Update, 31 July 2026: we checked the bill

This story said the access amendments “have not been made” and that we had not established whether the Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Bill 2026 contains them. We then read the Parliament’s record. The bill had already passed the House of Representatives on 2 July 2026, four weeks before this was written, and its summary contains no age-limited Thriving Kids clause but does define ‘functional capacity’ and require consideration of eligibility for other service systems when determining NDIS access. Nothing below is withdrawn: a Thriving Kids-specific amendment still does not exist. But the sentence describing the legislation as not yet existing was too broad, and we should have checked the progress record before publishing. The full follow-up is here.

The money, and where most of it goes

Governments have committed $4 billion over five years to Thriving Kids, which is the first phase of the broader $10 billion over five years Foundational Supports commitment. The split inside that is worth knowing, because it decides who actually builds the services: at least $1.4 billion of the Australian Government’s $2 billion contribution will be provided as direct funding to states for Thriving Kids services.

So the Commonwealth is funding roughly half the program, and handing at least seventy per cent of its own half to the states to deliver. The department says it is separately designing the nation-wide services the Australian Government will deliver, with implementation also due to start from 1 October 2026, while states and territories run their own engagement on what they will deliver in their jurisdiction.

Who it covers, and who stays on the NDIS

Thriving Kids is for children aged 8 and under with developmental delay and/or autism with low to moderate support needs, and their families, carers and kin.

The department is equally specific about who is not in it. Children with permanent and significant disability, and children aged 8 and under with developmental delay and/or autism who have substantially reduced functional capacity, described as high support needs, will remain eligible for the NDIS, subject to usual arrangements.

The two dates, and why the second one is the real one

1 October 2026 is when the rollout of state services commences. It is a services-starting date. Nothing in what the department has published makes it an eligibility date.

1 January 2028 is the eligibility date. Governments have agreed in principle to change NDIS access arrangements, and those changes “will commence from 1 January 2028 and will be limited to children aged 8 and under with developmental delay and/or autism with low to moderate support needs”. Thriving Kids is expected to be at scale by the same date, which the department says is deliberate: national services in place ahead of the access change.

And there is a protection written down for the existing cohort. Children aged 8 and under enrolled in the NDIS before 1 January 2028 with that profile are “to be subject to reassessment under the eligibility criteria in place prior to 1 January 2028”. In plain terms: if your child is already in the scheme, the department’s published position is that they are reassessed against the old rules, not the new ones.

The law it depends on has not been made

This is the part that changes how firm the 2028 date is. The department states plainly that the access changes “will require amendments to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (Cth)”. That is a future-tense statement about legislation that does not yet exist.

The vehicle in front of the Parliament is the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026, referred to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee on 14 May 2026, with submissions closed on 10 July 2026 and the committee reporting on 14 August 2026. We have not established whether that bill contains the specific access amendments described above, and we are not asserting that it does.

What is still missing, nine weeks out

The department’s own page says governments “will continue to engage with the community on implementation arrangements in the months ahead” and that “details about specific services and how to access them will be made available closer to services commencing”.

Our view, labelled as such, and built on the sourced facts above. That is a reasonable thing for a department to write in February and a harder thing to read in the last week of July, with services due to start on 1 October. A parent of a five-year-old cannot currently look up what Thriving Kids will offer them or how to get it. That is a real gap, and it is also not evidence of failure: the design work has been running through an advisory group, a parliamentary inquiry and community engagement, and publishing a service list before the states have finished theirs would be worse than publishing it late.

The thing to watch is narrower and testable. If the access change is genuinely two and a half years away and the existing cohort is genuinely protected by reassessment under the old criteria, then the 1 October date carries much less risk for families than its billing suggests. If either of those moves, that is the story.

How we sourced this

The $4 billion over five years for Thriving Kids and the $10 billion over five years for Foundational Supports, the statement that at least $1.4 billion of the Australian Government’s $2 billion goes as direct funding to states, the eligible cohort and the description of who remains on the NDIS, the 1 October 2026 rollout of state services, the expectation of being at scale from 1 January 2028, the in-principle agreement to change NDIS access and its 1 January 2028 commencement, the reassessment protection for children enrolled before that date, the statement that the changes will require amendments to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013, and both quoted passages about ongoing engagement and details being made available closer to commencement are from the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s Thriving Kids page, read in full on 31 July 2026. That page is stamped as last updated 13 May 2026.

The referral date, submission closing date and 14 August 2026 reporting date for the Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Bill 2026 are from the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee’s inquiry page for that bill.

We have not read the bill, the Thriving Kids Advisory Group final report, the parliamentary inquiry report, or any state or territory implementation material, and we have not established whether the bill before the Senate contains the access amendments the department refers to. No figure here is ours; the observation that the Commonwealth is passing at least seventy per cent of its own contribution to the states is arithmetic on the two published figures. The sections headed “What is still missing” are our opinion, built on the sourced facts above, and no claim is made about the conduct of any department, minister or government.

Sources

  1. Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Thriving Kids (page stamped last updated 13 May 2026, read in full 31 July 2026): the funding figures and the $1.4 billion to states, the eligible cohort and who remains on the NDIS, the 1 October 2026 and 1 January 2028 dates, the in-principle agreement on access changes, the reassessment protection for children enrolled before 2028, the requirement for amendments to the NDIS Act 2013, and the quoted statements on continuing engagement and service details.
  2. Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee, National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 (inquiry page, read 31 July 2026): the 14 May 2026 referral, the 10 July 2026 close of submissions and the 14 August 2026 reporting date.
  3. The Scheme Brief, where the peak bodies stand on the bill: our earlier reporting on the same legislation.

Spotted an error, or navigating this for your own child? Tell us and we will check it against the sources and log the outcome here.