Government pledges $2 billion for children with developmental delay and autism

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Advocates and parents say more detail is needed on a proposal to divert children with developmental delay or autism from the national disability insurance scheme. The NDIS minister yesterday announced plans to establish a system outside the scheme to support the growing number of children needing assistance.

Transcript

00:00All we know so far is what was detailed in the Minister Butler's speech yesterday, which

00:07is that it is $2 billion dedicated to a program called Thriving Kids, it is to capture or

00:15take in children with developmental delay, so sort of mild to moderate developmental

00:19delay or autism.

00:21It is going to be set up by July next year and he's reiterated that consultation and

00:27co-design will happen with the community and the sector into the next few months about

00:32how to actually design and implement that by July next year.

00:36Now, he says that this is needed to help bring the NDIS back to its original intent to support

00:45people with significant and permanent disability to make it more sustainable and to provide

00:50children with developmental delay and autism the support they need that isn't necessarily

00:56on the scheme.

00:57They've been on a scheme that is for people with significant and permanent disability

01:01and that there should be services for them outside of the scheme.

01:05Now, almost two years ago, the NDIS review, which was a wide-ranging review, recommended

01:11the establishment of what's called foundational support, so a system of supports for people

01:17who have disability but don't necessarily need to be on the NDIS.

01:21And so, Minister Butler said yesterday that this thriving kids program is, in a sense,

01:26a refocusing of foundational supports, not a replacement of them.

01:31On one hand, people are really optimistic.

01:33They're cautious but optimistic.

01:34They want to see the detail of this, of which we don't have a lot at the moment.

01:39They are saying, of course, that for almost two years after that recommendation of foundational

01:45supports was sort of handed down, there's been silence, there hasn't been much information

01:50about what they would look like, how they'd be implemented, funded and designed.

01:55And so now they're hopeful, some advocates are hopeful because they have some information

02:00about this thriving kids program, which is part of that.

02:03And they're saying on the face of it, it sounds really good and they're hopeful that it will

02:07live up to its name and help kids thrive.

02:10On the other side, we do have some people saying the previous systems that were run by individual

02:17states were difficult, problematic.

02:20Not everyone got support.

02:22And so that's why people fought really hard for the NDIS in the first place.

02:26And that this feels a little bit like returning to the old system and they don't want it to

02:30be like the old system.

02:32They want two systems, either the NDIS and this sort of foundational supports and thriving

02:36kids program.

02:37But they want them to work efficiently and effectively for people.

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