In August 2025, Minister for Disability and the NDIS Mark Butler announced $2 billion in federal funding for a new Thriving Kids initiative. The purpose of Thriving Kids is to provide a national program of supports for children aged eight and under with developmental delay and/or autism with low to moderate support needs and their families.
This initiative will have the greatest chance of achieving positive results if it is genuinely co-designed in partnership with people with lived experience, the disability community, and other stakeholders. To help inform a co-design process, JFA Purple Orange presents a few of our ideas about how Thriving Kids could work.