Community consultation - opens on 10 February and runs to 24 March 2025

This consultation is focused on the 50,000 disabled people, and their whānau, who receive essential disability support after an assessment from:

• a Needs Assessment and Service Co-ordination (NASC) organisation, or
• an Enabling Good Lives (EGL) site.

We want to stabilise disability support services so that they are fairer, more consistent, more transparent, and sustainable into the future. 

This consultation will support us to develop options for Government to achieve this and respond to the recommendations of the Independent Review of DSS before considering further work to strengthen disability support services into the future.

While everyone is welcome to participate, we especially want to hear from people who receive essential disability support after an assessment from a NASC or EGL site.

This includes disabled people, their whānau, carers, and advocates.

The consultation does not include people who only receive supports from other agencies, such as Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Transport or Work and Income.

We want your feedback on:

• clearer assessment and allocation processes 
• options for changes to flexible funding.

Assessment tools and processes

We want to hear from you about how we can make our assessment and allocation processes clearer.   

This is about improving how the needs of disabled people are assessed, and decisions made about the support they are given to ensure consistency.

Flexible funding

We want your feedback on proposed criteria for access to flexible funding and changes to how the funding is used.

There are two options for how these changes could be made: 

• Option 1 links each person’s flexible funding to a plan. 

• Option 2 amends the current purchasing rules.  

We recommend you read our Discussion document before having your say. 

There are two versions of this document: a full version and a shorter summary.

They give wider context on the topics we are seeking your feedback on as well as the questions you can respond to.

There are several ways you can participate after consultation opens on 10 February, including:

• attend an in person workshop

• attend an online briefing workshop
• make a submission* – either in writing or by video
• complete a short survey* (this is the quickest way to have your say)

While places are limited for in-person events due to venue capacities, all contributions, including submissions and survey responses, will be considered equally.

All is for All external is managing the registration process for the in-person and online events on our behalf.

* Information will be available from 10 February, when consultation opens

Your feedback will help Government to make decisions to stabilise disability support services before considering further work to strength those supports into the future.

The final decisions relate to Recommendations 5 and 6 from the Independent Review.