Published 15 August 2024
“Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston announced today that Whaikaha – Ministry of Disabled People, will be restructured in October. This change comes after the findings were released from the independent review of the Ministry. The Government had recently commissioned this review to look into how the Ministry was going and make suggestions for improvements.
This change will mean that come October, disability support services will come from the newly formed disability support service in the Ministry of Social Development (MSD).
There has been no information about any services changing as a result of the restructure. It’s expected our disability community will continue to receive the same services as before the change. There will just be a different administration body.
With this October change, Whaikaha will become independent of MSD and function alone to provide policy advice, advocacy and monitoring. There are other Ministries with similar functions for specific areas of expertise like this, for example the Ministry for the Environment.
A summary of the changes announced are:
- MSD to manage disability service delivery from October
- A Whaikaha restructure and shift to a fully independent Ministry
- The Enabling Good Lives approach rollout being paused
- Funding for residential facility based care to remain at current levels
- Indicative budgets and monitoring of Needs Assessment and Service Coordination organisations to return
- The review process has been speed up and the initially planned Phase 2 (community consultation) will not be included ahead of the change.
The Disability Issues Minister, Louise Upston, has shared that the intent of these changes is to shift service delivery support into a more experienced Ministry (MSD). This is intended to ensure greater infrastructure is available for a more efficient service delivery for our community.
You can read more about the independent review at the article on our website.