About us

Disability Support Services (DSS) is a business group in the Ministry of Social Development. It is responsible for providing essential support to around 50,000 disabled people and their whānau, as well as equipment and modification services for approximately 100,000 New Zealanders.

The purpose of the DSS group is to:

• continue to support disabled people by responding to their prioritised needs through centrally designed services; and in parallel
  
• implement the findings of the Independent Review of Disability Support Services external and improve how supports are commissioned and provided to disabled people and their whānau so they can live the lives they want.

Key tasks include:

• maintaining continuity of service, and addressing immediate issues arising in the experience disabled people and whānau have with existing services
• commissioning the systems and settings required to deliver on the future vision of the system by ensuring we have the capability throughout the whole commissioning cycle
• improving services where system transformation may take some time to reach all those we currently support
• supporting the existing Enabling Good Lives (EGL) sites that are part of DSS and have communities they are immediately responsible to