Victoria to offer autism and developmental screening for all three and four-year-olds

Every Victorian three and four-year-old child will be offered screening for autism and developmental delays under a new program designed to shift thousands of children from the NDIS onto state-run support.

Under Victoria’s new Thriving Kids program, trained clinicians will assess all children for developmental concerns and refer those requiring support into a state-run system providing services such as speech pathology and occupational therapy.

Children and Disability Minister Lizzie Blandthorn said two new development assessments would be available for every child – one before they enter kindergarten and one before school.

The program will be rolled out through Victoria’s maternal and child health system and kindergartens before becoming universally available by January 2028.

“It’s a recognition that you’ve got to get to kids before they get to school and hopefully before they get to [four-year-old] kinder,” Blandthorn said.

Thriving Kids is a key lever the federal government is using to rein in runaway costs of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Children aged eight and under with low to moderate developmental delay or autism will be moved from the scheme onto state-run supports.

Each jurisdiction is required to devise its own system to support the tens of thousands of children, many of whom have individual packages on the $48 billion NDIS.

Blandthorn has been critical of the federal government’s sweeping NDIS cuts. Last year, she said she held “grave concerns” that people with disabilities and their families were being sold out by the Commonwealth to fund pet projects across the country.

“Children with developmental delay and disability should not be traded away for 30 pieces of silver,” she said at the time.

Speaking on Wednesday, Blandthorn said Victoria had secured a workable agreement to implement the Thriving Kids program.

“We won’t be able to provide what the Commonwealth has provided, but we have a unique opportunity in that we already have really evolved universal systems (in child and maternal health and free kindergarten) that we can build upon,” she said.

“So I’m confident that we can work within the agreement to deliver a service for families that meets them where they’re at and makes their life easier.”

The additional two assessments will be either conducted at early learning settings or maternal health services. The pre-school visit will most commonly occur at kinder.

The assessments will act as a referral system to the Thriving Kids program. Children accepted into the program will then have access to state-led services, including speech pathology and occupational therapy.

Children with any mild to moderate developmental delays could be referred to the Thriving Kids program, including for autism, neurodivergence, speech and motor delays.

“We want to bring together maternal and child health with early education and the new Thriving Kids service all in one department in the Department of Education,” Blandthorn said.

The assessments will be in addition to the 10 key ages and stages visits, which include development checks, currently offered through the maternal health system.

Children with permanent and significant disability or high support needs will continue to access the NDIS.

Blandthorn said the government did not envisage families facing out-of-pocket costs to access services through the program, and support would be based in resources families already used – maternal child health, kindergartens and early parenting centres.

Unlike under the NDIS, families will no longer receive individualised funding or packages, but children will not need any formal diagnosis to access services under Thriving Kids.

Each state and territory will be expected to offer four key functions: identifying when children have developmental delays or differences; providing easy access to information about where to get help; supplying programs and tools for parents to build their own skills; and providing targeted support, including therapies and equipment, for children who need it.

Diagnoses for neurodivergent conditions have soared in Australia in the past decade – more than 9 per cent of five- to seven-year-old children are now on the NDIS, mostly for autism or developmental delays.

Victoria’s model would require a significant expansion of state government-employed allied health workforce, including speech pathologists and occupational therapists.

Blandthorn said she expected a significant shift from workers currently in the NDIS-funded sector to transition to the new state-run system.

The government’s announcement comes after the opposition promised at The Age Schools Summit on Wednesday that all children would be observed in prep for signs of autism or ADHD if the Coalition won November’s state election.

Liberal education spokesman Brad Rowswell said the $156 million policy pledge would allow occupational therapists and speech pathologists to help identify neurodiverse students at the start of their schooling and guide families into early intervention.

However, the state government argued the Coalition’s plan came too late, saying that screening for autism or ADHD needed to happen well before school started.

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