Community Health is the ideal platform to deliver the pending government program Thriving Kids. That was a clear message from the Alliance of Rural and Regional Community Health conference last month.
BCHS CEO Mandy Hutchinson joined other health leaders to make a bid to embed Thriving Kids into community health organisations state-wide.
Thriving Kids is a landmark initiative to support children under eight with development delay and/or autism with low-to-moderate needs, and their families.
In February, The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing announced a National Cabinet of state, territory and federal governments would jointly invest $4 billion over five years to deliver Thriving Kids across the nation, filling a crucial need outside the NDIS.
Former Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt highlighted Thriving Kids to the 300-strong ARRCH conference crowd via his video link opening address.
Mandy picked up the thread within the panel that followed.
Kids can thrive here
“Success depends not just on policy intent, but in choosing the right delivery platform,” Mandy said.
“Across the state, that platform already exists, and that’s community health services.
“Given we have so many sites, we’re immediately scalable.
The infrastructure already exists within community health, and we’re positioning ourselves to be the platform.”
The government’s Thriving Kids fact sheet states:
“Thriving Kids will be provided in the environments where children live, learn and play. It will include supports that help:
- Improve awareness of developmental delays
- Better identify developmental delays
- Parents and families to build their skills, connect with others and find quality information and advice
- Connect children and families to ‘targeted supports’, focused on development and based on level of need.”
Services are expected to begin in October, 2026.
“We know the impact it has on our families when they can’t get the support they need,” Mandy said.
“At Bendigo Community Health Services, not only do we have the skillset and the networks to deliver a successful Thriving Kids service, we also have the very best interests of children and families in our community at heart.
“We know the entire registered Community Health sector has the same vested and caring interest, and we are calling on the government to place Thriving Kids into our care.”