Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee, , 5:30:31 to 5:34:54
The committee examines how the Thriving Kids program will support children with low to moderate needs as a separate pathway from the NDIS, focusing on the 2028 transition timeline.
Topics: Social services, Health
Speakers: Gabriela Pulczynski, Senator Penny Allman-Payne, Blair Comley
Okay, thank you. Noting that you've talked about this transition phase where Thriving Kids is ramping up, and I guess changes to the NDIS in respect of that aren't expected until 2028. When do you expect Thriving Kids to be able to offer the same level of service to kids as they would have been receiving under the NDIS? Like at what point are those two going to meet, I guess.
So one of the reasons that Thriving Kids has been established and that governments have made this significant investment in this supports is recognition that the current model of NDIS supports, individualised packages, doesn't necessarily work best for children, and that there might be other ways to provide early intervention supports for children and families. And so it's not the scenario that thriving kids, even at its most intensive offering, will replicate exactly what the NDIS offers, but that's intentional.
And so will it be the case that if Thriving Kids isn't providing that same level of support, for example, that a kid might be getting or a child might be getting right now under NDIS, will they have access to the NDIS to supplement that if thriving kids isn't meeting the extent of their need? Or is it one or the other?
So that will depend on a case-by-case basis. So thriving kids is for children with low to moderate support needs who have autism or developmental delay. Depending on the severity of their needs after one January, they may still be eligible for the NDIS. Where a child presents with multiple disabilities? Yes.
Can I just clarify just as it's not my normal portfolio? So when you say one January, do you mean one January 2028?
2028, yes. So in about 14 months?
Yes.
Where a child presents with multiple disabilities, then it might be the case that they're on the NDIS, for example, for a physical disability, but also accessing thriving kids for the low-to-moderate support needs for disability for developmental delay or autism, but also thriving kids is also available for parents and families, because a lot of what was heard in the consultations and engagement that gave rise to Thriving Kids was that there's also a need to support parents with reliable information and supports, given that parents are the best teachers.
Yeah. I guess one of my questions is given that thriving kids' services are going to be offered by each state. What level of direction will the department have over that in terms of making sure I guess that kids are actually getting the support that they need, given that you have much more control over NDIS and now the states are being devolved that task?
So the Thriving Kids bilateral agreements and also the national agreement on foundational supports sets out an assurance framework that the Commonwealth is using to support and manage the rollout of Thriving Kids. That includes the requirement to provide information about implementation in all jurisdictions, including, for example, for general supports, for parenting supports and for targeted supports. The Commonwealth has to consider and agree to those reports on a regular basis to pay jurisdictions under the agreements. So there's an implementation report that is due to be provided in April of next year, and then six months later again, and it's that mechanism and also regular and close engagement with jurisdictions that provides a mechanism for us to be comfortable that thriving is on track.
So it's a co-governed scheme, and so for certain key rules, we certainly have to get agreement from the states and territories. So it's not a we control something completely, they control other things completely. It's really we have to work together.
Thanks, Mr. Connolly.