Promoting best practice in early childhood intervention in the NDIS
This report gives advice to the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) Board on how to refresh the Early Childhood Early Intervention Approach (ECEI).
The Independent Advisory Council (IAC) wrote this report. When we say ‘we’, we mean the IAC.
Our recommendations
We recommend that the NDIA:
Refocus the ECEI pathway to:
Give information, referral and short-term support for parents worried about their child’s development. Only those needing long term support should become NDIS participants.
Restore equity in plans, plan use and rates of self-management.
Ensure families have the right resources to support decision making.
Promote the use of family centred practice in planning and funding.
Develop new guidelines for children with Autism.
Strengthen early childhood intervention practice including:
Shift towards strength-based planning
Evaluate innovative approaches and emphasise participation and inclusion.
Promote workforce development in early childhood intervention.
What we found in our research
The ECEI approach lacks vision and the right framework for implementation and monitoring.
Planning focuses on what children cannot do.
Parents and their supporters experience long wait times and struggle with finding their way around the system.
There is doubt about what is seen as best practice and how this matches current research.
The goal of ECEI is to help caregivers to support a child’s learning. Children learn most in the environments they spend most of their time.
Family centred practice has been difficult to action because of parent expectations and a lack of training.
There is a lack of helpful decision making support for families and resources to help with supported decision making.
Children who are First Nations, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) or live in remote areas do not have equal access to NDIS plans or supports.
It is hard to find and train the right people who have good working knowledge of ECEI.