Victorian autism plan progress report

Significant disability reforms are underway in Victoria and Australia.

• The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability had 222 recommendations. The Victorian Government shared its response to the recommendations on 31 July 2024. The recommendations include 85 shared by the national, state and territory governments. The Federal Government released a joint response to the shared recommendations on 31 July 2024.
• The Independent Review into the NDIS (also called the NDIS Review) gave its final report to disability ministers on 27 October 2023. The report had 26 recommendations and 139 supporting actions. The Federal Government, Victoria, and other states and territories are working on a joint response to the NDIS Review.
• In December 2023, National Cabinet agreed on an initial response to the NDIS Review including to jointly design Foundational Supports.
• Victoria continues to work with the Federal Government, states and territories to strengthen the NDIS and to undertake early design of Foundational Supports.
• In 2024, the Victorian Government worked on plans for disability reform in Victoria. It worked with disability advisory groups and forums, including the advisory group. In 2025, the state and Federal Governments are continuing to engage on disability reform.

We have organised the actions by the 19 priority areas. Of these actions:

• we completed 10 actions
• 81 actions are on track to be complete by December 2025, or are ongoing commitments
• there is 1 delayed action
• we retired 1 action.

Progress against four key priorities, systemic reforms and peer support.

Public autism assessments

• We set up new assessment services through the Community Health program and Aboriginal community-controlled providers. We want to improve access to autism assessment and diagnosis for children and young people. We want those services to be community-based and culturally sensitive.
• We funded the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre. The centre will reestablish a Victorian Early Assessment Clinic. The clinic will provide assessments for children one to 3 years of age.

Partnership with Mindful

• We funded a 12-month pilot project to have autism coordinators in adult mental health services. This was part of the Mindful Autism Assessment Capability and Capacity project. The project ended in 2023–24.
• We will fund public autism assessments through five adult mental health services. Assessment services will begin in 2025. The five adult mental health services will offer assessments in regional and metropolitan areas.

Disability Liaison Officer program

• From December 2023 to November 2024, disability liaison officers helped about 1,600 autistic people access essential healthcare services. The disability liaison officers provided tailored support.
• Disability liaison officer teams in multiple health services launched the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower program. The program aims to improve support for people with hidden disabilities, including autistic people, when accessing healthcare.
• The disability liaison officer team at Austin Health relaunched their Autism care plan. The plan is now in the health service electronic medical records.
• The Disability Identifier project tested a co-designed disability identification question in the electronic medical record system. This project helped people with disability and autistic people share their care needs. Parkville precinct hospitals and Austin Health disability liaison officer teams led the project.

Building workforce capacity

• The Mental Health Workforce Disability Capability Uplift program provides valuable learnings. These insights can boost the confidence and skills of mental health workers. This helps them care for people with disability, including autistic individuals. These insights will inform good practice guidelines for the broader health sector. National Disability Services and VALID were key partners in this work.
• In 2024, the Mindful Centre delivered 43 workshops to mental health clinicians. That was a total of 79 training days. The workshops included:
  • core autism training
  • intermediate skill workshops for working with people with multiple mental health conditions
  • advanced workshops in specialist assessment tools.
• The Royal Children’s Hospital developed guidelines called Autism and developmental disability: management of distress/agitation. It advises staff on how to respond to autistic children who use the emergency department.

Inclusive education reforms

• Disability inclusion reform is on track. More than 1,240 Victorian Government schools have moved to the new funding and support model. This was a staged roll-out with state-wide implementation from 2025. At the end of 2024, close to 15,000 Disability Inclusion Profile meetings were complete.
• Early evaluation findings show that the Profile process is helping create a better understanding of the needs of students with disability and leading to changes in practice in schools.
• In 2024, 644 school staff completed the 8-week Supporting Students with Autism blended learning course. One hundred and twelve school staff completed the (new) 5-week Supporting Students with Complex Communication Needs blended learning course.

The Autism education strategy

The Autism Education Strategy Advisory Group guides how the Autism education strategy works. The group gives advice on how the strategy can help autistic students.
The group met 4 times in 2024. It provided input and advice to us on many topics, including:

• meaningful engagement with parents and families
• promoting the strategy and its initiatives to schools
• Disability Inclusion evaluation
• supporting autistic students’ mental health.

The group will continue to meet in 2025 to guide this work. The group includes school leaders and regional staff, autism researchers and advocates. It also has representatives from autistic-led organisations and people with lived experience.

Mental health practitioners initiative

• In 2024, an external provider presented professional learning sessions to mental health practitioners. The sessions were on a range of specific topics aimed at supporting their practice. The sessions on autism and neurodivergence had the most participants.
• The sessions on autism and neurodivergence focussed on practices that help autistic young people. The session topics included:
  • understanding autism
  • adapting interventions for neurodivergent young people
  • school refusal.

Autistic-led mentoring programs

The Department of Education is promoting the development of disability-friendly schools. It is doing this through a $5.7 million partnership with the I CAN Network (I CAN), an autistic-led organisation. This partnership will expand I CAN’s mentoring programs in Victoria.

The partnership with I CAN employs two disability inclusion ambassadors. They provide input to inform government policy and programs from recent student lived-experience perspectives. They also share their lived experiences with non-autistic school stakeholders. The disability inclusion ambassadors completed 50 speaking and meeting engagements in 2024.

• I CAN delivered autistic-led mentoring programs in 157 schools in 2024. Students from 266 other schools were able to access the I CAN online mentoring program.
• I CAN also provided professional learning to upskill school staff. The training included lived-experience perspectives to build understanding of the needs of autistic students. By the end of 2024, 25 of 30 school engagements due for delivery by June 2025 were completed.

Skills and training

• The 2023–24 State Budget provided $36 million for the Gordon’s Centre for Excellence for Disability Inclusion. The centre will create the framework for disability inclusion across the TAFE network. It will lead the way in innovative practices, research and education.

Employment and economic participation

• The Victorian Public Sector Commission worked with the Autism Success Network and La Trobe University to create the Neurodiversity employment toolkit. The toolkit helps recruit and support neurodivergent employees in Victoria’s public sector.
• The Victorian Public Service Enablers Network is growing. It now has over 1,250 members at 31 May 2025. Enablers subgroups include:
  • the ADHD Growth Network with more than 700 members
  • the Autism Success Network with more than 400 members.

• As part of the State disability plan midway report, we updated the State disability plan outcomes framework. We also published a State disability plan outcomes report. This was part of the State disability plan midway report. The Melbourne Disability Institute led the project. They worked with Department of Families Fairness and Housing and the Victorian Disability Advisory Council.
• On 19 December 2024, the Federal Government launched the first release of the National Disability Data Asset.
• The National Disability Data Asset has datasets from nearly all government areas. These include disability, health, social security, education, employment, housing, transport and justice. We expect 3 more data releases in 2025. This will expand the data available on housing, education, income support, transport and justice.

In the Victorian public sector, we are making lasting changes to how we work. Inclusive Victoria: state disability plan midway report 2022–2026 shows the progress of these reforms.

Actions from the Victorian autism plan are contributing to systemic reform. The actions focus on:

• Aboriginal self-determination
• disability-confident and inclusive workforces
• effective data and reporting.

Notable examples of reform in those areas include:

• supporting culturally sensitive autism assessment and diagnosis through Aboriginal community-controlled providers
• the Mindful Autism Assessment Capability and Capacity project expanded in 2024
• an Australian-first toolkit to support neurodivergent employees in the Victorian public sector
• applying universal design principles in educational settings
• expanding the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower program in public sector workforces and programs to:
  • all key public transport operators
  • some additional health services, supported by the disability liaison officers in health services program
  • Victoria Police.

The Victorian Government is working harder to include autistic people’s voices when developing policy and programs. There are key examples below.

• The Autism Education Strategy Advisory Group continues to guide the implementation of the Autism education strategy. The group gives advice on how the strategy can help outcomes for autistic students.
• The Inclusive student voice toolkit was co-designed with the Youth Disability Advocacy Service. The toolkit launched in 2022.
• Western Health’s disability liaison officers worked with the Western Health Disability and Neurodiversity Advisory Committee on the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower program.
• The Victorian NDIS Community Advisory Council has members who are autistic and parents of autistic children. It also has a representative from Amaze. Amaze is a Victorian organisation that represents and supports autistic people and their communities.
• In June 2023, the Department of Families Fairness and Housing established the first LGBTIQA+ Disability Inclusion Expert Advisory Group. The group co-design policies and inform decision making by the Victorian Government. Members include autistic people and neurodivergent people.

The Victorian autism plan acknowledges the growing need and benefits of peer support for autistic people, their families and support networks.

In the reporting period, the Victorian Government provided 2-year grants to 72 organisations. This was through the 2023 to 2025 Disability Self Help Grants program. Grant recipients offer peer support opportunities for people with disability and their families. The updated program guidelines reflect the needs of disability self-help groups. The guidelines also match the goals of Inclusive Victoria and the Victorian autism plan.

The 2023–24 Budget funded ACD to create a peer support network. This network is for Victorian families of children with disability. The key objectives of this initiative are to:

• provide opportunities for families of children with disability to:
  • connect with other families who share similar experiences
  • access information and resources to support them in their caring role
  • have their voices heard on issues that affect them.
• build evidence about families raising children with disability
• inform the work of the Victorian Committee for Families of Children with Disability through summary reports and snapshots.

The National autism strategy highlights how peer support helps autistic people. It boosts social inclusion, mental health and wellbeing. The Federal Government committed to funding a peer support program and will provide up to $19.9 million over 4 years. The program will offer support that is age-appropriate and culturally sensitive. It will meet the varied needs of autistic people and the autism community.

Victorian autism plan actions in 2025 include:

• The All Abilities Workforce and Sector Support Program will begin implementation in 2025. It will include co-design with a lived experience group. The group will help advise on how to deliver and evaluate the program.
• The Mindful Centre will help improve autism training for the mental health workforce in Victoria. The training will teach how to work with autistic individuals and their families at all ages.
• The Professional Development for Healthcare Workers initiative will start in 2025. The initiative aims to update and create training modules for healthcare workers. The goal is to help them understand what autistic people need from services and support.
• The 2023-24 State Budget had funding over four years for the Pathway to Good Health Program. Implementation has been phased over 3 years, with full implementation to be complete in 2025. The Pathway to Good Health Program provides health screening, referral, assessments and health plans. The service is for all children and young people aged 0 to 17 years who are entering or returning to statutory care.
• An Emergency Management Communications team are designing a plain language guide for CALD communities and people with disability. This project aligns with systemic reforms to promote inclusion.
• Creating and actioning an outcomes framework for the Victorian Disability Advocacy Program.
• A Victorian NDIS Justice Handbook will be published in 2025. The handbook will guide NDIA and Victorian justice system staff to work together. Their goal is to support people with disability, including autistic people.
• The Department of Education working on embedding Disability Inclusion in all schools. This will help build more knowledge and skills in inclusive education. The aim is to create inclusive and welcoming schools for all students, including autistic students.

The Victorian autism plan has a strong connection with Inclusive Victoria: state disability plan 2022–2026 (also known as Inclusive Victoria). Both plans share key priority areas.

Inclusive Victoria outlines the wider disability inclusion policy and reforms for Victoria. It also has a framework that supports the autism plan. The Victorian autism plan, like Inclusive Victoria, includes specific actions for the autism community. For example, it aims to improve access to autism assessment and diagnosis.

The refreshed plan commits to reporting on both actions and outcomes. It recognises the need to align with Inclusive Victoria’s outcomes framework and a new national autism strategy.

In 2024, the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing hired Amaze to create a data framework for the Victorian autism plan. This framework has strategies to track outcomes for autistic Victorians, their families and carers. The framework works alongside the State disability plan outcomes framework.

Amaze created the framework with input from community partners, data custodians and stakeholders. The framework has:

• datasets for tracking outcomes
• recommendations for data management
• clear communication of results.

The framework has a proposed list of outcome indicators, including proposed headline indicators. In consultation with the Victorian autism plan’s governance groups:

• the Victorian Government will consider the proposed indicators in 2025
• we will incorporate approved measures into the State disability plan outcomes framework.

The project found existing data sources. It also noted gaps where indicators are not tracked. The draft report made recommendations to address data gaps.

In 2025, we will finalise the outcomes framework for the Victorian autism plan. This will involve exploring ways to fill data gaps. The National Disability Data Asset is a significant improvement in data collection. The Victorian Government will assess each data rollout. It will look for useful data to help with current gaps in monitoring outcomes.

Throughout 2025, the 3 governance bodies will continue to oversee the Victorian autism plan and track its progress. The Autism Plan Advisory Group will keep advising the Victorian Government on how services can be more inclusive and accessible for autistic people.

At the end of the Victorian autism plan in 2027, we will produce a final report. The final report will include outcome results of the final indicators identified by the project.