proven program, it is one established model within the wider range of supports families need. Thriving Kids should provide a suite of peer-led, capability-building programs, allowing families to engage at the right time, deepen their knowledge and leadership, and build resilience over the long term. This developmental approach ensures families have multiple entry points and can continue to grow as their circumstances change.
The program is underpinned by two family-friendly frameworks: Bridge to a Good Life, which illustrates the three laneways families travel — community, peer, and specialist services — and encourages them to strengthen all three rather than relying solely on the services laneway; and Child Voice model, which helps parents nurture their child’s agency from the earliest years. Together with resources co-designed by families, such as the Parent–Professional Relationship Statement and Families Leaning into Partnerships with Professionals, these frameworks provide practical, family-friendly tools that prepare families to engage confidently with health, education, and community systems.
Economic evaluation demonstrates that this approach is also sustainable. A New Zealand Treasury cost–benefit analysis found that every dollar invested in Now & Next returned between $2.70 and $4.70 to society over ten years, alongside direct government savings.
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Few Australian-developed parenting programs for children with developmental delays or disabilities have such long-term, independently validated returns.
Plumtree has been unique in leading this work by bringing together two perspectives that are rarely integrated in early childhood organisations: the professional workforce, and a systematically developed parent-peer workforce and leadership pathway. No other organisation in Australia has embedded parent-peer workers alongside professionals in this way, creating a model that combines evidence-based practice with lived experience at its core.
This innovation has been recognised nationally and internationally, and has produced lasting ripple effects. In 2017, through the NDS Innovative Workforce Fund (2017-2018), we developed and published resources on Parents as Peer Workers in Early Childhood Intervention, work that remains publicly available and continues to guide organisations across the sector. At the same time, our commitment to parent leadership saw us incubate two national, parent-led organisations, Reframing Autism and Belongside, whose leaders began their journey through Now & Next and are now independent, serving thousands of families. Together, these achievements demonstrate how systematically embedding parent-peer work within a professional organisation not only strengthens supports in the short term, but also builds enduring community capacity and leadership pathways that extend well beyond any single program or funding cycle.
Plumtree is a child, family, and community organisation with over 35 years of experience and a member of the Early Childhood Intervention Best Practice Network (ECIBPN). We endorse the network’s collective submission to this inquiry and bring this paper as a complementary perspective. In particular, we highlight the need for formal recognition and scaling of the parent-peer workforce as a cornerstone of Thriving Kids.
Recommendations
The Commonwealth embed peer-led foundational supports as a core element of Thriving Kids. This requires five key policy actions:
- Recognise and scale the parent-peer workforce as part of the national early childhood system.
- Invest in evidence-based, peer-led programs such as Now & Next, implemented for over a decade, independently evaluated, and internationally recognised as best practice. Provide families universal and free access to such programs.
- Ensure universal non-diagnostic entry points with equitable access for all families, including those not eligible for the NDIS.
- Embed family-friendly frameworks (Bridge to a Good Life, Child Voice, and related co-designed tools) to provide shared language and continuity across systems.
- Strengthen the peer laneway across child and family organisations, early years services, and community settings by embedding parent-peer leadership alongside
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professional expertise, so families meet peers wherever they enter the system, and supports remain authentic, relational, and sustainable.
Thriving Kids must not become a refresh of professional services alone. Government now has the opportunity to create a balanced ecosystem of supports, one that strengthens all laneways families need: parent-peer, community, and professional. These complementary laneways are essential for families to move forward sustainably, without being left waiting or dependent on intensive services alone. Plumtree is ready to partner with the Commonwealth and sector peers to implement this approach with the authenticity and practical know-how built over a decade of delivery.
Sylvana Mahmic
CEO
Plumtree Children’s Services
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ToR 1: Evidence-based information and resources to assist parents identify if their child has mild to moderate developmental delay and support parents to provide support
Parents are the constant in their child’s life. They make daily decisions that shape participation, learning, and wellbeing. When parents are informed, confident, and connected, their children do better. Yet too often families are left waiting for a diagnosis before receiving specialist support, losing precious time in the early years when intervention is most effective.
Now & Next directly addresses this gap. It is an eight-session program for parents and carers of young children with developmental delay or disability, delivered by trained parent-peer facilitators. Families participate actively in group settings where they learn from each other, set meaningful goals, and take action while still navigating assessment or diagnostic pathways. The program has been co-designed with parents, implemented for more than ten years, and is internationally recognised as best practice.
Evaluations consistently show:
- Statistically significant improvements in parent hope, empowerment, and wellbeing.
- Increased confidence to engage with child and family health nurses, GPs, allied health, and schools.
- The greatest gains among families without NDIS funding, those most at risk of missing out.
- Parents report achieving goals they set during the program, giving them a tangible experience of planning, acting, and building agency.
Long-term research confirms that these improvements are sustained in the medium to long term after participation. Promising outcomes have led to a Randomised Controlled Trial with the University of New South Wales, now underway.
Economic Value
Economic evaluation also confirms the value of this approach. In 2018, Plumtree worked with the New Zealand Treasury to conduct a cost–benefit analysis of Now & Next using the CBAx tool. Results showed:
- 3 years: Government ROI of 0.9 and Societal ROI of 2.7.
- 10 years: Government ROI of 2.9 and Societal ROI of 4.7.
This demonstrates that while short-term fiscal returns are modest, as is typical in early intervention, the long-term benefits are substantial. For every $1 invested, government expenditure reduces and society gains up to $4.70 in value. The analysis was deliberately conservative, reflecting real-world conditions, and should be considered a baseline. Since
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2018, Now & Next has expanded, transitioned to online delivery, and broadened its evaluation base, suggesting that a future CBA may show even stronger returns.
Together, these findings demonstrate that Now & Next provides parents with an evidence-based, practical, and cost-effective resource to identify developmental concerns, support their child, and act early with confidence.
ToR 2: Effectiveness of current and previous programs and initiatives
Current early childhood approaches too often place diagnosis and therapy at the centre of support. While these are sometimes important, they leave families waiting, with few opportunities to build capability early. Peer-led support fills this gap. Now & Next shows that peer-led capability-building provides a positive way for parents to get started and that peer-led services are a complementary and effective pathway for families, one that strengthens parent agency and reduces over-reliance on professional services.
Unlike diagnostic pathways, a peer-led program such as Now & Next creates a trusted, non-clinical entry point where parents can learn from peers, strengthen their own agency, and begin acting immediately rather than waiting for systems to respond.
Evaluations confirm that this approach is highly effective:
- Families act early. Parents report increased confidence to engage with health, ECEC, and schools, supporting smoother transitions and reducing stress on professionals.
- Equity is improved. Families without NDIS funding, those most at risk of disengagement, made the greatest gains in hope, empowerment, and wellbeing, demonstrating that peer-led models reach families who would otherwise be left out.
- Families achieve their goals. 87.6% of family goals, 80.6% of child goals, and 77.7% of personal goals were achieved within the program, giving parents experience of agency through planning and achieving their goals.
Families should not be forced to choose between therapy and capability-building. Evaluation showed that when Now & Next was offered at no cost, parents engaged strongly and credited it with building the skills and confidence that sustained their family. But when required to pay through NDIS packages, most families chose therapy for their child over capability-building for themselves. This reflects structural incentives in the system, not family preference, and underscores why capability-building supports must be available universally and free of charge. Without this, families miss out on what evaluations show makes the most enduring difference: confidence, resilience, and independence that reduce reliance on specialist systems over time.
The evidence shows that effective programs:
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- Provide safe, non-diagnostic entry points where families can act early without waiting for formal systems.
- Complement, rather than compete with, clinical and educational services by strengthening the “peer laneway” of capability and leadership.
- Reduce inequities by engaging families outside funded schemes, including CALD and other under-served groups.
- Build a parent-peer workforce that adds relational, culturally competent capacity to stretched professional teams.
To be effective, Thriving Kids must invest not only in therapeutic and diagnostic pathways, but in scalable, peer-led initiatives that build parent capability from the start. Embedding free programs like Now & Next within community and mainstream settings ensures that families are confident, connected, and equipped to navigate services on their own terms, reducing inequities, relieving pressure on professionals, and improving outcomes for children and the whole family.
ToR 3: Equity and Intersectional Issues
Evaluations of Now & Next show that peer-led, family capability-building models achieve equity and reach families who are often excluded from mainstream service pathways. Because programs are delivered by trained parent-peer facilitators, they provide culturally safe, trusted entry points for families from CALD, First Nations, and other under-served backgrounds.
Key findings of a 36-month implementation of Now & Next demonstrate that:
- CALD and First Nations inclusion: Of the 1,008 families engaged nationally, 27.4% were from CALD communities and 3.4% identified as First Nations (PPLP Final Evaluation, 2024). Programs engaged families across more than 20 cultural groups, with peer facilitators providing culturally responsive support that reduced disengagement and mistrust.
- Fathers’ engagement: Fathers’ participation was conservatively estimated at 17.5%, demonstrating that peer-led design creates more inclusive entry points than traditional services, where fathers are typically under-represented.
- Intersectional reach: Families from diverse backgrounds, including same-sex parents, autistic and neurodivergent parents, reported that Now & Next provided one of the only spaces where their full identities were recognised and respected.
- Reducing inequities: Evaluations confirmed that families without NDIS funding, who are most at risk of missing out, made the greatest gains in hope, empowerment, and wellbeing. This demonstrates that peer-led supports address structural inequities in the current system.
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The Stories of Change illustrate this impact. One example shows how a group of neurodivergent parents, including a same-sex couple, felt isolated and unsupported in mainstream services. Through Now & Next, they were able to connect with peers, share strategies, and reframe their perspective:
“They felt less isolated, connected with other parents, recognised their own challenges while being optimistic about their ability to support their children. Their experience shows the power of peer support and a strengths-based approach in building resilience and celebrating neurodiversity.”
Implication for Thriving Kids
For Thriving Kids to deliver on equity, parent-peer models must be embedded as a core pathway, including training and supports in place for peer staff, so that these programs:
- Provide safe, culturally competent entry points for CALD and First Nations families.
- Address intersectional barriers for LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent parents.
- Reduce inequities by reaching families who fall outside diagnostic or funding criteria.
ToR 4: Workforce gaps and training needs
Australia faces well-documented shortages across the early childhood and allied health workforce. Paediatricians, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, and early childhood educators are all in short supply, particularly in regional and rural areas. The market-based structure of the NDIS has intensified these shortages, driving demand for therapy hours while eroding the block-funded programs that once provided families with non-diagnostic, accessible supports. The result is a workforce stretched thin, and families left to wait.
One untapped lever is the parent-peer workforce. Since 2015, Plumtree has pioneered a structured pathway for parents to move from program participants into peer facilitators and, ultimately, into paid peer worker roles. To date, we have trained 98 family leaders, including 45 paid peer workers. These workers deliver Now & Next, mentor parents, co-design resources, and work alongside professionals in early childhood teams.
Parent-peer workers are not a replacement for clinical expertise. Rather, they are a complementary workforce that adds relational, culturally safe, and cost-effective capacity to existing teams. They provide families with the non-clinical supports that professionals often do not have time or funding to deliver:
- Emotional support and reassurance in the early stages of concern.
- Practical guidance on navigating systems.
- Strengths-based goal setting, using tools such as Pictability.
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- Culturally responsive engagement, particularly with CALD and First Nations families.
Evaluations show that families trust peer workers in ways they cannot always trust professionals. Peer workers make the system feel accessible. They also reduce demand on scarce allied health time by ensuring that when families do engage with therapists, they are better prepared and less likely to over-rely on therapy as the only solution.
Developing this workforce requires modest investment in training, supervision, and role clarity. At Plumtree, peer workers are trained in facilitation, strengths-based coaching, and family leadership. They work under professional supervision and within the governance of a child and family organisation. This ensures safety, accountability, and sustainability.
Systemic vision
Peer work in early childhood remains underdeveloped compared to other sectors such as mental health, where lived-experience roles are now embedded and valued. Plumtree’s evaluation evidence shows that parent-peer workers should be recognised as a standard part of child and family organisations. These roles provide universal access to relational, culturally safe supports that are otherwise missing from current systems.
Plumtree’s leadership in this field is recognised nationally. Through the NDS Innovative Workforce Fund (2017), we led the Parents as Peer Workers in ECI project, producing a suite of resources, including practice guides, role descriptions, and supervision models, that remain publicly available and continue to guide organisations nationally and internationally.
Thriving Kids offers the opportunity to embed this proven workforce as part of the national system. Doing so will extend reach, reduce inequities, and relieve pressure on overstretched professionals. The evidence shows that parent-peer work is feasible, effective, affordable, and ready to scale with the right funding and training in place.
ToR 5: Domestic and International Policy Experience and Best Practice
Now & Next is an Australian-developed, peer-led foundational support program that has been adopted internationally and cited in policy documents as best practice. Very few early childhood intervention innovations from Australia have achieved this level of international reach and policy influence. It demonstrates how Thriving Kids can leverage homegrown solutions that are already shaping practice globally.
International reach
Since 2016, Now & Next has been delivered in Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, Finland, Croatia, Ireland, and Albania. In every context, outcomes have mirrored those achieved in Australia: statistically significant improvements in parent hope, empowerment, and wellbeing, with strong participant recommendation rates. This consistency across cultures
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demonstrates that the model is both transferable and adaptable (See Publications and Supporting Documentation).
Governments and organisations in these countries are interested in Now & Next because service-led models alone cannot meet demand. Families everywhere need practical tools and relational entry points, not just therapy or diagnosis. Peer-led foundational supports are increasingly recognised internationally as a cost-effective innovation that complements stretched professional systems (See Publications and Supporting Documentation).
Research and evaluation
Now & Next has been evaluated through peer-reviewed research, independent review by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and a four-year evaluation of the Parents as Peer Leaders Project, which confirmed that families without NDIS funding, often the most disadvantaged, made the strongest gains. Peer reviewed long-term follow-up show sustained outcomes in the medium to long-term after participation (Lancaster et al, 2024). A Randomised Controlled Trial currently underway with the University of New South Wales will add further gold-standard evidence.
Now & Next has been cited in national and international policy documents, including work by the Grattan Institute in Australia and early childhood policy frameworks in New Zealand and Europe (see Appendix). Together, they position Now & Next as a world-leading example of family capacity-building through peer work.
Best practice principles
The success of Now & Next illustrates key principles that should underpin Thriving Kids:
- Non-diagnostic entry points that enable families to act early.
- Peer-led delivery, providing relational and culturally safe support.
- Evidence-based evaluation, ensuring quality and accountability.
- International replication, demonstrating scalability.
- Economic sustainability, with proven long-term returns.
By embedding these principles, Thriving Kids can align with international best practice while leading with a model developed here in Australia, one that demonstrates how peer-led foundational supports can transform systems.
ToR 6: Mechanisms to Allow Seamless Transition Through Mainstream Systems
Transitions between child and family health, early childhood education, and school are the points where families most often experience gaps in support. Instead of continuity, they encounter duplication, abrupt handovers, and exclusion until new eligibility requirements
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are met. Families tell us they are left to navigate these shifts without guidance, undermining confidence and increasing reliance on intensive services later.
Just as critically, they have rarely been introduced to the idea that they can take ownership of transitions themselves. In the early stages, parents naturally look to professionals for direction, but without tools or frameworks to guide them, they are left dependent, unprepared, and even disempowered. Peer-led foundational supports, and frameworks such as Bridge to a Good Life and Child Voice (below), change this dynamic by equipping families with the capability to plan, act, and lead through transitions.
Thriving Kids offers the chance to change this trajectory by embedding supports that prepare families to move across systems with confidence, agency, and continuity.
Bridge to a Good Life
Plumtree’s Bridge to a Good Life framework directly addresses the gaps families encounter by mapping the three essential pathways they must travel to support their children:
- Community inclusion – belonging in everyday community spaces.
- Peer connection – learning with and from other families and family-led organisations.
- Specialist services – accessing professional expertise when needed.
Too often, families are pushed onto the laneway of specialist services, with insufficient attention to community and peer supports. This can create dependency and reduce family empowerment. A Bridge to a Good Life provides families with a roadmap to strengthen all three pathways, helping them manage transitions themselves with greater confidence and resilience. For government, it signals where investment is needed across all laneways, ensuring peer and community supports are not neglected. In this way, the Bridge framework builds both family capability and system capacity for smoother, more sustainable transitions.
Child Voice model
The Child Voice framework addresses another critical gap: children are too often passive in transitions, with decisions made for them rather than with them. The model provides a framework for parents to nurture their child’s agency from the earliest years, creating opportunities for choice and supporting self-expression. Over time, this scaffolds the child’s ability to play an active role in shaping their life.
By equipping parents to support agency, Child Voice ensures transitions, such as moving into preschool or primary school, are not merely transactional handovers between services, but a continuation of the child’s growth as an active participant. Families report that when schools recognise and build on the child’s voice, inclusion and participation are stronger.
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Government investment in this approach builds a generation of children more prepared for participation and belonging in mainstream settings.
Mechanisms for seamlessness
Our experience shows that three system mechanisms are essential:
- Universal access points: Families must be able to enter peer-led, non-diagnostic supports without referral. This relational preparation enables smoother entry into mainstream systems.
- Parent-peer workers embedded across services: When peer workers are part of early childhood teams, community programs, and schools, they act as trusted guides during transitions.
- Shared frameworks that travel with families: Tools such as Bridge to a Good Life and Child Voice give families, educators, and clinicians a shared language for continuity.
These mechanisms transform transitions from fragmented “handovers” into planned, relational, and empowering processes. To achieve this, Thriving Kids must recognise parent-peer workers as part of the early childhood workforce, commission evidence-based peer-led programs such as Now & Next and others, guarantee universal, non-diagnostic access points, and embed frameworks such as Bridge to a Good Life and Child Voice across mainstream services. Providers should also be accountable for demonstrating equity and continuity in transitions.
Thriving Kids can succeed where previous reforms have struggled, by building a coherent national system of foundational supports that begins early, values family leadership, and ensures that peer workers help families navigate transitions and systems.
Conclusion
Thriving Kids is an opportunity to rebalance Australia’s early support system, creating timely, relational, and practical supports that do not leave families waiting for diagnosis or navigating fragmented services alone.
Plumtree’s experience shows that when families are supported early through peer-led, community-embedded programs, they are more confident, hopeful, and better prepared to engage with health, education, and allied health. They rely less on intensive specialist services, and their children are more likely to thrive in mainstream settings.
Now & Next demonstrates that it is possible to transform the eco-system for families through an Australian-developed, evidence-based, peer-led model. It has been implemented for over a decade, independently evaluated, and internationally recognised as best practice. Cost–benefit analysis confirms its sustainability, with long-term returns to
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government and society. This is not a concept to be tested, but a proven approach ready to scale.
To succeed, Thriving Kids must move beyond a refresh of professional services. It requires recognition and scale-up of the parent-peer workforce; investment in evidence-based, peer-led programs; universal non-diagnostic entry points; and the embedding of co-designed, family-friendly frameworks to guide continuity across systems. Above all, it requires strengthening the peer laneway across child and family organisations and community settings, so that families meet peer support wherever they enter the system.
The expertise to deliver this already exists. Plumtree has led the sector in demonstrating that it can systematically embed a parent-peer workforce within a child and family organisation, building the resources, evidence, and leadership pathways that make this model sustainable. Our work has shown how parent leadership complements professional expertise to strengthen supports immediately, while also creating enduring community capacity. With the evidence established, the workforce developing, and the frameworks in place, the next step is for government to scale what works, embedding peer-led foundational supports as a cornerstone of Thriving Kids, and building a system that equips families from the earliest years and sets children on a pathway to thrive.
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Publications and Supporting Evidence
Lancaster, K., Kern, M. L., Harding, K., Bayasgalan, M., Janson, A., Mahmic, S., & Bhopti, A. (2024). Exploring long-term outcomes of a peer support programme for parents* of children with disability in Australia. Child: Care, Health and Development, 50(2), e13236.
https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.13236 (*Demonstrated sustained long-term benefits for families participating in Now & Next)
Lancaster, K., Bhopti, A., Kern, M.L., Taylor, R., Janson, A., & Harding, K. (2023). Effectiveness of peer support programmes for improving well-being and quality of life in parents/carers of children with disability or chronic illness: A systematic review. Child: Care, Health and Development, 49(3), 485–496. https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.13063
Mahmic, S., Kern, M.L., Janson, A., Tracey, D., Johnston, C. (In press) Powering Up Family Systems Using Systems -Informed Positive Psychology: Parent Peer Workers as Levers for Change. In M. Wehmeyer (Ed), Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology and Disability.
Mahmic, S., Kern, M. L., & Janson, A. (2021). Identifying and Shifting Disempowering Paradigms for Families of Children With Disability Through a System Informed Positive Psychology Approach [Original Research]. Frontiers in psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.663640
Parents as Peer Leaders Project Final Evaluation (2020-2024) and associated project materials
Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Evaluation (2018)
Research on Peer Work in Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) Project | Plumtree, Innovative Workforce Fund, 2017.
National and International Reports entioning Now & Next
Duffy, S., & Brown, M. (2023). Redesigning the NDIS: An international perspective on an Australian disability support system (ISBN 978-1-912712-47-2). Citizen Network Research.
Duffy, S., Brown, R. (2024). Redesigning the NDIS: A Vision for Reforming the NDIS as a Regenerative System of Support Co-Designed with People with Disabilities. DANA.
Imms, C., Moore, T., Bull, K., Gavidia-Payne, S., Lami, F., Wilson, M., Allen, L., & Knight, S. (2024). Review of best practice in early childhood intervention: Desktop review full report. The University of Melbourne. Report commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Social Services. ECI-TAP-Deliverable-1-Desktop-Review-Full-Report-V1.0 Nov2024.pdf
Kalopisis, V., & Bertana, I. (2023). European inspiring practices in ECI (Deliverable 4.5, Work Package 4: Greek Agora on EC). European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD).. D4.5-EU-Inspiring-Practices EN layout.pdf
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Office of Disability Issues, New Zealand Government. (2020, February). A good start in life: Practice guidance. https://www.hqsc.govt.nz/assets/Consumer-hub/Partners-in-Care/Publications-resources/Good-start-in-life-practice-guidance-Mar-2020.pdf
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Appendix 1
Families leaning into partnerships with professionals
The following statement was written by and for parents of children with disabilities or delays in their development at the second Now and Next Alumni conference 2018.
When we choose to lean in, we understand that…
- professionals are important champions in our journeys, but they cannot replace the role that we have as families;
- we are making an active choice to become leaders for our families, our communities, and ourselves:
- to provide a good life, is to provide a good life not just for our children, but for ourselves, our families, and our communities;
- a good life might include services and systems, but goes far, far beyond them.
By ‘leaning in’, we become active partners with professionals and…
- accept a shared responsibility amd accountability in maintaining our partnership with professionals;
- respect our professionals’ expertise but understand that we, as families, are best placed to lead the team around our child;
- commit to being active recipients of professional expertise, and to being invelved partners in our child’s therapy;
- share with professionals the area of our expertise, which is our child;
- invest in our own education and ourselves by being active learners since we make the ultimate difference in the lives of our children;
- model for professionals an active, respectful partnership with professionals.
By ‘leaning in’, we accept the responsibility to…
- embrace the strengths and interests of our children and use these as a starting point so that they develop their confidence and identity as unique individuals;
- remind others and ourselves that we reject the practice of focusing on what our children cannot do. This ‘deficit focus’ is outdated and damaging;
- shift the perception of what professionals expect of parents, of our partnerships, and of their role within those relationships, so that we achieve change for other families with whom those professionals work;
- include our professionals in celebrating our children’s stremgths;
- stimulate the leadership of our families by changing professional perspectives about what families want and what they can achieve.
By ‘leaning in’, we embrace the knowledge that…
- we must bring other parents along with us, so that - as a collective woire — we have more impact than we could ever have individually;
- if we leave each other behind, if our professional partnerships are an individual affair, we have achieved only so much;
- together we can make social change; together we can achieve a social movement for realising a better, more inclusive, more accepting world for our children;
- achieving acceptance for our children is the core business of family leadership.
Compiled by Dr Melanie Heyworth, parent and Peer Worker
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Appendix 2
The following statement was written by and for parents. It was developed at the inaugural Plumtree Now And Next Alumni Conference April 2017.
The best partnerships…
- have the best interests of our children at their heart;
- are firmly child- and family-centred, reflecting the strengths and needs of our children and our families;
- respect the unique expertise that we, as parents, have as our children’s frontline educators;
- equally respect the knowledge and guidance that professionals offer to us and to our children;
- are based on open, honest, and respectful communication between parents, professionals, and children, so that relationships are safe, collaborative and supportive for all parties, and recognise the expectations required of parents, professionals, and children, to achieve the most positive outcomes for our children.
The best relationships develop when…
- parents and professionals together agree upon the most meaningful goals for our children;
- goals are measurable, achievable, and relevant to us as unique individuals;
- we plan together the strategies and processes we will use to implement and achieve our child and family goals;
- we agree on how we will together evaluate our progress;
- professionals support the capacity of our families to implement strategies in the natural settings of our homes and communities, and
- the whole family is empowered to support the achievement of our children’s and families’ goals.
Our children need professionals who…
- see our children as children, and not as their disability or diagnosis;
- are empathetic, understanding and passionate;
- are flexible, supportive and child-centred in their interactions;
- develop a personal relationship with our children directly;
- are as meaningful to our children as individuals as is possible, and
- relate to our children within the frame of their individual interests and strengths.
We have a responsibility to…
- be the most powerful agents for change for our children;
- believe in our own agency as the experts in our children, and embrace our experiences and wisdom as valued and valuable;
- share our expertise with our professional partners to achieve the best outcomes for our children;
- be confident leaders in professional partnerships because of the unique insight that we offer;
- engage in self-education and self-knowledge so that we can continue to be active and informed leaders in our partnerships, and
- share our knowledge and experiences with other parents, so that we can build a strong network of educated and empowered parent leaders who have confidence in their own self-worth and competency.
Compiled by Dr Melanie Heyworth, parent. Read the full statement at: https://plumtree.org.au/the-parent-professional-relationship-statement
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Appendix 3
Family Participation: Theory of Change
- DEMONSTRATE OUTCOMES: Build family capability through participation
- EVALUATE: Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of: family empowerment; families setting a vision for their child, family and self; achievement of goals; impact on agency, hope and wellbeing.
- SUSTAIN: Collective benefit mindset
- EXPAND: Community of practice | Peer workforce | Alumni peer network
- TRAIN: Professional development | Peer worker training | Family workshops
- ENGAGE: Early intervention professionals | Family leaders as peer workers | Families as participants
- EVIDENCE BASE: Positive Psychology, Family Leadership, Strength-based Approach, Gamification and Family-Centered Practice.
V2 2024
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Appendix 4
Family capacity-building framework: An investment and developmental approach using systems informed positive psychology (SIPP)
- Right from the start the family journey commences with consistent messages of hope and possibility for a positive future that include 3 lane ways of support: community inclusion, peer networks and specialist services
- SIPP informed: At all points, families focus on wellbeing and messages of a good life
- Parent-peer workers as a lever of change at all levels
- Families learn about and work towards these outcomes over time and at their own pace (developmental approach) through practical, planned opportunities that keep families building the best life for their child
- Investment from government to create paradigmatic change
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Appendix 5
Amplifying the voice of children with disabilities (Mahmic & Janson, 2019)
The inverted triangles show how family role decreases as child voice increases over time.
Birth to 18+
- I am independent and in control
- I understand the outcomes of my goals
- I set goals
- I make choices
- I consult when my child asks me to
- I strengthen partnerships to include the outcomes that my child wants
- I guide my child to make goals / I work with professionals to increase goal meaningfulness
- I coach my child to make choices / I translate to professionals
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Appendix 6
Existing systems that promote a deficit focus
- Disability is a disadvantage
- Experts know best
- ‘Assess my child, find the gaps and fix them’
- ‘Tell me what I need to do’
- ‘You need to do this’
Strength focused intervention to develop wellbeing literacy of families
- We will start with our strengths: My child’s strengths; Set a vision and make a plan; Work to achieve goals and celebrate success
- We’ve got this: I was in this place but now I’m in a different place; Looking after myself is important
- ‘I have a plan and my goals are achievable’
- ‘I am powerful’
- ‘I believe in myself’
- ‘I changed as a mother’
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