Disability Sector To Drive Revolution

The disability sector is on the brink of the most exciting transformation in New Zealand history, aiming to improve the quality of lives for disabled people and their families. The new system wants to offer disabled people and their families more options, more decision-making and more effective interaction with Crown agencies. The disability sector has been calling for change for a long time, as the disabled people feel that their lives fit around the system, instead of the system enabling their lives. There have also been concerns about a lack of options for support being allocated services without choice, having to repeatedly explain their lives to different agencies and what was going on in their lives and having to battle for support that they are legally entitled to. In response to these concerns a group from the disability sector presented a vision and principles called Enabling Good Lives to the then Minister of Disability, Tariana Turia. After three years of discussions and workshops with disabled people, families, Crown agencies and service providers, a new vision for the disability sector was presented to the Government and is set to be signed off by Cabinet and to be trialled in the MidCentral area this year. MidCentral is an area which covers Palmerston North, Horowhenua, Manawatū, Ōtaki and Tararua districts in the central North Island. In 2020, the programme is expected to be expanded to Canterbury, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty. The core vision behind the system transformation is to avoid disabled people having to deal with numerous agencies to access their services. Instead, the new system envisages for the different funding streams to be bundled and for the disabled person and their families to decide where best to use this funding and what service provider they want to use. In the new system the families will be supported by a Connector, to become their advocate and the navigator through this new system. Currently, most families will have interactions with the likes of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Education, Life Links, Idea Services, Manuwanui, ACC and many others, but going forward the families are expected only to deal with their Connector instead. The goal for this new system is to Enable a Good Life. The transformation started last year with a threemonth project in which representatives from the Ministries of Health and Social Development worked alongside the disabled community to design a process for a nationwide transformation of the disability support. The group was made up of five disabled people, two family representatives, two service providers and four Government officials and came together for ten workshops over two months.

The starting point for the group was to create a high-level design for a system that delivers the best experience for disabled people and their family/ whānau. It will be built around the following core elements. • A welcoming entry – people are welcomed into the system, provided with information, linked with a Connector, peer network, government agency or disability organisation. • Access to a Connector - someone who can walk alongside disabled people and whānau to help them identify what they want in their lives, how to build that life, and the range of supports available to live that life. • Connected support across government – you talk to your Connector about what you need and the Connector talks to a Government Liaison person to access other government services (e.g. benefit applications), and to build positive relationships with other parts of government (e.g. learning support in school). • Easy to use information and processes. • A straightforward process for accessing funding, with flexibility about what can be purchased and easy reporting on how funding has been used. • Capability funding for disabled people and their whānau to build their leadership skills. • Greater system accountability - disabled people and their whānau are involved in monitoring and evaluating the system so they can check if it is working well.

The new system will put decision-making in the hands of disabled people and their whānau. It will increase flexibility, remove rules, and offer opportunities for support you want. After this high-level work was completed, over 20 working groups were set up to develop the detailed design for the new system. At least a third of each working group was made up of disabled people. The individual working groups focused on specific areas like: • Disability information front end • Capability building for disabled people and whānau • To information tools and pathways • Safeguarding • Network building • System responsiveness • Scope of funding • New system team roles • High and complex • Provider analysis and capability

Other working parties focused on the interactions with government agencies, including: Health, Education, Ministry of Social Development, ACC, Oranga Tamariki.

This year, more working groups will be set up to look at Tax, Market shaping, Brand and identity, and Whānau Ora.

Get involved to transform the disability sector

The changes in the disability sector are not instigated at Government level but driven from inside the sector so it is vital for the sector to get informed and get involved. Disabled New Zealanders, their whānau and service providers can get involved in one of the virtual testing groups to provide feedback and ideas. If you are interested, please contact the project team at STfeedback@moh.govt.nz. In Canterbury the Enabling Good Lives team and project coordinator Sasha O’Dea from the Ministry of Health have been conducting workshops with the local disability sector inform them about the programme and to create a Governance Group that will be in charge of the pilot programme to be rolled out in 2020. Disabled people and their whānau are invited to a meeting on April 19 where people can put their hand up and be elected to be part of this Governance group. It is imperative that as many people as possible attend to get the best people on this group and get a genuine representative of broad section of the sector.

NZDSA members who want to receive updates on the systems transformation through the NZDSA Enews need to forward their email to nzdsainfo@xtra.co.nz

Project coordinator Sasha O’Dea is planning live online Question and Answer sessions about the Systems Transformation and anyone who wants to participate in these session can email the NZDSA for dates and times.

The systems transformations team at work