Thriving Kids is bringing the biggest change to early childhood NDIS access in years, and if you have a child under 8 in Sydney, understanding what actually shifts and when matters more than the headlines suggest.
What Thriving Kids is
Thriving Kids is a new foundational supports program that begins rolling out state-based services from 1 October 2026, aimed at children aged 8 and under with low to moderate support needs relating to developmental delay or autism. It is jointly funded by the Commonwealth government (2 billion dollars) and state and territory governments (a further 2 billion dollars) over five years, and the full transition is expected to reach scale by 1 January 2028.
Who moves to Thriving Kids, and who stays on the NDIS
This is the part families most need to get right. Children aged 8 and under with developmental delay or autism and low to moderate support needs will be diverted to Thriving Kids and will not be eligible for NDIS supports going forward. Children with high support needs or a permanent, significant disability remain eligible for the NDIS as before, the eligibility criteria for that group has not changed.
Support under Thriving Kids will be delivered through mainstream settings families already interact with: maternal and child health services, early childhood education, and allied health, rather than through an individual NDIS plan.
If your child is already an NDIS participant
Existing NDIS participants are protected from this change. Children aged 8 and under who are already NDIS participants as at 1 January 2028 will continue under the current access criteria, they are not automatically moved into Thriving Kids. This matters for families currently navigating an access request or plan reassessment in 2026 and 2027, timing genuinely affects which pathway applies.
What families should do now
A few practical steps if this affects your family:
- If your child already has an NDIS plan, no action is required based on this change alone, existing participants keep their current access criteria.
- If you are considering a first-time access request for a child aged 8 or under with developmental delay or autism, get advice on timing and on whether your child's support needs are likely to be assessed as low-moderate or high, since that assessment determines which pathway applies.
- Talk to your Support Coordinator or LAC about what Thriving Kids services will actually be available in your area from October 2026, since the rollout is staged by state and region.
At LYD NDIS we work with families and Support Coordinators across Western Sydney, South-West Sydney, and the Hills District to make sense of exactly this kind of transition, particularly where a family is unsure which pathway their child will sit under.
If you disagree with how your child's support needs are assessed
Some families will not agree with an assessment that places their child into the low-moderate needs category and directs them toward Thriving Kids rather than the NDIS. If this happens, you have the right to request a review of that decision. Gather any existing reports from paediatricians, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, or early intervention providers that speak to the level of support your child actually needs, and provide these as part of a formal review request rather than relying on the initial assessment alone. A Support Coordinator or early childhood partner can help you prepare this if you are unsure where to start.
Timing also matters here. Because the transition scales up between October 2026 and January 2028, a review requested earlier in that window may be assessed under slightly different regional service availability than one requested closer to full rollout, so acting promptly if you disagree with an outcome is generally better than waiting.
For NDIS business owners: a genuine market shift, not just a policy footnote
Thriving Kids represents a real shift in where early childhood disability funding flows, from individual NDIS plans into state-delivered mainstream services. Providers who built a business model heavily around early childhood NDIS supports for low-moderate needs children should be actively reviewing how this affects their client base over the next 18 months, not waiting until the 2028 transition deadline. Positioning your business correctly through this shift, and being found by the families and Support Coordinators still navigating it, is exactly the kind of problem an AI-integrated growth ecosystem like VCPility is built to solve.