Understanding Thriving Kids: A Complete Guide for Australian Families
Table of Contents:
- The NDIS: A Quick Primer
- Introducing Thriving Kids
- The Foundation for Thriving Kids: Addressing a Gap in Early Childhood Support
- Thriving Kids Rollout Timeline: Key Dates for Families
- NDIS and Thriving Kids Compared
- Thriving Kids Funding and Support Options
- Impact of Thriving Kids on Existing NDIS Participants
- Preparing for Thriving Kids and Future NDIS Changes
- Glossary of Key Terms
Thriving Kids is a new Australian Government program, set to start rolling out from October 2026, built to support young children with developmental delay or autism. It sits alongside the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) rather than inside it, and understanding how the two relate is the key to understanding what this reform actually means.
This guide is written for anyone coming to this topic fresh, whether you’re a parent who has just started noticing developmental concerns in your child, a family already on an NDIS plan wondering what changes ahead, or simply someone trying to understand the reform in plain terms. It covers what the NDIS is, what Thriving Kids is, why the change is happening, how the two systems compare, and what it means in practice. Everything below is drawn from material published by the Australian Government and state governments.
The NDIS: A Quick Primer
The National Disability Insurance Scheme, or NDIS, is Australia’s national system for funding support for people with permanent and significant disability. It was established in 2013 and is jointly funded by the Australian Government and state and territory governments.
The NDIS works as an entitlement scheme. If a person meets the disability and support-need criteria, they become a participant and receive an individually funded plan. That plan is built around their specific goals and needs, and participants generally choose their own service providers, whether that’s an allied health professional, a support worker, or specialist equipment supplier.
For young children specifically, the NDIS has historically been accessed through what’s called the Early Childhood Approach, a pathway designed for children under 9 with developmental delay or disability. Over time, this pathway became the main, and often only, source of structured support for children with developmental concerns, even when their needs were relatively mild. That’s the backdrop Thriving Kids has been introduced to address.
Introducing Thriving Kids
Thriving Kids is the first phase of a wider reform package known as Foundational Supports. It is a joint initiative between the Australian Government and every state and territory government, backed by $4 billion in funding over five years.
Unlike the NDIS, Thriving Kids is not an individually funded plan. It’s a system of services delivered through the places children and families already engage with: GPs, schools, early childhood education and care, and community health services. It’s specifically aimed at children aged 8 and under with developmental delay and/or autism who have low to moderate support needs, a term explained further on.
In short, Thriving Kids is designed to be the layer of support that exists before, or instead of, the NDIS, for children whose needs don’t require an individual disability support package but who would still benefit from structured, early help.
The Foundation for Thriving Kids: Addressing a Gap in Early Childhood Support
When the NDIS was first established, many of the state-run early childhood support services that existed beforehand were wound back, on the assumption the NDIS would take over that role. In practice, this meant the NDIS became the only accessible pathway for many families, including those whose children had relatively mild or temporary developmental needs.
Over time, this contributed to NDIS participant numbers growing well beyond what was originally projected, with children accessing the Scheme through the early childhood pathway making up a significant share of that growth. The Independent Review into the NDIS, conducted by the Australian Government, identified this as a structural gap: there was no real alternative system outside the NDIS for children with lower-level needs.
Thriving Kids is the government’s response to that gap. The goal is twofold: give children with milder developmental needs a faster, easier way to access early support, and allow the NDIS to remain focused on its original purpose, supporting people with permanent and significant disability.
Thriving Kids Rollout Timeline: Key Dates for Families
Thriving Kids is being introduced in two main stages.
- From 1 October 2026, state and territory governments begin delivering their first Thriving Kids services.
- By 1 January 2028, the program is expected to be operating at full national scale. This date also marks when the related changes to NDIS access arrangements for children officially take effect.
Because each state and territory is designing and procuring its own services, the specific supports available, and how families access them, will differ by location, at least in the early stages. NSW provides a useful example: the Department of Communities and Justice opened a formal procurement process for non-government service providers in May 2026, with the first new services beginning in October 2026 and further services rolling out through 2027.
Source: NSW Department of Communities and Justice – Thriving Kids
NDIS and Thriving Kids Compared
Because the two systems will operate side by side, it helps to see them next to each other directly.
| NDIS | Thriving Kids | |
| Who it’s for | Kids and adults with permanent, significant or high support need disability | Children 8 and under with developmental delay and/or autism, low to moderate needs |
| Getting in | Formal application and assessment, then a funded plan | No diagnosis needed – accessed through your GP, school, or local community service |
| How it’s funded | Demand-driven – the budget grows as more people qualify | A fixed pool of government funding, delivered as services rather than individual packages |
| Who runs it | You choose your own registered or unregistered providers | Mostly state government agencies and contracted not-for-profits |
The most important point in this comparison is that the dividing line between the two systems is functional support need, not diagnosis. A child can have a formal diagnosis of autism or developmental delay and still be best supported through Thriving Kids rather than the NDIS. What determines the right system is how much that delay actually affects the child’s day-to-day functioning, not the diagnosis itself.
Thriving Kids Funding and Support Options
Thriving Kids is structured around two broad tiers of support, designed to match the level of help a family actually needs.
General supports are the entry-level tier, available to any family with a developmental concern, with no formal assessment required to access them. These are intended to be easy to reach and low-barrier, and include:
- Supported playgroups for children aged 5 and under, giving children structured social and developmental activities alongside their peers
- Parenting programs and peer support groups, helping families build skills and connect with others in similar situations
- Information, advice, and referral services, to help families understand what they’re seeing in their child’s development and where to go next
Targeted supports are the second tier, for children whose needs require more focused, individualised, goal-based help. These include:
- One-on-one or small-group allied health therapy, covering occupational therapy, speech pathology, physiotherapy, and psychology
- Low-cost assistive technology, where it’s genuinely needed to support a child’s development
- Coordination support for families who are accessing multiple services at once, helping them navigate the system as a whole
In terms of who delivers what, state and territory governments are responsible for the on-the-ground services described above. The Australian Government’s role sits a layer above that: running national awareness campaigns, a national phone and digital advice line, workforce training initiatives across the sector, and ongoing evaluation of how the program is performing.
Source: Thriving Kids – Service Design, Engagement and Consultation
Impact of Thriving Kids on Existing NDIS Participants
This is the part most families want clarity on, so it’s worth being precise. Children with permanent or significant disability, including those with high support needs, are not affected by this reform at all. They remain eligible for the NDIS under the usual arrangements, exactly as before.
For children aged 8 and under currently on the NDIS for developmental delay and/or autism with low to moderate support needs, the relevant change is a reassessment, not an automatic removal. That reassessment will take place under the eligibility criteria in effect immediately before 1 January 2028, and only once the broader access changes formally commence. No child enrolled before that date will be shifted off their existing plan ahead of time.
In practical terms, families whose children clearly sit at the higher end of support need shouldn’t expect this reform to change much for them at all. Families closer to the low-to-moderate end should be aware that a reassessment process is coming in 2027–28, which will determine whether Thriving Kids or the NDIS is the more appropriate system for their child going forward.
Preparing for Thriving Kids and Future NDIS Changes
If your child already has an NDIS plan, there is nothing you need to do right now. The plan continues to operate as normal, and any reassessment will not take place before the 2028 access changes come into effect.
If you’ve noticed a developmental concern in your child but haven’t approached the NDIS, it’s worth keeping an eye on your state’s Thriving Kids rollout from October 2026 onward, since some of the general supports will be accessible without needing a formal application or diagnosis at all.
And if you’re unsure whether your child’s needs sit closer to the low-to-moderate end or the higher end of the spectrum, that’s a conversation worth having with your plan manager well ahead of 2028, rather than after. How a child’s support needs are documented now can genuinely shape how a future reassessment plays out.
Glossary of Key Terms
A few terms come up repeatedly in discussions of this reform. Here’s what they actually mean.
- NDIS: The National Disability Insurance Scheme, Australia’s national funding system for people with permanent and significant disability.
- Foundational Supports: The broader reform program that Thriving Kids belongs to, intended to build a system of support outside the NDIS for people who don’t meet its eligibility threshold.
- Developmental delay: A term used when a child is not reaching developmental milestones, such as communication, motor skills, or social development, at the rate typically expected for their age.
- Low to moderate support needs: A functional assessment category describing children whose developmental or autism-related needs can generally be met through community-based support, rather than an individually funded disability plan.
- High support needs / permanent and significant disability: The category of need that keeps a child eligible for the NDIS, describing disability that is lifelong or long-term and substantially affects a person’s daily functioning.
- Reassessment: The process by which a child’s eligibility is reviewed once the new access arrangements take effect, to determine whether the NDIS or Thriving Kids is the appropriate system going forward.
- Early Childhood Approach: The current NDIS pathway for children under 9 with developmental delay or disability, sometimes referred to by its earlier name, Early Childhood Early Intervention (ECEI).
- Plan manager: A professional who helps an NDIS participant or their family manage the funding, paperwork, and provider payments associated with their NDIS plan.
