29/11/2025
This week I attended the Thriving Kids deep dive on behalf of Professionals Australia and raised critical issues on behalf of allied health professionals, families, and children.
Key points we highlighted:
🔵GP-led access won’t work — especially in regional/remote areas. Families often don’t have a consistent GP, many have closed books or long wait times, and trust is essential before sharing concerns.
🔵Protect the existing workforce. Predominantly women, mothers, many neurodivergent or disabled. Credentialling and funding must not exclude experienced practitioners, and private practices must be recognised for their central role.
🔵Children outside “typical” settings must not be missed. Many are not in ECEC or school; supports must be accessible before families reach these systems.
🔵 Programs must be co-designed with disability community oversight valuing lived experience at all stages of planning and implementation. Not just health, professional or education stakeholders.
🔵Follow the Best Practice Framework. Evidence-informed care must balance research, practitioner expertise, and lived experience—not generic, predetermined programs.
🔵Supports must align with the social and human rights model of disability. We must avoid replicating medical-model approaches used in health departments or behavioural models currently used in schools.
🔵Children need the right supports, not “one-size-fits-all.” For example, a child with Childhood Apraxia of Speech requires targeted Speech Pathology, not a key worker—high-quality early intervention matters. Supports must acknowledge the needs of the child across all areas of their lives.
🔵Supports must be trauma-aware, local, flexible and culturally safe. Many families cannot access GPs, ECEC or CFHN clinics; multiple community-based pathways are essential.
❤️We’ll continue advocating for a Thriving Kids model that is evidence-informed, genuinely codesigned, grounded in the social and human rights model of disability, and ensures every child can access the supports they need—when they need them. We acknowledge the importance that every service be supported to become culturally safe and that First Nations children and communities need First Nations led, community-controlled services.
