SHARE
No child left behind: report into the Thriving Kids initiative
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was officially launched in July 2013 with full scheme rollout across Australia occurring in 2020. The NDIS now supports approximately 751,000 participants and the number of participants is increasing annually at around 9.5 per cent and most are children.
There is much conjecture as to why the numbers are increasing so quickly. Many children referred to the NDIS have developmental delays and/or autism. The difficulties in the NDIS for young children can be broadly summarised as:
- scheme organisation and management
- clinical issues
- outcomes, data and evidence
- education.
In August 2025, the Thriving Kids initiative was announced. It aim is to focus on the early identification of ‘developmental concerns’ and the establishment of ‘a national system of supports for children aged 8 and under with developmental delay and disability and low to moderate support needs and their families'.
This report inquires into the Thriving Kids initiative with the aim to:
- 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.
- 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.
- Identify equity and intersectional issues, in particular, children who identify as First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse.
- Identify gaps in workforce support and training required to deliver Thriving Kids.
- Draw on domestic and international policy experience and best practice.
- Identify mechanisms that would allow a seamless transition through mainstream systems for all children with for children with mild to moderate support needs.
The report makes 16 recommendations.
