What are Foundational Supports? The Supports Outside the NDIS

Foundational Supports is the name for a new tier of disability support being built outside the NDIS. It is an unfamiliar term for most families, but it matters, because it is the frame that Thriving Kids and several other reforms sit inside. This article explains what Foundational Supports are, where they came from, and how the pieces relate.

The idea

The core idea is that the NDIS was never meant to be the only source of disability support, and that many people are better served by supports outside an individual plan. Foundational Supports fill that space: they sit alongside mainstream systems like health and education, adding to what those systems already offer.

All governments made a commitment to work together to deliver Foundational Supports, including a commitment of $10 billion in joint funding over 5 years. As of 2026-02-12 · Foundational Supports - Department of Social Services

They came out of the Independent Review into the NDIS, which recommended more support be delivered outside the scheme so that the NDIS could focus on people with higher and more complex needs.

General and targeted supports

Foundational Supports come in two kinds, and the distinction is worth holding on to. General supports are broad, open to people with disability to help them live a better life. Targeted supports are narrower, for people who have extra support needs but do not need those needs met through the NDIS. One is about wide access; the other is about a specific gap between mainstream services and the scheme.

Where Thriving Kids fits

The first phase of Foundational Supports to be built is aimed at young children.

Governments have committed to jointly contribute $4 billion over 5 years to implement the first phase of Foundational Supports, known as Thriving Kids. As of 2026-05-13 · Thriving Kids - Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

That first phase is Thriving Kids, and it is the part of Foundational Supports a family with a young child is most likely to encounter. Everything in the Thriving Kids article is a specific instance of the broader Foundational Supports idea described here.

Why it matters now

Foundational Supports change the answer to a common question: if the NDIS is not the right fit, what else is there? For a long time the honest answer was a patchwork of mainstream and state services. Foundational Supports are an attempt to make that space deliberate and funded rather than accidental. The direction is set, and parts of it are being built now, but it is a program in development, so the official Foundational Supports page is where the current detail lives.