School-Age Consultancy

Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) is an evidence-based intervention approach that assesses an individual’s behaviours and works to both increase positive learning and decrease those behaviours which may be socially isolating, physically harmful or which present a significant speedbump to learning. Primarily, ABA is about helping an individual to learn or re-learn how to achieve, to live life fully, and to reach their potential. 

ABA focuses on breaking down complex skills, to smaller, more achievable steps. ABA achieves effective results, has an immediate impact and uses practical ideas. Children are never punished for failing to master a task, but every achievement is rewarded with enthusiastic encouragement. 

ABA is used in a wide range of settings, such as medical, educational, mental health, rehabilitation, and health and exercise. It is recognised as one way for people on the autism spectrum to “learn how to learn” and has been subjected to rigorous scientific investigation around the world. 

Every program at Learning for Life is tailored specifically to the child, taking into account the child’s (and their family’s) preferences, strengths, interest, needs and challenges. Our practice reflects our core belief that the children we work with have the right to the same choices, opportunities and experiences of all children and that their rights and choices are important. We also recognise the importance of family and seek to ensure parents have the information, resources and support needed to participate in and benefit from the program. 

At Learning for Life we actively promote resilience in a safe and nurturing way in order to empower the child and provide a pathway to independence and choice. When seeking to address challenges we look to the underlying cause to better understand the challenge, taking into account the right or need of the child to engage in actions or behaviours even if they might otherwise be considered unusual.

We believe in a team-based approach which sees a child’s Clinical Consultant, teachers and parents/guardians working together to support the child and provide a framework to best enable the child to achieve the milestones and goals agreed as part of their program.

Each of our School-Age Consultancy service Clinical Consultants have a Masters level Allied Health or Teaching degree, registration with the Association for Behaviour Analysis Australia (ABAA)  and at least four years ABA experience working with neurodivergent children.   

Each Clinical Consultant is supported by both our Head of Allied Health and our Clinical Director and undergoes continual professional development and internal training and supervision.

Bios for each of our Clinical Consultants are available on the L4Life Team page.

It is important that families make themselves aware of other relevant supports and therapies available when considering whether to enrol in School-Aged Consultancy service at Learning for Life. Paediatricians should also be able to advise you about other therapies and the Autism section of the Raising Children Parenting Website is a great source of information for parents of children with ASD.

Learning for Life believes in a holistic approach to support provision and respects parent choice as to what supports are right for their child. In some cases, Clinical Consultants may recommend other therapies such as Occupational Therapy or Speech Therapy be run in conjunction with the School-Aged Consultancy program. They may also recommend supported socialisation activities such as specifically facilitated socials skills groups.

Learning for Life offers service at our centre in Kew, in a child’s school and at the child’s home.  Where a child is attending school, school observations and Clinical Consultant communication with the child’s teacher are common components of the program.

Learning for Life’s School-Aged Consultancy hours of operation are 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday. Consultations usually run between 1 and 2 hours and will be scheduled at times agreed with the family (and, if relevant, the school).

We provide across inner and greater Melbourne, although some areas can be more difficult to staff and this may impact ability for us to take on new families in certain locations from time to time. We charge for travel to and from our centre in Kew (based on NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Limits rates).

Yes – we offer centre-based services for our School-Aged Consultancy service.

Our office is located at 25-27 High Street South, Kew, Victoria 3101, between Kew Junction and Barkers Rd. There is on and off-street parking available and the number 48 and number 109 trams run directly past the centre.

Our School-Aged Consultancy waitlist is currently closed.  Our capacity to open the waitlist is continually assessed, based on whether there is a realistic ability that waitlisted families could receive service within 12 months of their enquiry. Our website will be updated when we are in a position to open the waitlist again.

When the waitlist is open, we keep a register of families who enquire about service and submit an Expression of Interest form. When capacity opens up to take on a new family, assessment is made against the Expression of Interest Register, taking into account our principles for priority of access. As priority of access is determined on a combination of factors it is very difficult to provide an indication of wait times.  For this reason, we recommend that families continue to investigate other services even after submitting an Expression of Interest form.

Enrolment in Learning for Life’s School-Aged Consultancy service is open to school aged children who have difficulties engaging in their everyday environments (e.g. social difficulties and/or engagement in high rates of behaviours of concern), regardless of whether or not a child has a diagnosis of ASD, ADHD or other conduct disorders. Parents/guardians may submit an Expression of Interest Form for their child to register interest in our service, but access and enrolment will depend on our capacity at the time. If a child turns 18 or graduates from year 12 at high school before accessing service they will be removed from the Expression of Interest Register as they will no longer meet criteria for access.

Once enrolled, a child may continue in the program until the later of graduation from high school or reaching the age of 18.

School-Aged Consultancy fees are fees are charged (and updated) in line with the NDIS Pricing Arrangements Guide under the following NDIS Line Items:

• 15_056_0128_1_3 (Capacity Building - Improved Daily Living – Assessment, Recommendation, Therapy or Training – Other Professional)
• 01_741_0128_1_3 (Core - Assistance with Daily Life – Assessment, Recommendation, Therapy or Training – Other Professional)

In line with the NDIS Pricing Arrangements Guide as at the date of this information pack, a breakdown of fees is shown below by way of example.

Invoices for service are issued on a weekly basis via email in respect of services provided in the week prior.

Learning for Life charges for travel at the Clinical Consultant hourly rate in accordance with the NDIS Pricing Limits and Arrangements Guide where consultation takes place away from our centre in Kew.

Yes – Learning for Life is an NDIS registered provider. You may use NDIS funding to cover the cost of our services if your child has a self-managed, plan-managed or agency-managed NDIS plan with funding available under either the Capacity Building – Improved Daily Living or Core-Assistance with Daily Living categories, whereby the nature of supports within this category are either not specified or refer to any of:

• Psychologist;
• other therapy (or therapy generally); or
• supports provided by an allied health assistant.

Please note that, although our School-Aged Consultancy service is based upon behaviour analysis principles, Improved Relationship funding (or funding specifically related to specialist behaviour supports) cannot be used cover the cost of our School-Aged Consultancy service.  Funding of this type requires services to be delivered by an NDIS registered Specialist Behaviour Support Practitioner. Many of our School-Aged Clinical Consultants are also NDIS registered Specialist Behaviour Support Practitioners, however, the nature of these two programs differ, with specific regulatory requirements for the development of specialist behaviour support plans and lodgement with both the Victorian Senior Practitioner and NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. Please contact us for more information about Learning for Life’s Specialist Behaviour Support program or to discuss any questions you may have about different funding categories.

Yes – although NDIS funding can be used to cover the cost of our programs, NDIS funding it not a prerequisite to accessing service. Given Learning for Life is not currently registered with the NDIS, clients are directly responsible for paying service fees themselves and then clients with NDIS funding are responsible for claiming fees back from the NDIS to the extent applicable. 

Yes – as noted above, although NDIS funding can be used to cover the cost of our programs, NDIS funding it not a prerequisite to accessing our services. Clients are responsible for paying service fees directly regardless of how they fund it.

Please ask your specific Private Health Insurer whether they will cover the cost of our service. If so, clients will need to pay the Learning for Life invoice and then use the invoice receipt to claim directly from their Private Health Insurer.

Within our School-Aged Consultancy service we are able to provide psychological services which are able to be funded in part with support of a GP referred Mental Health Care Plan and associated Medicare Rebate (for the amount of hours specified in the Mental Health Care Plan for a given calendar year). Such funding is separate to NDIS funding. Please note Medicare requires that the person holding the Mental Health Care Plan be present at all appointments. As such if the plan is for the child a rebate cannot be claimed for any meetings with parents and/or teachers without the child present. In the case where frequent parent consultations (without the child) are required parents can sometimes get their own Mental Health Care Plan.

Yes – Learning for Life is a child safe organisation and is committed to the protection and well-being of children and young people. Our Child Safe and Vulnerable Person Policy is available for viewing on our website.

Learning for Life has strict recruitment and screening practices, including the requirement for all staff to have valid and up to date Working with Children Checks and NDIS Worker Screening Checks. All new staff also undertake child safety training as part of their onboarding process and sign specific acknowledgement of our Staff Code of Conduct (noting that our Code of Conduct Policy is also available for viewing on our website).

Our General Manager - Operations, Victoria Crane, is the Learning for Life Child Safe Officer.

Our Client Confidentiality & Privacy Policy is available for viewing on our website. As outlined in our policy, we will only use the information provided to us by clients for the purpose it is collected and ensure our information storage systems are secured appropriately. In addition to the requirement for staff to follow privacy protocols in our policy, each staff member signs a Confidentiality Deed as part of their employment contract.

Our General Manager-Operations, Victoria Crane, is the Learning for Life Privacy Officer.

Our Client Complaints & Feedback Policy is available for viewing on our website. Feedback or complaints can be made in a number of ways, including:

• anonymously via our online feedback form;
• via mail, email or verbally to our Practice Manager at PO Box 7118 Hawthorn North VIC 3122 or timetables@learningforlife.com.au or 0448 127 508
• via email or verbally to our CEO, Clinical Director, General Manager-Operations or your allocated Clinical Consultant.