DoHDA has confirmed Healthdirect as the delivery partner for the national information and navigation service but has backed away from implementation dates.
Healthdirect has been confirmed as the delivery partner for Medicare Thriving Kids through a closed non-competitive grant process, but the federal health department has declined to confirm whether an early version of the service will launch on 1 October as contemplated in internal planning documents.
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing also confirmed children would not require a diagnosis to access Medicare Thriving Kids or broader Thriving Kids supports, as work continues on the service’s design, workforce, and connections with state and territory services.
DoHDA documents released under freedom of information revealed the Commonwealth and Healthdirect had been exploring launching a preliminary service for children aged one to eight from “1 October 2026”.
The documents described a new national service, called “Medicare Thriving Kids”, that would provide families and carers with information, advice, and service navigation by telephone and digital channels.
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Rather than delivering the broader range of Thriving Kids supports itself, the service was intended to help families identify and connect with appropriate services.
“Healthdirect will be an initial ‘front door’ to support and services for children to thrive, and an important part of the consumer facing parts of the Thriving Kids program,” Healthdirect chief executive Bettina McMahon told The Medical Republic.
The service would be built from an expanded and redesigned version of Healthdirect’s existing Pregnancy, Birth and Baby service.
Ms McMahon said Healthdirect had operated Pregnancy, Birth and Baby for more than 15 years and it was the organisation’s most popular service based on consumer satisfaction.
A review last year identified deficiencies in the way the service supported multicultural and vulnerable communities and recommended it be upgraded.
“The federal budget identified funding to uplift the PBB service in response to the review and to act as an entry point for Australians with enquiries about their child’s development,” Ms McMahon told TMR.
“Identifying developmental delay in a child often begins as a query from a concerned parent about whether their child’s behaviours are ‘normal’, and Healthdirect is well placed to provide evidence-based advice to reassure parents or to assess whether a family should be connected with a support or health service.”
October launch not confirmed
The departmental documents said Medicare Thriving Kids would be a new national service designed to help families and carers access new Thriving Kids supports through telephone and digital information, advice, and navigation.
It would include a redesigned Pregnancy, Birth and Baby service covering pre-conception to one year postpartum and a new stream for people with questions about the development and behaviour of children aged one to eight.
Together, the two streams would cover children from birth to eight years.
“To support access to state and territory-based Thriving Kids supports as they become available”, the documents said the Commonwealth and Healthdirect were exploring launching the preliminary one-to-eight stream as an extension of Pregnancy, Birth and Baby by 1 October.
Under that model, maternal and child health nurses would assist callers with queries involving children under five, with an expanded workforce dealing with children aged five to eight.
The documents also envisaged the full service operating as a dedicated service by July 2027.
But DoHDA now cautioned that those documents did not represent final government decisions.
“The FOI documents reflect early planning assumptions, indicative implementation approaches, and options under consideration at the time they were prepared, rather than final Government decisions,” a department spokesperson told TMR.
The department did not confirm either the proposed 1 October preliminary launch or the July 2027 date for the dedicated service.
It did, however, confirm Healthdirect’s role in delivering Medicare Thriving Kids.
“A closed non-competitive grant opportunity for Medicare Thriving Kids has been conducted, with Healthdirect as the identified delivery partner, and information about that process is publicly available on GrantConnect,” the spokesperson said.
Ms McMahon said Healthdirect had already begun designing the service.
“Healthdirect has commenced service design in line with recommendations of the review, including considering the mix of workforce,” she said.
“While it currently services up to two-year-olds, the service will expand to support children as old as eight.
“In terms of volumes, we have seen demand for both our digital and phone services grow in 2026 so we will be taking that into account for demand planning.”
Over 230,000 contacts modelled
The FOI documents also reveal the scale of the service contemplated during the department’s planning.
Once fully operational, departmental modelling estimated the one-to-eight advice and service-finding stream could handle about “186,000 telephone interactions and 47,000 digital interactions each year”.
It would provide developmentally informed guidance on early childhood development and wellbeing, help families understand and access Commonwealth and jurisdiction-delivered services, and provide “non-diagnostic navigation and service-finding support”, including soft referrals where appropriate.
The phone service was planned to be staffed by a qualified multidisciplinary workforce operating under nationally consistent training, clinical governance, and quality assurance arrangements.
The documents envisaged access through a national phone line, online information, and a service finder, with broader planning also including video calls, an app, and other digital channels.
The current Pregnancy, Birth and Baby service received about 35,000 calls annually. The planning documents estimated redesign and targeted promotion could increase that to as many as 80,000 calls in the first year, subject to final service design and promotional activity.
But DoHDA said the workforce requirements and demand forecasts were still being developed.
“The Department continues to progress implementation planning for Medicare Thriving Kids, including service design, workforce requirements, demand forecasting and engagement with delivery partners and state and territory governments,” the spokesperson said.
“This includes developing service pathways to help families access appropriate information, advice and supports, with operational arrangements and forecasts continuing to be refined as implementation progresses.”
No diagnosis required
The federal budget allocated “$120.9 million over five years from 2026-27” for information, advice, and resources on childhood development and autism and assistance with national navigation.
The FOI documents placed Medicare Thriving Kids within that funding measure but did not identify how much of the $120.9 million would be allocated to Healthdirect.
DoHDA confirmed the service would be available to families with questions or concerns about a child’s development and behaviour and would help connect them with appropriate information and supports.
Importantly, accessing it would not depend on a child already having a diagnosis.
“Children will not need a diagnosis to access this service or broader Thriving Kids supports,” the spokesperson said.
DoHDA did not say whether contacting Healthdirect would play any role in determining eligibility for Thriving Kids or the NDIS, or what would happen when families were directed to local services that were unavailable or had waiting lists.
