Major changes revealed for kids with autism in NDIS shake-up
The government has unveiled its most radical NDIS reform yet, creating a separate system for children with mild disabilities while promising to protect those with severe needs.
Plans to block children with mild to moderate autism from the NDIS and divert them to community programs have been met with anger by families who say they will boycott the move.
Minister for Health, Disability and Ageing Mark Butler on Wednesday revealed that kids with moderate autism or a developmental delay will receive help via a number of programs under the banner of Thriving Kids, set to roll out from July 1 next year.
There will be a transition period of one year, but by July 1, 2027, children with these types of health needs will no longer be eligible for the NDIS. Those with more severe forms of autism will still be accepted.
However, shortly after the announcement the Regional Autistic Engagement Network (RAEN) and the Australian Neurodivergent Parents Association (ANPA) released a joint statement saying they would boycott the move claiming some of the programs being offered had no long-term evidence that they worked, going as far as to say they were “experimental interventions” and “dangerous”.
They also objected to the idea that autism is not a permanent disability.
“Minister Butler can make announcements, but he cannot run these programs without participants,” ANPA president Sarah Langston, said.
“Parents are already saying no, and we back them. If Minister Butler wants bums on seats, he needs to work for our approval - not the other way around. If you want community backing, then start engaging meaningfully, Minister.”
On Thursday, Mr Butler said on the Today Show: “I get that parents are feeling unsure after the announcement I had made yesterday.
“I want to reassure them that we’re not going to leave them high and dry.
“We’re going to make sure that there is a scheme well-designed that gives them confidence that we’re going to do everything we can to support their kids to thrive, and there’ll be no gap between the stools.
““I’m not going to have people leaving the NDIS without a system in place to support them. If they’re on the NDIS now or into the future before this system starts, they will stay on the NDIS.”
Opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston wants more answers with detail.
“My feeling goes to those people who are thrown into great uncertainty because they don’t know what this actually means for them and their families and the children that they love, who are needing supports at the moment,” she told ABC Radio National.
At the National Press Club on Wednesday, Mr Butler said Thriving Kids will receive an initial contribution from the Commonwealth of $2 billion, with additional unspecified funding to come from states and territories. The program will be provided in community settings such as childcare and schools.
Mr Butler warned that, without radical reform, the $52 billion-a-year scheme’s operating costs were set to double within a decade.
He said one of the reasons for the cost blowout was that there had been a high number of kids with mild to moderate developmental delay or autism joining the scheme.
These children were getting “$10,000, or $20,000 or $30,000”, he said, with many being “overserviced”.
Mr Butler said an average young NDIS participant with moderate needs was receiving more than 70 therapy sessions a year.
“Just under half of the scheme’s participants are now children under 15, a share that rose again in this month’s latest quarterly report,” he said.
“Half of new NDIS entrants are under the age of nine, most of whom have developmental delay or autism and are entering the scheme under the early intervention stream.
“I think most Australians would be alarmed to know that now, one out of every 10 six-year-olds are on the NDIS, including 16 per cent of six-year-old boys. That’s one in every six boys in the average grade 2 classroom.”
Grattan Institute Disability Program director Sam Bennett, who earlier this year wrote Saving the NDIS: How to rebalance disability services to get better results, said the Thriving Kids program was an “eminently sensible” idea.
His report found providing support in the community for many disabled Australians would protect the NDIS for those with the most severe disabilities.
He said it was good that a commitment, budget and timeline had been announced for changes to NDIS eligibility criteria.
However, Dr Bennett said there was a lot of design work to do and “complex negotiations with the states still to land to finance it”.
He added that Thriving Kids did not address other cohorts – particularly people with psychosocial disability – who will need to be moved out of the scheme into community supports, if the government wanted to reduce growth of the scheme to six per cent a year.
Mr Butler also foreshadowed introducing more pricing discipline into the NDIS, drawing on the independent pricing experience in hospitals and in aged care.
He added that work on fraud and integrity had to continue.
“Australians are rightly appalled by the drumbeat of stories about shonks and fraudsters who are ripping off taxpayers and, more importantly, people with a disability and I, for one, share their disgust,” he said.
Peak body National Disability Services’ acting chief Emily Forrest welcomed the government’s moves, including Thriving Kids.
“Quality providers will be pleased government is setting a clear path forward an we look forward to working with them on the details,” she said.
More Coverage
Originally published as Major changes revealed for kids with autism in NDIS shake-up
Fears over power of new NDIS funding quiz
