Factsheet: operational guidance

Cost pressures within DSS have accelerated in recent years as the number of people supported and the costs of supports continue to grow.

Budget 2024 included:

• $322.3M in additional funding for 2024/25 to respond to cost pressures
• total additional funding of $1.1B to support the delivery of DSS over five years.

The indicative budgets for Needs Assessment Service Coordination (NASCs) and fixed budgets for Enabling Good Lives (EGL) sites are higher than spending levels in 2023/24 or previously, due to the additional funding provided in Budget 2024.

The operational guidance recognises that demand continues to outpace funding, meaning that NASCs and EGL sites will need to carefully prioritise the support they allocate.  

The guidelines seek to support consistency in how this prioritisation will happen, both for residential and for non-residential supports.

Residential support  

Cabinet agreed that the overall cost of residential facility-based support is not to increase beyond the current spending level. This hold on residential support funding is for the 2024/25 year pending commissioning and completion of a detailed and urgent review of the contract and pricing models.

The prioritisation for residential support seeks to ensure that people with the highest needs can access residential support. 

The guidance prioritises entries where the person is:

• under a Court order for forensic related residential support and transfers out of that care into less intensive care
• under an order under the Oranga Tamariki Act 2019 external URL external
• needing to be discharged from hospital care and there is no other appropriate option for their care
• has escalating needs that require hospital-level care.

The guidance also provides for urgent entries (such as where family members can no longer support the disabled person, or where for other reasons a disabled person is unexpectedly not able to stay in their existing housing situation). In general, it is expected these situations will best be met through shorter term transitional arrangements.

The group identified as lower priority in the guidance is the ‘planned entry’ group. In general, this group cannot be prioritised for entry.

However, the guidelines provide for the Review Panel to endorse planned entries to residential support when the NASC or EGL site considers these entries to be essential and affordable within their residential support budget.

Non-residential support

Key points that are to be considered in relation to non-residential support:

• Support within the home will be prioritised (for safety), and where support outside the home is required, shared or group support will be prioritised if appropriate.
• Supported Living allocation (note: not to be confused with the Supported Living Payment from Work and Income) may be removed if a person is no longer developing or maintaining skills (instead Personal Care or Household Management may be offered).
• The disabled person’s views will be sought to make any targeted reductions that are needed – particularly if they receive a number of supports, so they can help prioritise the supports that will continue.
• When a disabled person is waitlisted for residential support, the estimated cost of non-residential support should be lower than – or the same as – the estimated cost of residential support for that disabled person.
• Any reductions in a person’s support package will only occur during a formal review. NASCs or EGL sites may bring forward an annual review but will provide at least a month’s notice.

Budget management by NASCs

NASCs have managed to a budget previously. The existing service specifications include requirements to manage to budgets, and an appendix on budget management in the Needs-Assessment-and-Service-Co-ordination external URL Specification.

More information

Find more information about the Independent Review (PDF 4.8 MB)