00:05So cute. Thanks for coming guys.
00:08At this community hub in outer Melbourne, every family is welcome.
00:13It is a one-stop shop for families.
00:16Things like playgroup, maternal and child health, speech therapy, OT, GPs.
00:22It's one of nine across the state run by an organisation called Our Place, each inside a primary school.
00:29Yay!
00:30As the kids play, health and education workers help identify and treat developmental issues.
00:38The sooner we can engage families into the system, they can get the supports that they need when they need
00:44them.
00:45Will it be full? Full.
00:47It's the kind of service that could be scaled up as part of the government's upcoming program to ease pressure
00:52on the NDIS.
00:54Thriving Kids aims to cater for children under nine with what the government calls mild to moderate developmental delay or
01:01autism.
01:02Part of the model involves what's known as targeted supports, which include therapy sessions run in places where children live,
01:10learn and play.
01:11But the workforces expected to deliver those supports have concerns.
01:17We've got an overburdened, under-resourced teaching workforce who are very concerned about the additional administration load.
01:24Teachers are calling for allied health support in the classroom, but those professions also have shortages.
01:30We have a very anxious profession right now. There's a lot of reform occurring in the disability space and it's
01:36exhausting. It's burning our profession out.
01:39Some say the workforce issue isn't just about a lack of numbers.
01:43It's more I think about how that existing workforce is organised and deployed in a way that can be most
01:51effective.
01:52In here.
01:52I'm not going to magically believe that suddenly we've got enough speech therapists.
01:56But what we do see with the Our Place approach is a better efficiency.
02:00In a statement, the NDIS Minister Mark Butler acknowledges there will be an impact on the workforce.
02:06But he says Thriving Kids has been designed by professionals from a range of sectors including health and education.
02:13He adds that Thriving Kids will combine existing and new services to deliver supports for families, another group expected to
02:21take on more.
02:22It's not a big deal. There's nothing to be scared of.
02:25Christy Treble is a proud mum of three autistic boys.
02:28She started a support group for parents at Our Place a year ago.
02:32I definitely wanted to create a village that I knew other parents were needing as well.
02:38To have someone that understands what you're about to step into is so important because it is very scary.
02:45Setting up more integrated hubs like this for Thriving Kids might take time.
02:50But Our Place is confident it's the way to go.
02:53The results of working together means you do get better outcomes for children and families.
02:57That's amazing.
02:58So those are the things that we need to engage with and to improve.
02:59That's something we need to do.
02:59We need to help that.
02:59It's a problem.
02:59That's what we're dating and we need to be!
02:59Now, we need to be sure to be able to meet people in and out there.
03:01That's why we need to be able to fully understand what a problem is left at this time.
Comments