Positive Partnerships

In his National Press Club Announcement of 20 August 2025, Minister Mark Butler name-checked some programs that might be scaled up and block-funded under Thriving Kids. In this series, we’re taking a brief look at them.

This time, we’re looking at Positive Partnerships.

Context:

Thriving Kids is intended to replace the NDIS early intervention pathway – and individualised NDIS therapy supports – for children with mild and moderate autism and developmental delay. As of now, the states have yet to agree funding, timing and other details for Thriving Kids with the Federal Government.

Overview:

Positive Partnerships (PP) is a national project to support autistic school students.

History:

PP was launched in 2008, as part of the Helping Children with Autism Initiative, and has been expanded through a number of phases.

Who “owns” it:

PP is funded by the Australian Government Department of Education and is now delivered by Aspect (Autism Spectrum Australia).

Goals:

PP supports (amongst other things) families, educators and communities to “strengthen positive outcomes for autistic young people”.

What does it do?

PP delivers free professional learning and other resources to parents, carers and school staff, including teachers.
It does this through its website resources, workshops, webinars and online modules.

Resource examples:

Information sheets and tools, e.g. about reacting to diagnosis, supporting self-care and independence, communication, and dealing with transitions.
1-2 day parent and carer workshops about autism, how it affects children at home and school, ways to strengthen home-school-community partnerships, advocacy, sensory processing, and behaviour management.
Whole -school and individual professional learning for teachers, e.g. about teaching strategies, curriculum adjustments, student mental health, strengthening social relationships, and dealing with change.
Combined parent/carer/teacher workshops.
Online modules and webinars about autism-related topics

Cost to date:

The Government has invested more than $100 million into PP.

Influence:

PP reports that, between 2015 and 2021:

30,000 educators across more than 1,860 schools, and more than 8,600 parents and carers, have accessed the workshops or online learning resources; and
705,000 people have used the website.

Does it work?

PP appears to be helpful for parents, carers and teachers:

A 2011 conference paper/case study concluded that PP resources increase parent/carer and teacher knowledge and confidence in meeting the needs of autistic students.
A 2022 study of nine parents of autistic students and nine teachers found that the parent-teacher workshops strengthened parent-teacher partnerships through an improved understanding of autistic students’ needs.

Yes, but:

The purpose of PP is to improve outcomes for autistic students:

The studies we found focus on indirect measures (parent /carer and teacher perceptions). We haven’t found an independent, peer-reviewed study that includes direct measures of student outcomes. (If you know of one, please let us know!)
The published studies have small sample sizes and lack controls. For example, researchers did not control for expectation bias: if someone expects a resource or treatment to be effective, they tend to focus more on positive outcomes and discount negative ones, which can distort research findings that rely on parent and teacher interviews or reports.
Improving educational outcomes for students with communication challenges requires much more than information-sharing and training. For example:
- teachers and other staff need time, resources, and support from leaders to implement tools, strategies and practices in busy classrooms; and
- different students can have very different support needs at different stages, sometimes requiring individualised supports that go far beyond general teaching and communication strategies.

Bottom line:

PP includes lots of useful, free resources for parents, carers, and teachers of autistic students. It would be great to see peer-reviewed research measuring student outcomes directly. For Thriving Kids, it would also be useful to see if any of the resources could be used or adapted to support other students, e.g. students with language or learning disorders, ADHD, and/or developmental delays.

Thriving Kids Programs Part 3: Positive Partnerships