What is the Inclusion Support Program?

The Inclusion Support Programme (ISP) assists education and care services to include children with additional needs alongside their peers.

An Inclusion Agency in each state and territory is available to help services provide a quality inclusive environment for children with additional needs, including children with disability, children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, children from a refugee background and Indigenous children. The Inclusion Agencies assist eligible services to build their capacity to provide and embed inclusive practice into their delivery of early learning programs.

Inclusion is important!

All children have the right to be included in children’s
services. We know from research that all children benefit
from belonging to, and participating in, quality inclusive
child care.
An inclusive children’s service provides a unique
opportunity for children to play, develop and learn
together with children of their own age. These
relationships are the foundations for learning and
provide a powerful way of belonging to a group and
developing a sense of who they are.

When children are included you will see them:

• Feel safe and valued
• Be encouraged to do things on their own
• Be supported to contribute
• Make their own choices
• Play with their friends
• Have opportunities to learn new things
• Participate in the programme alongside their same age typically developing peers

What is the role of an Inclusion Professional?
Inclusion Professionals (IPs) support educators to develop
a Strategic Inclusion Plan that takes into consideration
the whole room your child is part of. The plan is not
focussed on your child alone, or any one child specifically.
Instead, the plan identifies what the service needs to do
to support educators to include all children.
IPs provide free support to all Commonwealth funded
children’s services, including Long Day Care, Outside
School Hours Care and Family Day Care services. Support
is provided when requested by the service. This could
include support to:

• Identify relevant professional learning opportunities
• Facilitate team meetings to discuss inclusion
• Reflect on policies, practices and procedures
• Provide networking opportunities for educators
• Access to the Inclusion Agency website and other resources such as newsletters and sector updates
• Provide support to apply for an additional educator for the environment (if required)

Providing access to funding support for services is not the
primary role of an IP. A diagnosis of a disability alone
does not mean that funding for an additional educator is
the best type of support for educators and services.

Inclusion happens when educators:

• Are supported in their practice by strong leadership
• Work together as a team to think about how inclusive their practices are
• Work collaboratively with families and support them to understand inclusion and how children learn in social settings
• Support children to communicate with, and learn from each other
• Value and view all children as capable and competent
• Recognise that every child is different, and plan programs to support this
• Build relationships with all children and families
• Support children to make choices about their play and learning
• Encourage children to develop confidence and be independent