Thriving Kids from 1 October 2026: What Early Childhood Providers Need to Know

Thriving Kids is a new early intervention program for children aged 8 and under with developmental delay and/or autism who have low to moderate support needs, and for their families, carers and kin. It sits outside the NDIS.

The funding structure is the important part for providers: the Australian Government has committed $2 billion, of which at least $1.4 billion goes to states and territories as direct funding for Thriving Kids services. That means the commissioning relationship for a large share of this work moves from the NDIA — a single national funder with a national price schedule — to eight state and territory arrangements. Expect divergence in procurement, pricing and reporting. A provider operating across borders should not assume one model.

• 1 October 2026 — Thriving Kids begins. General supports become available for families with concerns about their child's development: peer support programs for parents, and supported playgroups for children aged 5 and under.
• January 2027 — Targeted supports begin, for children who need extra help for a specific period of time.
• 1 January 2028 — Thriving Kids fully rolled out.

The gap between October 2026 and January 2027 deserves attention. In that first quarter, what is available is general population-level support — peer programs and playgroups — not individualised therapy. Families whose expectations have been set by an NDIS early childhood plan will find that gap jarring, and providers will be the ones explaining it.

The eligibility line drawn by the reforms:

• Children with permanent and significant disability remain eligible for the NDIS.
• Children aged 8 and under with developmental delay and/or autism who have substantially reduced functional capacity — that is, high support needs — remain eligible for the NDIS.
• Children aged 8 and under with developmental delay and/or autism and low to moderate support needs move to Thriving Kids.

Two things follow. First, an autism diagnosis alone was never the test and still is not — the assessment is of functional capacity. Second, the practical boundary between "low to moderate" and "substantially reduced" functional capacity is where every hard case will sit, and the operational detail of how that line gets drawn is the part providers should be watching for in the supporting rules.

Be careful how you communicate this to families. "Children with autism are losing the NDIS" is wrong and it is frightening people. The accurate version is that eligibility is being assessed on functional capacity, with lower-needs early childhood support delivered through a different program.

The changes worth planning for now:

• Your funder changes. For a large share of this work you will be contracting with a state or territory rather than claiming against a participant plan. That is a different commercial model — likely block or program funding rather than fee-for-service per support item — with different cash flow and different reporting.
• Your pricing reference changes. The NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 sets Early Childhood Supports rates in Schedule 5. Thriving Kids services commissioned by a state are not bound by it. Do not assume your NDIS rate card transfers.
• Your service mix changes. Peer support programs and supported playgroups are group and facilitation work, not individual therapy hours. If your workforce is built around one-to-one allied health delivery, the October 2026 general supports are a different capability.
• Your referral pathway changes. Access is no longer via NDIS access request for this cohort.
• Your caseload composition changes. Children remaining on the NDIS will be, by definition, the higher-needs cohort. Average complexity per child goes up even if headcount goes down.

A funding model change does not change your obligations as an employer, and there are a few specific places this bites.

• Which award applies may shift. Work delivered as a supported playgroup or a parent peer support program may not sit where your existing SCHADS classification mapping assumes. Where a service starts to resemble children's services delivery, the Children's Services Award coverage question is worth taking advice on rather than assuming.
• Classifications need reviewing when workers move from individual therapy support into group facilitation. Classification drift is one of the most common underpayment sources we see, and a service model change is exactly when it happens.
• Block funding does not relax minimum engagement. SCHADS minimum engagement periods, broken shift rules and travel entitlements apply to a two-hour playgroup session the same way they apply to a two-hour home visit.
• Schedule E workers get an interim increase of around 15% from the first full pay period on or after 1 October 2026 — the same day Thriving Kids starts. If you are pricing a state-funded program on your current cost base, you are pricing it wrong.

Being honest about the gaps is more useful than pretending the picture is complete. As at August 2026:

• State-by-state delivery models are not uniform or fully published. Some jurisdictions have released more than others.
• Pricing for Thriving Kids services is not set by a single national schedule.
• The operational test distinguishing low to moderate from substantially reduced functional capacity, and how existing participants are assessed against it at reassessment, is the detail everyone is waiting on.
• Transition arrangements for children currently on an NDIS plan who would fall into the Thriving Kids cohort will follow the general pattern of reaching participants at plan reassessment, but the specifics matter and are still emerging.

If you deliver in this space, track your own state or territory's disability and communities department directly. NSW, for example, publishes Thriving Kids material through the Department of Communities and Justice. National sources will not carry the procurement detail you need.