Not enough is known about the program set to replace the NDIS support currently provided to autistic children to know whether it will meet their needs.
That is the standout point that WA health professionals and the South West Autism Network agreed upon when Medical Forum spoke to them about Thriving Kids.
Federal Health and Disability Minister Mark Butler announced the plan in a speech to the National Press Club on August 20, saying the change, which will begin rolling out in mid-2026, was needed to keep the NDIS sustainable.
According to a government fact sheet, Thriving Kids will be delivered by scaling and building on existing mainstream and community services.
“This includes child and maternal health, GPs, playgroups, early childhood education and care and schools, as well as digital and phone-based supports.”
There is a lot of detail yet to be worked through before it is clear how the new program, designed to support children with autism diverted away from the NDIS, will operate and many in WA are keen to find out more.
Dr Andrew Leech, GP and director of Garden Family Medical in Murdoch and Piara Waters, sees many families with children who have autism and said the NDIS changes were causing anxiety.
“We tend to walk with a lot of these families and be part of their journey and we’re hearing a lot of stress in families at the moment around the uncertainty of what’s going to happen with this, and particularly the ones that are just starting the process,” he told Medical Forum.
“These families need support, they are already exhausted and overwhelmed trying to navigate the system.”
He said without detail on what Thriving Kids will look like, it was also difficult to say what role GPs might play.
“Whatever happens, we GPs also need education and support on how to navigate this system and not be left out,” he said.
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“The NDIS does need to be reviewed or restructured because of a changing landscape with managing disability and how we deal with the increasing number of children needing support.
“We need to make it sustainable and accessible to everyone, but I’m cautious as to who is involved in that process and how it is done.”
‘Autism is permanent’
Advocacy groups were critical of Minister Butler’s language in his announcement when he spoke about “tens of thousands of young children with mild to moderate developmental delay or autism on a scheme set up for permanent disability”.
The Kids Research Institute Australia deputy director Professor Andrew Whitehouse said autism is permanent and that there is no current definition of for “mild to moderate autism”.
He said while autism levels one, two and three indicated the levels of support a person required, those levels did not equate to being mild or moderate.
Level one autism is considered to that which requires support. Level two is considered to require substantial support and level three is considered to require very substantial support.
Currently under the NDIS, only those assessed as levels two and three are generally provided access to the scheme.
Professor Whitehouse said while the NDIS was meeting the needs of many children who have high intensity support needs, for those with less substantial disability best practice is around providing support in everyday spaces that they spend their time.
He said the NDIS was simply not a model that is suited to providing that support.
“The NDIS is geared towards providing support in clinical environments and that might be good for individuals with quite significant levels of disability, but with less severe disability needs the supports need to be in the community. That’s where the NDIS perhaps let kids and families down,” Professor Whitehouse told Medical Forum.
“If you think about a child who might be in Kindy, they might have needs with regards to the development of handwriting skills or the support of communication, but other than that they’re very much able to participate in mainstream classes alongside their same age peers.
“The NDIS model essentially means that children are pulled out of class taken to a clinic and often they might be missing either half a day or full day of school to go attend that one hour of clinic.”
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While the NDIS was set up to meet the individual needs of people with disabilities, Professor Whitehouse said not enough was known about Thriving Kids to know if it would meet the individual needs of children with autism.
He said creating a new program separate to the NDIS would ideally ensure the appropriate level of care to individuals.
“Reform is absolutely critical and with the information we have right now this is a step in the right direction,” Professor Whitehouse said.
“Governments have to do something that we haven’t done very well, which is to develop systems that wraparound kids and families in those early stages of life”
But he said more detail was required so families can have that information void filled.
Systems might not be ready
Tenielle Williams, a registered psychologist at Kidd Clinic, said the proposal to move autism support outside of the NDIS represented a significant structural shift in how services are delivered and funded.
“While the NDIS has its flaws, it does allow for consistency, transparency, and long-term planning around therapeutic needs,” she said.
“If children with autism are absorbed into under-resourced state systems, clinicians could face increased administrative complexity, unclear referral pathways, and inconsistent eligibility criteria.
“At worst, families may be forced to disengage from established clinicians and re-start therapeutic relationships with unfamiliar providers.”
She said the loss of established therapeutic alliances would risk destabilising progress and triggering regression. She also warned of a ripple effect on practice.
“More clinician time spent navigating bureaucracy rather than engaging in therapeutic work could lead to a destabilisation of the private sector workforce if clinicians lose NDIS-funded referrals, leading to workforce attrition at a time of already high demand.”
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Ms Williams said there was also concern that a shift away from the NDIS may be accompanied by reassessments, with some children deemed no longer eligible and pushed into the state-funded system.
She said lived experience voices must be central in the design and governance of the Thriving Kids.
Regions cannot be left behind
Chief Executive of SWAN – South West Autism Network – Nick Avery, is autistic and has two children who were diagnosed autistic more than 20 years ago, prior to the NDIS coming into place.
She told Medical Forum prior to the NDIS there was a big disparity of services available in regional areas such as Busselton, where she lives, compared to the metropolitan area.
She is concerned a move away from individualised supports as provided under the NDIS may mean those in regional areas once again miss out.
“If your child was diagnosed autistic and you lived in Perth you could access two, two-hour therapy sessions per week,” Ms Avery said.
“If you lived outside of Perth, you could access one visit from a psychologist per year.”
She said since the introduction of the NDIS, children had gained access to more of the supports they required in regional areas.
Ms Avery said she thought it was unlikely that supports would be offered in all schools, and rather they may only be offered in specific schools.
“In WA where we have a much smaller population base than other states, we are likely to get a smaller sum of funding allocated, which needs to be stretched over a much greater geographic area,” she said.
Ms Avery said if Thriving Kids supports were to be offered through schools, a lot of work would be required to ensure they were more accessible and inclusive.
“Schools unfortunately are often not safe places for autistic kids; they are not supportive or inclusive and many autistic kids are being homeschooled because the environment is not working for them.”
The Federal Government has committed $2 billion towards Thriving Kids and is hoping states and territories will match that to have the program fully implemented by mid-2027.
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