As the national peak body for over 80 individual disability advocacy organisations, Disability Advocacy Network Australia (DANA) is uniquely positioned to contribute to the Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative.

Our insights are grounded in the lived experience and advocacy work of our members, who
support children and families navigating multiple, often fragmented, service systems. It is
based on this experience of system interface issues – and the inequities these cause – that
we provide this submission.

This provides a strong foundation to critically assess the systemic barriers and enablers that will impact children and families once a new service system or program is potentially established to deliver ‘Thriving Kids’.

As a result, this submission is specifically focused on the role of interfaces in the design of
Thriving Kids and the elements of the Terms of Reference that relate to ‘equity and
intersectional issues and ‘mechanisms that would allow a seamless transition’.