A 101 on Inklings
What on earth is this “Inklings Program” that we keep hearing about?
Western Australian families have the opportunity to participate in an upcoming early childhood intervention program, Inklings, launched in February 2024. The pilot on Inklings is being delivered in Western Australia through a $13.8 million grant (inclusive of GST) to The Kids Research Institute Australia from the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) . The program is being rolled out in partnership with the WA Child and Adolescent Health Service and the WA Country Health Service.
What is Inklings?
Inklings equips parents & caregivers with the tools to recognise, interpret and respond to their child’s specific communication behaviours. It aims to help families better understand and engage with their children from infancy.
The Eligibility for Inklings
Western Australian parents and caregivers of children aged 6-18 months who are showing early signs of developmental differences or delays are welcome to participate. To find out how to participate, families should contact their local CAHS or WACHS office, or visit the Inklings website to check eligibility and learn more.
Comprehensive Evaluation
The NDIA will evaluate the Inklings pilot to determine if it can be delivered at a larger scale. The evaluation will focus on:
- The uptake and adoption of the program
- Acceptability to families and service providers
- Identifying the benefits the program can deliver participating children
The evaluation will be performed in 3 key phases:
Phase 1 – 2024:
- Assess participation numbers
- Examine varying delivery methods
- Collect feedback from parents, clinicians, and providers
- Analyse consistency across practitioners and providers
- Determine feasibility of national scale-up
Phase 2 – 2025:
- Compare Inklings outcomes for families with outcomes of existing supports
- Identify the most effective delivery methods
- Determine the most suitable delivery providers
Final Phase – By Late 2026:
- Explore integration with the NDIS and mainstream early childhood intervention services
- Deliver a final evaluation report to guide future decisions
South Australia Pilot Underway
A separate Inklings pilot launched in South Australia in January 2024, funded by the federal government and coordinated by the South Australian Government’s Office for Autism. The NDIA is not directly involved.
A National Vision for Early Intervention
While the current focus is on Western and Southern Australia, the broader vision is to assess how Inklings could be expanded nationally to support early developmental intervention through mainstream and NDIS pathways.
With strong research backing and national significance, Inklings could shape the future of early childhood developmental support in Australia.
Questions and concerns
Given Minister Butler’s surprising announcement introducing the Thriving Kids initiative earlier this year, the disability community is waiting in earnest to find out more about what will be in store for the children and young people of Australia. Whilst most NDIS participants will agree we need to ensure that the NDIS is sustainable now and for the future, cutting imperative early intervention services does seem like a fundamentally flawed approach to long term cost cutting, since we know how important early intervention services are to supporting language, speech and skill development.
We have heard that Thriving Kids will be informed and possibly modelled based on the Inklings program. However this seems to be a program specifically designed for children aged 6 to 18 months, and, given Thriving Kids will support children under 9, it does leave many questions unanswered, such as:
- what supports will be available?
- who will get access to them/what is the access criteria?
- who will deliver the supports?
At Active Ability, we will keep updating our community as soon as information becomes available but please do contact us if you have any questions in the meantime.
