Every Victorian child aged three and four will be offered screening for autism and developmental delays under a new state government program called Thriving Kids, designed to catch developmental concerns before children reach school age.
The program will funnel children requiring support into a state-run system offering services such as speech pathology and occupational therapy, operating as an alternative to the National Disability Insurance Scheme for young children with low to moderate support needs.
Children and Disability Minister Lizzie Blandthorn announced that two new developmental assessments would be available for every child: one before kindergarten and one before school. The assessments will be delivered through Victoria’s existing maternal and child health system and kindergarten network, with universal availability expected 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 kinder,” Blandthorn said.
A response to federal NDIS reforms
The Thriving Kids program is part of a broader national effort to reduce pressure on the NDIS, which now costs approximately $48 billion annually. Under federal reforms, children aged eight and under with mild to moderate developmental delay or autism are being shifted from the scheme onto state-run supports.
Each state and territory is required to build its own system to accommodate the tens of thousands of children currently holding individual NDIS packages.
Blandthorn has previously been outspoken in her criticism of the federal government’s approach, saying last year that children with developmental delay and disability should not be “traded away for 30 pieces of silver.” On announcing the new program, however, she said Victoria had reached a workable agreement.
“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 that we can build upon,” she said.
Children with significant disabilities or high support needs will continue to access the NDIS. Importantly, children will not need a formal diagnosis to access Thriving Kids services, and families are not expected to face out-of-pocket costs.
How the assessments will work
The two new visits will be conducted by trained clinicians rather than maternal and child health nurses, and will be additional to the existing 10 key ages and stages developmental checks already offered through the MCH system. Assessments will take place at early learning settings or maternal health services, with the pre-school visit most likely occurring at kindergarten.
Children identified with any mild to moderate developmental concern, including autism, other neurodivergent conditions, speech delays, and motor delays, can be referred into the Thriving Kids program. Unlike the NDIS, the new system will not provide individualised funding packages; instead, families will be connected to targeted services and programs.
The government intends to consolidate maternal and child health, early education, and the new Thriving Kids service under the Department of Education.
Mixed community reaction
The announcement has been broadly welcomed in the disability and early intervention community, though some Victorians with lived experience have raised concerns about whether the new system will deliver on its promise.
One Reddit commenter who works in the field described the announcement as “excellent,” with others noting that early intervention delivered before school can make a significant difference for children who may not otherwise be identified or supported.
But not everyone is optimistic. One parent described being dismissed by maternal and child health staff when raising concerns about their child, with both parents having autism and ADHD themselves.
They were told they were “label seeking” and “projecting,” despite clear signs of developmental delay over three years. They now face the cost and lengthy waitlists of a private paediatric diagnosis.
Several commenters noted this as a meaningful distinction between the current system and the new one. Under Thriving Kids, assessments will be conducted by clinicians such as occupational therapists, not nurses, which proponents argue will lead to more accurate identification.
As one person put it, the current MCH screening amounts to a “hmm, maybe but also maybe not” rather than a genuine clinical assessment.
Concern was also raised about whether metropolitan areas would receive a disproportionate share of the new services, leaving rural and regional families underserved as has often been the case with specialist health programs.
Others raised the question of parental awareness: many parents do not recognise their own neurodivergence, and may inadvertently normalise developmental differences in their children, potentially reducing the effectiveness of any screening program that relies on parental reporting.
Political context
The announcement comes ahead of Victoria’s state election in November, with the opposition also putting forward a proposal to screen children for autism and ADHD at the start of prep.
The Liberals’ $156 million pledge would place occupational therapists and speech pathologists in schools to identify neurodiverse students at the start of their schooling. The state government has pushed back on this, arguing that screening needs to happen well before school starts to be genuinely effective.
Diagnoses of neurodivergent conditions have risen sharply across Australia over the past decade. More than nine per cent of five to seven-year-old children are now on the NDIS, the majority for autism or developmental delays, pointing to both growing awareness and significant demand on support systems.
