Foreword from the Minister for Disability Issues
Disability Support Services (DSS) provide crucial supports to around 50,000 disabled New Zealanders. The service aims to address the barriers disabled people face so they have the opportunity to live an everyday life.
It also supports around 100,000 New Zealanders with equipment modification services that are needed to engage with everyday life.
Our Government is determined to build a fair, sustainable, high-quality disability support system that delivers better outcomes for disabled people based on their needs.
DSS currently suffers from persistent and unresolved issues that stand in the way of achieving this objective.
In August 2024 an Independent Review external1 found there had been unsustainable spending increases and a lack of fairness and transparency around what support disabled people can access. It identified variability in the value of support packages across New Zealand, and a number of supports that are only available in some regions or areas. The Review also determined that current policy settings and service design do not allow DSS to be administered or delivered effectively.
An earlier stocktake by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet found long-standing issues in DSS with ageing business practices, weak assurance, audit and monitoring functions, and at-risk legacy IT systems.
We are taking the crucial initial steps to lay the foundations for stable, predictable and consistent services for disabled people. To do this, we need to hear from disabled people who receive DSS and the other people in your lives who provide care and support to make sure the system supports you to live a good life.
We are also working on important operational improvements, such as to pricing tools for residential care, and for other DSS supports. We will engage with the broader disability sector – particularly Needs Assessment and Service Co-ordination (NASC) organisations and DSS contracted providers – on this work.
These initial steps to stabilise the system will provide the foundations for a later phase of work which will focus on strengthening DSS. This strengthening phase will involve consideration of systemwide realignment of DSS, including issues such as the pathway to consistent national delivery of Enabling Good Lives (EGL) principles in DSS, and a legislative framework to underpin DSS. Again, the insights and perspectives of disabled people and the disabled community will be critical for this work.
Thank you for your time.
Hon Louise Upston
Minister for Disability Issues