Early Childhood Targeted Action Plan
About the Early Childhood Targeted Action Plan
There are 5 Targeted Action Plans (TAPs) under Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031. They commit governments to specific actions to improve outcomes for people with disability.
We oversee the Early Childhood Targeted Action Plan(Opens in a new tab/window). This TAP focuses on infants to school age children who have disability, developmental delays or concerns, as well as their families and carers.
The Early Childhood TAP helps families find information and support when they need it. It also tries to improve how programs and services work together and has useful information for other people who help families, like doctors and teachers.
We are working with the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), the Department of Health and Aged Care, the Department of Education, and the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) to complete the Australian Government actions in the Early Childhood TAP.
Every state and territory has committed to completing their own actions in the Early Childhood TAP.
Measuring success
We release progress reports each year on the overall status of actions in the TAPs. Visit Disability Gateway(Opens in a new tab/window) to read the reports.
Implementing the Targeted Action Plan
We are working with partners and stakeholders to implement the Targeted Action Plan.
We have led or are working on Actions 1.3 (Improve culturally safe and appropriate developmental screening tool), 2.4 (Review guidance for best practice early intervention), 2.5 (Develop educator resources to support inclusion) and 3.1 (Recommendation report on programs to best support diverse cohorts).
Early Childhood TAP Action 1.3: Improve culturally safe and appropriate developmental screening tool
The University of Melbourne was engaged to develop the Ages and Stages Questionnaire - Talking about Raising Aboriginal Kids 2 (ASQ-TRAK2). This is an extension of the previous ASQ-TRAK to include culturally safe and appropriate developmental screening for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, aged 2 months to 5 years.
This tool went live in June 2023. It is being used within First Nation communities and has been adopted by Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services, government health services, education services, and community services.
Early Childhood TAP Action 2.4: Review guidance for best practice early intervention
We co-convened a workshop in June 2023 involving key stakeholders. At the workshop, stakeholders discussed what should be included in a review of guidance for best practice in helping children with disability or concerns about their development. This workshop informed the procurement of services to review best practice guidance in early childhood intervention.
Read the summary report of the workshop.
We have engaged the University of Melbourne to lead a group of expert organisations to both undertake an independent analysis how to help young children with disability, developmental delay or concern and to develop a framework for how best to provide such support.
The project team can be contacted at official-ecireview@unimelb.edu.au.
To stay informed or to be consulted subscribe to the Official ECI Review Newsletter(Opens in a new tab/window), managed by the University of Melbourne.
Early Childhood TAP Action 2.5: Develop educator resources to support inclusion
We developed resources to support inclusion of children in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in mainstream settings. The aim is to support early childhood educators to have respectful conversations and build relationships with families so they can make informed choices about their child.
Learn more and download the resources.
Early Childhood TAP Action 3.1: Recommendation report on programs to best support diverse cohorts
On 3 May 2022, we collaborated with the NDIA and Whereto Research Based Consulting (Whereto) to research current peer support models and provide recommendations on how to best support diverse cohorts.
Whereto engaged with parents and carers of young children with disability or developmental concerns. They also included peak bodies and service providers through in-depth interviews, group discussions, online workshops and an online survey.
Read the recommendations on programs to best support diverse cohorts.