Progress since the original plan

Despite the challenges and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have progressed key commitments and actions from the original plan. These actions include:

• Change Your Reactions – two waves of a public education campaign were run in February 2020 and April–May 2021, on television, social media and print advertisements. The campaign encouraged more helpful attitudes and behaviours from community members towards autistic people and their families. An evaluation of the first wave of the campaign showed highly positive responses from both the general population and from autistic people. One additional wave of the campaign is funded for 2023–24 that will highlight behaviour change in the workplace.
• Autism Education Strategy and broader Inclusive Education reforms – the Victorian Autism Education Strategy aims to improve educational outcomes and supports for autistic students. It fosters inclusive school communities that welcome autistic people and their families, and value their contribution. The Strategy was launched in late 2020 and forms part of broader Inclusive Education reforms.
• Autism assessment and diagnosis – Increasing access to assessment is a key element of the Victorian autism plan. The 2019–20 State Budget provided four years of demand funding ($7.4 million). The third and fourth years of allocation are focusing on diversifying publicly funded assessments, which have typically been limited to Child and Adolescent/Youth Mental Health Services.
• Autism supports – many autism organisations, including those represented on the Advisory Group, moved quickly to deliver supports and services online during the pandemic. This was supported in part by one-off grants to allow more rapid redeployment of activity.
• Supporting a high quality NDIS – working with people with disability to ensure the scheme is responsive, sustainable and delivers outcomes. Achievements include:
  • as of 30 June 2023, there were 163,241 Victorians who were active NDIS participants. This included 53,886 (33 per cent) participants who identified autism as their primary disability
  • establishing the Victorian NDIS Community Advisory Council (VCAC), which is made up of people with disability, NDIS participants, peak bodies, service providers and people holding statutory positions. VCAC provides advice on the implementation of the NDIS in Victoria.

Victoria also made advances in broader disability inclusion work that was particularly useful to and valued by autistic people and their families. This included:

• Disability Liaison Officer program – the program, introduced in 2020, supports people with disability to access health services and meet their health needs. It has received national recognition for increasing rates of testing and vaccination for people with disability. Section 2.1 in this plan provides more detail.
• Responding to the pandemic - measures put in place to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection and promoting the benefits of vaccination and how to access COVID-19 assessment, treatment, testing and vaccines. Initiatives included:
  • in 2021, a dedicated low-sensory vaccination site operated through the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre
  • at the same time, a newly funded ambassador role engaged Amaze to mobilise its networks and encourage people to have COVID-19 vaccinations.
• Meeting increased advocacy demand during the pandemic – the government provided time-limited demand funding for the Victorian Disability Advocacy Program which is a critical service for many autistic people and their families. Access and inclusion issues relating to schooling and the NDIS were key areas of demand. Autistic people continue to be a key cohort using advocacy services to restore and uphold their rights.
• Family violence reforms - family and sexual violence reforms to strengthen access, inclusion and responsiveness of the family violence and sexual assault sectors in with the Everybody Matters: Inclusion and Equity Statement (Everybody Matters). Everybody Matters is the first Victorian Government policy statement underpinned by the theory of intersectionality and maps out how investment in systemic change, and building capabilities, knowledge and specialisation, can shape a system that helps all Victorians. It also commits to the release of three blueprints over its 10-year lifespan to drive action.
• Family violence MARAM Framework - the Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management (MARAM) Framework. MARAM provides guidance across the system for understanding family violence presentations across communities, identities and contexts, including where individuals have disability. It also supports professionals to understand how compounding barriers, discrimination and oppression can impact family violence risk and guidance for how to address this through risk management.
• Workforce capability in Justice - workforce initiatives uplifted the capability of corrections and youth justice workforces to recognise, understand and respond to people with disability. This included specific structured training, consultations with dedicated disability portfolio holders (including autism), specialist disability clinicians, and piloting the Just Voices project.
• Improved data collection - data capture and analytics work using Victorian linked datasets across health, human services and justice systems is capturing the experience of people with disability in key parts of the justice and corrections system.
• Disability workforce - targeted and public campaigns supported the growth of a diverse and representative disability workforce. These built on the results of Keeping Our Sector Strong, Victoria’s plan that supported the workforce through transition to the NDIS. The Victorian Government allocated an additional $2.4 million funding for a series of time-limited projects delivered over 2021–22 and 2022–23. These projects aimed to strengthen the disability workforce to provide services for people with disability, including autistic people, in thin markets such as rural and regional communities, and improve worker retention rates.

Completed actions from the original plan include actions to:

• implement the plan itself and guide its work through close consultation with autistic people and their communities
• drive change at a national level on matters such as:
  • initial work to make transition to the NDIS fair and helpful for autistic people
  • work towards a national autism strategy
• build capacity of the early years workforce, such as maternal and child health nurses, kindergarten teachers and early childhood educators
• build capacity of the health and mental health workforce to meet health and autism assessment needs
• build service capacity and expertise in autism assessment
• expand sport and recreation opportunities, including creating sensory rooms in sporting facilities using universal design principles
• develop a youth justice strategy to better support young people, including autistic young people, in the justice system
• develop and introduce new policies and tools to support autistic school students.

In some of these areas, the refreshed plan introduces new or next steps.

Some major strands of new activity under this refresh include:

• meeting health needs in the context of long-term, endemic COVID-19 infection
• strengthening NDIS access and equity, including:
  • advocating nationally on new and emerging issues
  • better meeting the needs of autistic Aboriginal people
  • building workforce capability
• introducing new actions to meet the needs of autistic people during and after emergencies and incidents
• better meeting the needs of autistic people when they have contact with the police, the justice system and corrections
• implementing long-term reforms in mental health, housing and education.

A sizeable proportion of these new actions focus on building workforces’ understanding and capability in relation to autism. This is in line with Inclusive Victoria’s systemic reform: ‘Disability confident and inclusive workforces’.