Children with mild developmental delay and autism will soon be diverted from the national disability insurance scheme into a new program. The two billion dollar "thriving kids’ program" announced today by NDIS minister mark butler is part of the government's attempts to rein in the ballooning cost of the scheme.
00:00After a wait of almost two years, today some clarity on disability support for children.
00:08Children with mild to moderate developmental delay or autism need a robust system of supports to help them thrive.
00:16A program for thriving kids, and that's the program that I intend to deliver.
00:21Two billion dollars will be put towards its Thriving Kids program, a system to provide support to children outside the NDIS.
00:29I think most Australians would be alarmed to know that now one out of every ten six-year-olds are on the NDIS.
00:37Before they had access to the right support, Angelique Mae Bennett and her eldest child often had to deal with exclusion from school.
00:44My daughter packed her bag for a month wondering why she wasn't being sent to school.
00:50The NDIS provided the therapy her daughter needed.
00:54The NDIS was, like, just life-saving.
00:57But the scheme's growth is a concern.
01:00In 2022, its budget was expanding by 22% a year.
01:04The government is on track to bring that down to 8%, but the Minister says he wants to see that reduced to around 5 or 6%.
01:12He said half of new NDIS entrants are under nine, most of whom have developmental delay or autism.
01:19Diverting this group of kids over time from the NDIS is an important element of making the scheme sustainable and returning it to its original intent.
01:30Minister Butler says he wants the program to start in July next year.
01:34Disability advocates worry that doesn't leave enough time for consultation.
01:38Let alone a really thorough and rigorous procurement process to make sure that only supports that are evidence-based and will truly meet the needs of the community will actually be the ones that are funded.
01:50Those with more moderate and profound types of autism will need to remain in the NDIS because they do have a significant and lifelong disability.
01:58The disability community is optimistic about today's announcement, but says the devil will be in the detail.
02:04They agree the NDIS needs to be financially sustainable, but that consultation over coming months will be vital.
02:10Medical
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