Thriving Kids

About Thriving Kids and Foundational Supports

The Western Australian Government is committed to building safe and inclusive communities and has recently signed the National Health and Disability Reform Agreements. This includes the delivery of Foundational Supports, known as ‘Thriving Kids’, focused on additional supports for children aged 0-8 years (inclusive) with developmental delay and/or autism with low to moderate support needs, and their families/caregivers.

This is a long-term and clear commitment from both the Australian and WA Governments to support children within the Thriving Kids cohort.

Thriving Kids in WA will build on and enhance the strengths of children and their caregivers, supporting children to participate more fully in their everyday lives. These supports will assist children in their development, learning and social goals, and supporting their emotional, physical and mental wellbeing. They also aim to support parents, carers and kin with the information, skills and guidance they need to understand and support their child’s development. Thriving Kids supports are designed to be time limited in nature and accessible without a diagnosis.

The delivery of Thriving Kids supports will begin rolling out progressively from October 2026. The range of supports and the programs and services delivering them will increase over time, with full rollout by January 2028.

Please download the WA Thriving Kids fact sheet for more information.

• WA Thriving Kids - fact sheet (Word, 185KB)
• WA Thriving Kids - fact sheet (PDF, 280KB)
• WA Thriving Kids - easy read summary (Word, 2.56MB)
• WA Thriving Kids - easy read summary (PDF, 865KB)

You can monitor this page for further updates as they become available.

Announcements

• National Agreement on Foundational Supports
• Record funding for public hospitals and disability reform | Prime Minister of Australia
• National framework for ECI best practice

Next steps

Some of the next steps in our work with partners and stakeholders include:

• April-May 2026: Market Sounding Survey: An opportunity for sector organisations to provide information about the services and supports they provide aligned to future delivery of Thriving Kids. The survey is available online.
• May-June 2026: Planning for targeted consultation with non-government organisations across WA is underway. This is intended to confirm and further inform service design and to understand sector preparedness, capability and capacity, including workforce considerations. Further information will be provided soon, including details to participate in a Thriving Kids briefing.
• May-June 2026: Planning for further community consultation is underway. This will include families, parents/caregivers, children and people with lived experience. Detail about these will be provided soon.

Further information

Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing Thriving Kids.

Services available to support Western Australians living with disability and their families and carers is available at Disability support services.

If you are unhappy with a disability service or support that you have received from the Department of Communities, please visit the Department of Communities - Disabilities complaints and feedback webpage.