Members of the Early Childhood Intervention Best Practice Network and CaFSA NSW were pleased to have the opportunity to meet with The Hon Natasha Maclaren-Jones MLC yesterday at NSW Parliament. The group discussed the system gaps for children experiencing developmental concerns and delays in NSW. While there is much hope for foundational supports, we see an urgent need to ensure children and families are not left behind in the interim. We are grateful for the Shadow Minister taking the time to discuss these important issues and our ideas to help fill these gaps. Morgan A. Fitzpatrick Kay Turner Kerry Dominish Lauren Stracey
Early Childhood Intervention Best Practice Network
Health and Human Services
Group of not-for-profit Early Childhood Intervention providers.
About us
The Early Childhood Intervention Best Practice Network is a group of 19 not-for-profit child and family organisations that provide early childhood intervention services and/or early childhood education. Together, we support over 6,000 children in early childhood intervention under the NDIS and over 22,000 children and young people and their families annually in metropolitan and regional areas. While we primarily operate across NSW, we also have representation in Victoria and the ACT. We have come together to: - work together to understand the reform context; - use our collective experience to form views regarding impacts and opportunities with a solutions-focused and child and family-focused lens; - pursue an advocacy agenda that promotes best practice interventions, access, inclusion and equity for children and young people with developmental concerns, delays, differences and disabilities and their families. We seek to engage with broader stakeholder grounds including government, sector colleagues and families to create collaborative solutions. Our members (in alphabetical order) include: - Bathurst Early Childhood Intervention Service - Bridges for Learning - Early Connections - Coffs Coast - Early Connections - Manning & Great Lakes - Early Connections - Port Macquarie/Hastings - Early Ed - First Chance - Koorana Child & Family Services Ltd - Noah's Ark - Noah's Inclusion Services - Orana Early Childhood Intervention & Education - Orange and District Early Education Program Inc (ODEEP) - PlayAbility - Plumtree - Royal Far West - SDN Children's Services - Shaping Outcomes - The Infant's Home - Treehouse
- Industry
- Health and Human Services
- Company size
- 1,001-5,000 employees
- Type
- Partnership
- Founded
- 2023
- Specialties
- Early Childhood Intervention and Early Childhood Education
Employees at Early Childhood Intervention Best Practice Network
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Sylvana Mahmic
CEO Plumtree
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Allison White
Manager | NDIS Support Coordinator | Senior Analyst | Not for Profit Resilient | IT skills | Projects | Excellent Communicaiton Skills
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Stephanie Southall
Area Supervisor, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Chef | Leadership, Program Monitoring
Updates
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We are pleased to see the Hon Minister Bill Shorten and the National Disability Insurance Agency’s investment in codesign to improve the pathways and supports for children with developmental delays, differences and disabilities. It is wonderful to see two of our members, Sylvana Mahmic and Morgan A. Fitzpatrick, appointed to this important advisory group. We look forward to supporting their work in this space to create a more child and family-centric NDIS.
Minister for the NDIS. Minister for Government Services. Member for Maribyrnong. at Australian Government
Families raising beautiful children like Isobel, who I was lucky to meet today, want to make sure they get the best experience for their child on the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). That’s why I’m pleased to announce that our Government has established a Children’s Expert Advisory Group, made up of some of Australia’s most respected early childhood experts. There's around 145,000 children on the NDIS under the age of 9. The number of children on the NDIS is growing at a faster rate, with 70% of the 50,000 new participants this year younger than 15 years old. We want to make sure these children and their families can access support that are best practice when it’s needed. This group will provide targeted and expert advice to the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and help shape the way that the agency co-designs and engages with the community on changes to the NDIS for children with disability and developmental delay, and their families and carers. It’s fantastic to have a group of people with such diverse and relevant experience on board to help shape changes to NDIA policy, practice and process and make sure children are flourishing.
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Our Network members are pleased to provide a white paper which outlines our views regarding the design of the new foundational support and disability ecosystem for children and families. As experienced community-based not-for-profit child and family organisations, we believe that we have much to contribute to the upcoming discussions on co-designing this system for children and families. Our intention with the white paper it to present ideas to support design-thinking and co-design collaboration. Our paper summarises: - The principles fundamental to a new supports ecosystem including examples of past and present practices that exemplify these principles. - The potential to integrate foundational supports into the existing service ecosystem. - The role of Navigators and Lead Practitioners (Key Workers). - How community-based not-for-profit child and family organisations play a crucial role in the broader child and family sector as accessible, localised points of support bridging universal and targeted services. We also address the ways in which conflicts of interest can be managed within these frameworks. We look forward to engaging with government, our sector colleagues and other key stakeholders in the co-design process around foundational supports.