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Action - DPO work to support changes to disability support system

The action outlined below will help achieve this outcome. This work was started under the existing Disability Action Plan. 

4. Priority: Promote disabled people having choice and control over their supports/services, and make more efficient use of disability support funding

4 A: DPOs advise and work with government agencies and the National Enabling Good Lives Leadership Group to support changes to the disability support system, including learning from the Enabling Good Lives approach (particularly its demonstrations) and other initiatives. Key principles of this work are being culturally responsive, strengths based, holistic, involve whānau (whānau ora principles), and an integrated approach.

On this page

Progress update

Scope of the action

  1. Lead
  2. Context
  3. Proposed scope
  4. Contributors/partners with lead – who is involved in this action?
  5. Reporting – key milestones/deliverables
  6. Risks
  7. Impact – what are we trying to achieve?
  8. Evidence base
  9. Related work

Progress update to September 2018

Status: Blue - Action completed 

This action was previously completed (April 2016), but has now been restarted with further work as the overall transformation is still underway. The following new wording was agreed:

4A: DPOs advise and work with government agencies and the National Enabling Good Lives Leadership Group to support co-design processes with the disability sector to begin a nationwide transformation of the disability support system, starting with people receiving disability support services in the MidCentral region. This will include learning from the Enabling Good Lives approach (particularly its demonstrations) and other initiatives in New Zealand and overseas. Key principles of this work are choice and control, and being culturally responsive, strengths based, holistic, involve whānau (whānau ora principles), and an integrated approach.

Action milestones:

Evidence gathering (March - July 2016) [complete]

  • The Working Group was made up of disabled people, their organisations and families, the National Enabling Good Lives Leadership Group, providers and government agencies.
  • They worked together to identify the evidence sources.

Analysing what works and why (August - October 2016) [complete]

  • The Working Group identified what works in transforming disability support systems, and why based on the available evidence.

Identifying what changes could be made (November - December 2016) [complete]

  • Working Group undertook a systematic analysis of the evidence of demonstrations of the Enabling Good Lives approach and other innovative approaches by government agencies and disability sector.

Cabinet paper developed [complete]

 

Lead: Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Education

Others involved:      ACC, The Treasury, New Zealand Disability Support Network, Inclusive NZ

DPOs lead: Disabled Persons Assembly

 

Scope of action

A systematic analysis of the evidence from the demonstrations of the Enabling Good Lives approach as well as other innovative approaches by government agencies and the disability sector will provide the platform to identify the changes needed to the disability support system.

1  Lead

The lead agencies for this work are the Ministries of Health, Education and Social Development.

2  Context

Disabled people, their families and organisations, and service providers have, for many years, advocated that the disability support system needs to be transformed because it is not working as well as it could for disabled people or for Government. Some of the issues identified include:

  • poor outcomes for disabled people relative to their peers
  • disabled people having little choice or control over the services they receive
  • the disabled person’s life becoming focused too much on services and not enough on family and natural supports
  • fragmentation of services across agencies and boundaries
  • a focus on contract service specifications rather than outcomes
  • inconsistent and inequitable levels of funding and types of support
  • disabled people faced with multiple assessments to access support
  • increasing costs with new and increased demand for services.

Since 2011, there have been significant developments in relation to government funded social services both here and internationally. These include the social investment approach, Social Sector trials, Whānau Ora and the New Model for Supporting Disabled People. To date, there has been no systematic analysis comparing the effectiveness of the various trials in the disability support system to identify what works and why.

The two small-scale demonstrations of the Enabling Good Lives approach in Christchurch and the Waikato were established in part to provide evidence if test if existing funding, used in innovative ways, would deliver better outcomes for disabled people.

3  Proposed scope

The analysis will focus on identifying the outcomes that could be achieved using an Enabling Good Lives approach, and how these compare with the outcomes currently being achieved for disabled people through other approach across a broad range of measures.

The scope of evidence will include evaluations of the demonstrations in Christchurch and the Waikato, other approaches to disability support developed by families and providers across New Zealand, the New Model for Supporting Disabled People, the Ministry of Education’s trial of using Ongoing Resourcing Scheme funding more flexibly, ACC’s Client Self-Management approach, Whānau Ora, and international evidence such as the evaluation of the trials of the National Disability Insurance Scheme in Australia. Findings will compare the results of recent innovations with the outcomes of disabled people with traditional approaches to obtaining supports and services.

Information about innovative approaches to disability support developed and implemented by families and New Zealand providers will also be collected and analysed. A framework has been developed giving providers guidance about the types of information needed. The National Enabling Good Lives Leadership Group developed the criteria for this framework. The framework was then tested with DPOs and New Zealand Disability Support Network and Inclusive NZ. This framework, along with an online survey, will be posted on the Enabling Good Lives website by 1 April 2016.

There are three key phases for this work, as illustrated below:

Phase 1: Gathering the evidence  

March - July 2016: Representatives from DPOs, National Enabling Good Lives Leadership Group, service provider organisations and government agencies will work together to identify the evidence sources  

Phase 2: Analysing what works and why  

August - October 2016: A working group made up of representatives from DPOs, Enabling Good Lives advisory group, service provider organisations and government agencies will be established to idenfity what works and why based on the available evidence  

Phase 3: Identifying what changes could be made  

November - December 2016: In consultation with the working group officials will develop advice to the Government on changes that could be made to the disability support system to support disabled people have greater choice and control over their support and lives, which leads to improved outcomes across a range of measures  

A working group made up of representatives from DPOs, National Enabling Good Lives Leadership Group, service provider organisations and the lead government agencies as well as the Treasury and ACC. The governance arrangements for the working group will be the Enabling Good Lives Joint Agency Group – which includes two representatives from the National EGL Leadership Group. A DPO representative on the National EGL Leadership Group will attend the Joint Agency Group when any papers are considered. Progress will be reported to the Chief Executives and DPO quarterly governance meetings.

4  Contributors/partners with lead – who is involved in this action?

A working group made up of representatives from the DPO Group , the National Enabling Good Lives Leadership Group, service providers, and government agencies will work together to identify the key lessons from the available evidence about what works and why in relation to disability support. The working group will be consulted with to develop advice to the Government on what changes could be made to the disability support system to support disabled people have greater choice and control.

It is expected that the organisation/groups representatives will be responsible for consulting with their constituent and ensuring their views are provided to the working group.

The Ministries of Health, Education and Social Development are committed to working with disabled people – their families and organisations, Enabling Good Lives advisory groups, service providers, and other government agencies. To enable full participation, reasonable accommodations will be provided. Where participation is not a core function of a participant’s paid role, reasonable costs will be paid in accordance with the State Services Commission guidelines, and could include:

  • travel costs, including taxis and airfares
  • accommodation and meals if required
  • costs of a support person, or New Zealand Sign Language interpreter.

This scope has been developed with a representative from the DPOs and representatives from the National Enabling Good Lives Leadership Group.

5  Reporting - key milestones/deliverables

The Ministry for Social Development will be responsible for reporting every three months to the Office for Disability Issues.

Some of the key milestones for the three phases of this work are outlined below.

Phase 1: Gathering the evidence    

Establish the working group: 30 March 2016      

Post on the Enabling Good Lives website the guidance, framework and survey for providers and families to share their innovative approaches: 1 April 2016  

Analysis and summary of evaluations of innovative approaches, including providing regular summaries of key finding to the working group for their feedback and comments, completed: 30 July 2016  

Phase 2: Identifying what works and why  

Regular meetings of the working group to discuss the evidence: August – September 2016  

Consensus on what works and why and report back to Senior Officials Group completed: 30 October 2016  

Phase 3: Identifying the changes that could be made to the disability support system  

Prepare and finalise the advice for the Government in consultation with working group and others: 10 December 2016  

6  Risks

The key risks to be managed are:

  • unable to get sufficient evidence about innovative initiatives
  • the timeframe for this work is undertaken by operational deliveries and/or other Ministerial priorities
  • failure of the working group to reach a consensus on what works and why
  • DPOs, NEGL and others do not agree with final advice on how to apply what works.

7  Impact – what are we trying to achieve?

The overarching goal of this work is to develop the evidence basis to inform advice to the Government on what changes could be made to the disability support system to provide disabled people with greater choice and control over their supports and lives. Greater choice and control will achieve improved outcomes for disabled people across a range of measures, and funding for the disability support system will be effective and efficient.

8  Evidence base

Evaluations of innovative approaches to disability supports in New Zealand and internationally have been completed and/or are underway. These will form part of the evidence base, and include reviews and evaluations such as:

  • Putting People First
  • the demonstrations of the Enabling Good Lives approach in Christchurch and the Waikato
  • the New Model for Supporting Disabled People
  • Choice in Community Living
  • Whānau Ora
  • National Disability Insurance Scheme.

9  Related work

There is a wide variety of work underway that either relates to, or has implications for work planned for Action 4(a). It will be the responsibility of the lead agencies to undertake regular environmental scans to ensure the working group have all the information needed to undertake this work.

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