by Helen Dickinson, UNSW Sydney and Molly Saunders, UNSW Sydney

Thriving Kids is back in the spotlight, after the states and territories agreed last week to match the federal government’s A$2 billion dollar investment.

The new national program is targeted at children aged 0-8 with developmental delay and/or autism with low to moderate support needs. Under the proposal, many children currently supported through the NDIS would instead access assistance through this new “foundational supports” program.

But Thriving Kids has been clouded by uncertainty since its surprise announcement last August.

Nearly 500 submissions to a senate inquiry showed many families, advocates and service providers are anxious about the lack of clarity and fear kids could miss out on essential support.

On Tuesday, the government released a report that finally provides more detail.

This is welcome news. But important questions remain about how Thriving Kids will be rolled out, who for, and how the government will measure whether it’s working.

The new detail we have about Thriving Kids

In last week’s deal, the Commonwealth agreed to a delay, pushing back the start date to October.

Changes to NDIS access will not take effect until January 2028, allowing more time for service transition, workforce development and quality assurance.

The long-awaited report from the Thriving Kids Advisory Group has also set out guiding principles and key design features.

Thriving Kids will deliver a mix of universal supports – such as advice and skill-building for families – and targeted supports, “delivered where children live, learn and play”.

Precisely how these will be rolled out depends on each state and territory’s approach and will vary, building on existing services.

Targeted supports could involve group or one-on-one sessions with a specialist to work on particular skills (such as language or social interaction) and take place online or at home, school or childcare, depending on what the child and family needs.

There will be multiple pathways to get onto the program, such as referral from teachers, early childhood educators, and GPs. There will also be formal intake mechanisms but these are up to the states and territories to design.

Significantly, children will not need a formal diagnosis to receive support, removing a process that can be time-consuming, costly and inequitable.

Some children will likely still need a functional analysis of their support needs to access allied health professionals, such as occupational therapists, speech pathologists and physiotherapists.

Butler also indicated these targeted allied health supports would not involve gap fees – an issue that had raised concerns about access and equity.

Thriving Kids will include greater supports for parents. These aim to build self-advocacy skills, help them support their child’s development and navigate complex service systems.

The report also commits to evaluating the program. This means making sure public investment leads to meaningful improvements in children’s lives.

Importantly, children with significant and permanent disability will remain eligible for the NDIS, including those with developmental delay or autism.

What we still don’t know

Despite the additional information released this week, there are outstanding questions.

On Tuesday, Butler commented that “there was a life before the NDIS”, indicating a return to state-run service models for children.

Under Thriving Kids, families will not receive individualised budgets as they did under the NDIS, to purchase supports. Instead, children will access services commissioned and delivered by states and territories.

But this prospect may concern families who recall limited choice, long waiting lists and uneven quality prior to the establishment of the NDIS.

The report does not yet explain how Thriving Kids will avoid replicating these problems, particularly in areas where services are thin on the ground.

It does identify workplace development as critical, and there will be a focus on building disability capability across health services, early childhood education and care, and schools.

However, research consistently shows that workforce capability depends on more than individual skills. So training – while necessary – will not be enough by itself.

School leadership, staffing levels, time, resources and families’ capacity to navigate complex systems all shape whether inclusive practices are possible in practice.

Without addressing these factors, there is a risk responsibility will be shifted onto front-line workers without the conditions they need to succeed. These challenges are likely to be particularly acute in regional and rural areas.

What would make Thriving Kids successful?

In late 2025, we helped convene a policy forum involving 35 stakeholders from across education, health, early childhood and disability sectors to consider what would enable Thriving Kids to succeed.

This forum agreed that Thriving Kids must be holistic and universal, meaning it’s properly embedded wherever children live, play and learn. From the GP office to their school and beyond, there should be as few barriers to entry as possible.

It should be locally led, free of charge and neuro-affirming. This means there is recognition and support for the diverse ways people’s brains function – and this is valued as a strength, not a deficit.

Beyond these principles – which are shared by the Thriving Kids Advisory Group – success will depend on several practical commitments, ensuring:

• families, advocates and workers are involved in its design
• those working with children with disability are well-resourced and have the right skills, abilities and supports
• Thriving Kids and the NDIS work together, rather than operating as separate systems
• there are clear pathways for children to transition between services within Thriving Kids and, at age 9, into other supports or the NDIS, and
• funding is sustained to prevent geographic inequities.

Supports must be delivered in genuinely inclusive, mainstream settings. Otherwise, routinely withdrawing children from the places they live, play and learn for therapy risks reinforcing their exclusion, rather than participation.

The report’s guiding principles are encouraging. But whether Thriving Kids delivers meaningful change will hinge on the detail of its implementation.

Helen Dickinson, Professor, Public Service Research, UNSW Sydney and Molly Saunders, Research Associate, School of Business, UNSW Sydney

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.