Bites: June and July 2002

News

Invercargill to host National Assembly, 11-13 Oct

DPA Invercargill will host this year's DPA National Assembly and Conference on the weekend of Friday 11 October to Sunday 13 October 2002.

That means people should start planning now to attend and make their bookings, says DPA chief executive, Gary Williams.

The National Assembly had been scheduled for late October in Christchurch but a change in circumstances meant a switch to another venue was required.

Invercargill DPA members put their hands up to express their willingness to organise the National Assembly in their city, and there was no contest.

The recent DPA annual general meeting in Dunedin attracted a lot of participants from around the country, Gary says. I did some comparisons of airfares between Dunedin and Invercargill and there's only $30 difference. If people were willing to go to Dunedin then another $30 isn't really an issue to get to Invercargill. Besides, if people book early they'll get better deals.

Power and politics on the agenda

Hot topic for DPA members attending this year's salubrious National Assembly at the deluxe Ascot Park Hotel, Invercargill, will be the theme, Power is a Political Force.

Programme details for the national gathering are still being assembled, but we can promise you a real Southland welcome to Invercargill from celebrity Mayor Tim Shadbolt, and a toast to the south during the conference dinner from "Spirit of Southland" personality, Gerry Ford.

Organiser, Ann Boyles and her team, comprising DPA stalwarts Dot Wilson, Mary Burn, Lorraine Voice, Brendan Murray and Peter Miller, are getting the programme sorted, expect you to enjoy genuine southern hospitality and be at home in a lovely venue. The venue is really nice. It's lovely. It's flat access and close to everything.

As for the programme, Ann says: We're trying to keep it simple. The message is, 'hey let's get out there and do it!'

If you need more details at this stage, contact the National Secretariat email: gen@dpa.org.nz.

Social Policy

DPA believes that all Government policy must incorporate the principles of: equality of access, effective participation, and economic independence.

MSD takes over Disability Issues

The new Office for Disability Issues to be established within the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) on 1 July 2002 must not become a "white elephant", says DPA chief executive, Gary Williams.

Disability Issues Minister Ruth Dyson and Social Services and Employment Minister Steve Maharey have announced that the new office will take over disability issues from the Ministry of Health. It will give policy advice on disability issues, lead the government's implementation and monitoring of the New Zealand Disability Strategy, and report directly to the Minister for Disability Issues.

Six full-time staff will be employed initially, expanding to 10 full-time staff over the next five years.

This move brings to fruition a concept advocated by DPA for years — to separate the government administration of disability issues from that of health. Even so, DPA has some concerns about how the new office will fit within government.

DPA supports the concept of having a policy advice unit outside of health to deal with "whole of government" disability issues, Gary Williams says. But we don't want the disability unit to be a white elephant because its staff hasn't the prerequisite knowledge.

Similarly, DPA does not wish to see the office becoming ineffectual because it is submerged by other sections of the large Social Development Ministry. We don't want its ability to be limited because it is buried within MSD.

MSD has been recently advertising for staff for the new office. Gary Williams believes a pre-requisite knowledge of disability issues is more important and necessary than the case for employing bureaucrats in the positions as he says, DPA expects everybody who is going to work on disability issues to have demonstrable and credible knowledge.

Disabled people have been on an endless journey of educating new people on disability issues for time immemorial. We are tired of teaching "Disability Issues 101" so it would delight us greatly if we could be confident that the people informing the Government, are well-informed themselves.

DPA has been invited to provide a representative on the MSD panel interviewing applicants for roles in the Office for Disability Issues. We are hoping that the new office will be successful and credible. It's a positive move in the right direction but that we think the concept needs a legislative framework.

DI Office will have new "brand"

The Ministry of Social Development is "very excited" about taking on the establishment of the new Office for Disability Issues, according to chief media advisor, Bronwyn Saunders.

She said that in a communication to staff, MSD chief executive, Peter Hughes, had described the establishment of the Disability Issues office within MSD as great news for the organisation as it demonstrates the government's confidence in MSD as a social sector leader.

She said that the new office would have its own "brand" and that it was hard to defend criticism of the office before it had even been established or appointed a director. We are very excited about having this new function. We are committed to making it work.

New Office "cross-sectoral" approach

The new Office for Disability Issues will address the long-standing need for a cross-sectoral approach to disability issues, Disability Issues Minister, Hon Ruth Dyson says.

For years, the disability sector has been concerned about the inappropriate placement of all disability issues in a health context. People with disabilities face barriers in many areas, including education, employment, housing, transport and social services.

The new office will provide strong leadership and co-ordinated action across all sectors. It will support government departments in their efforts to implement the New Zealand Disability Strategy, and monitor their progress. It will also work closely with the disability sector, both during the setting-up phase and in the development of its work programmes.

The Disability Issues Directorate (within the Health Ministry) has done a great job getting the disability strategy up and running. It will have a close relationship with the new office, but will now be able to focus on its core area of responsibility, disability support services.

Meanwhile, Social Services and Employment Minister Steve Maharey believes the new office is a positive extension of the Ministry of Social Development's work, which will raise the profile of disability issues across government.

Challenge in ageing population

Though Dr Cullen resisted the pressure to have a pre-election spending spree, there is now $400 million more in funding going into district health boards.

And Dr Cullen said funding an ageing population will be the biggest challenge for the future.

He said emphasis during the past three years had been on establishing the building blocks to deal with that future challenge while also:

ensuring high quality healthcare into the future
supporting economic growth and innovation
building public sector capability, particularly education
developing a modern and cohesive society
strengthening New Zealand's security.

Social services spending aimed at work

Disabled people wanting vocational services and job support won a funding boost of $27.31 million from this year's government spending programme, announced on 6 May as part of the budget package.

Greater participation in the workforce is being encouraged with funding aimed at increasing the participation of people with disabilities in paid employment and in their communities.

Some $24.58 million will go to implementing the Pathways to Inclusion vocational services strategy, phased in over the next four years in chunks: $1.06 million in the first year; $2.35 million in year two, $9.28 million in the third year; $11.89 million in the fourth year and thereafter.

The government aims to reduce disparities in service provision to groups under-represented in current vocational services, including Maori with disabilities, Pacific people with disabilities, people living in rural areas, and those experiencing psychiatric disability.

Strengthening and improving existing vocational services will be the focus of the next two years. More emphasis will be on developing additional services after that, Disability Issues Minister Ruth Dyson said.

Total package $223 million

A total package of $223 million over four years is being allocated to enhance the quality and availability of social services in the community. A range of initiatives will address disincentives to entering the workforce, provide subsidies for out-of-school care, and payments to beneficiaries moving into employment to ensure that there is no discontinuity in income during the transition.

$2.72 million to repeal Disabled Employment Act

Repealing the unacceptable and inappropriate Disabled Persons Employment Promotion Act 1960, and revising the under-rate workers permit system, will cost the government $2.73 million.

Long criticised by DPA, the act has in the past meant many people with disabilities have not received fair treatment in their workplace. Among the grievances, the act has exempted sheltered workplaces from providing minimum wage and holiday entitlements for their workers.

When the act is repealed says Disability Issues Minister Ruth Dyson, people with disabilities in an employment relationship will have the same rights as everyone else.

Budget snapshots

The Disability Issues Directorate of the Ministry of Health will get an extra $52 million.
Some $20.5 million will be spent on community housing for 375 Kimberley residents.
Services for students with special needs will get $5.2 million.
Some $1.535 million is being spent on a plan to identify human rights priorities.
The Talking Books programme will receive $979,000 spread over the next two years.
Paralympic sporting initiatives will receive $90,000.
During the next four years Maori speech language therapy and initiatives for Maori language sign interpreters will be boosted by $591,000.

Research

DPA believes that there are many issues in the field of disability that require in-depth study so as to enhance the quality of life of people with disabilities. DPA will encourage such research and provide information as practicable.

Disability snapped by research

Five years ago DPA's then policy researcher, Owen Hughes, writing in the magazine "Able UPDATE", described an environment where there was a acute dearth of useful research into disability issues in New Zealand, where there was little systematic data on the most basic of questions: the prevalence of disability in the community. An environment where research was fragmentary, and research funding into disability was marginal indeed.

At that time DPA, under the leadership of former president, Ann Hawker, was a strong advocate for government research about the disability population.

After some negotiation over who would provide funding for this research, the government eventually agreed to fund the first major disability research development, the national Household Disability Survey carried out in May-June 1996 by Statistics New Zealand. Then came the 1996-1997 Disability Survey, and more recently, the 2001 Disability Survey.

The survey provides an overview of disability in New Zealand and makes available systematic data on basic questions such as the prevalence of disability in the community. It covers people living in households and residential care facilities.

Spending on the disability research, started in May 2000 and completed by June this year, has totalled $2.067 million.

Snapshots to be released

During this year Statistics New Zealand is releasing a series of nine snapshots of information on key facts about disability and as it relates to Maori, Pacific peoples, people in residential care, children, sensory disabilities, physical disabilities, intellectual disabilities, and psychiatric and psychological disabilities.

A technical report containing information about how the survey was conducted, and tables from the 1996—1997 and 2001 surveys, have been published and a technical report from the 1996—1997 survey, Disability Counts, is available free on the Statistics New Zealand website: www.stats.govt.nz.

Key facts about disability in NZ

The results from the 2001 New Zealand Disability Survey, which are comparable with those from the 1996—1997 Disability Survey, show that:

One in five New Zealanders has a disability.
Disability increases with age.
The majority of disabled people have more than one disability.
Physical disabilities are the most common type of disability; two-thirds of disabled people reported a physical disability.
The number of people with mild disabilities has decreased and the number with moderate disabilities has increased.
The number of people with disabilities living in intellectual disability units and mental health facilities has decreased.

Some 743,000 people have disability

The Disability Survey found a total of 743,800 New Zealanders reported some level of disability in 2001, an increase of 41,800 since 1996—1997. However, the overall disability rate of 1 in 5 has not changed.

One in five Maori have a disability, the same as for the total New Zealand population, while the disability rate for Pacific peoples is 1 in 7.

Human Rights

DPA believes that people with disabilities have equal rights to those of all other people in New Zealand society, including the right to participate in all aspects of economic, social and political life. These rights must be protected by the Human Rights Act (1993).

Deaf relay service a coup for Victoria

DPA National Executive Committee member, Victoria Manning, scored a major coup for the deaf community last month when the government agreed to ensure that a telephone relay service would be established by the end of this year.

Provision of the new service, expected to cost about $2 million, will end a seven year battle for Victoria and Kim Robinson, as well as others in the deaf community, who complained to the Human Rights Commission in 1995 that failure to provide a voice / text relay service was discrimination under the Human Rights Act.

The new service will be established as a Telecommunications Service Obligation (TSO) under the Telecommunications Act 2001 which requires telecommunications companies to provide services that are defined as TSOs.

The service will give the estimated 420,000 speech impaired, hearing impaired and deaf people in New Zealand access to telephone services.

Human Rights Commissioner Warren Lindberg said the relay decision was a signal that measures to ensure equality for marginalised groups had to be recognised as fundamental human rights.

This is a practical step that will enable a significant number of New Zealanders to participate more fully in society.

Communications Minister, Paul Swain, expects the Ministries of Economic Development, Health, and Social Development, will develop a detailed description of the relay service, in consultation with the disability community and telecommunications industry, and report back to the government by late October.

Robyn Hunt — HR Commissioner

Long time DPA member and disability advocate, Robyn Hunt, has been appointed a Human Rights Commissioner.

Robyn has 20 years of experience knocking down the barriers to human rights and equity, most significantly related to employment equality and disability. She was co-chair of the Disability Strategy sector reference group and has been president of Workbridge Inc. For her services to people with disabilities Robyn was last year made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Other Human Rights Commissioners are: legal practitioner, Joy Liddicoat; Warren Lindberg; Merimeri Penfold; Michael Powles. Former district court judge, Robert Hesketh, is director of proceeds; Royden Hindle, is chair of the review tribunal. Rosslyn Noonan is chief commissioner.

Disability Services

DPA believes that every person with a disability, and every family which includes a member with a disability, should receive whatever services and other support or assistance which may be needed to reduce the disabling effects of impairment and the handicapping effects of disability. Services should be designed to make possible for each person a full, meaningful and constructive life of their own choosing.

Consultation too important to ignore

The recent furore earlier this year over proposed changed contract arrangements for government-funded home-based disability support services in Manawatu has highlighted the importance of consultation with service users, DPA believes.

It also showed how effective DPA can be.

When the Ministry of Health decided that they wanted to improve the level of services for home-based support services from providers in the lower North Island, they called for a Request For Proposal (RFP) from the existing provider organisations, says DPA chief executive, Gary Williams.

At the same time the Ministry also wanted to make the administration, monitoring and auditing of the disability service contracts easier. They Ministry wanted to reduce the number of providers down from five to two. The Ministry decided on the criteria that they would use. They believed that this was going to improve services. However, during the process, none of the service users were consulted, Gary says.

That meant that the service users were not given the information they needed to decide what impact this would have on them. This was where we came in.

The upshot has been that the Minister for Disability Issues, Ruth Dyson, called a halt to the whole process and the Ministry of Health has had to try again, this time involving service users in working out the new arrangements.

Clearly, disabled people must be an integral part in any decisions in relation to changes to disability services.

Contracts roll over

Eight out of 15 current providers of home care services in Hawkes Bay, Hutt Valley, Manawatu / Horowhenua / Tararua, Wairarapa and Wellington / Kapiti had not had their contracts renewed by last month. They've been rolled over while the Ministry sorts out the new arrangements.

And the Minister has directed the Health Ministry to develop the contracting process in partnership with providers, caregivers and clients to achieve:

high quality, reliable and secure services
a stable workforce with appropriate training
monitoring provisions which include client satisfaction
open and informed complaints procedures, and opportunity for improvement of services in response to any complaints
co-operation between the Ministry of Health, District Health Boards and ACC on provision of services;
constructive partnerships and working relationships between all parties — the ministry, providers, clients and caregivers.

Profile

NAG got Beverley into DPA

Whakatane woman, Beverley Grammer, 22, was a member of a local advocacy lobby, calling itself the Negotiating Access Group (otherwise called NAG), before she started going along to DPA to help out.

I just got interested in the local DPA and came along and ended up becoming the president at the next AGM, as you do! she says.

NAG advocated for appropriate physical access around the Eastern Bay, including Whakatane, Opotiki and Kawerau. It had a good relationship with the local council but became less active — because there was no sense doing what DPA was doing as well, she says.

We had some really good relationships with the council but it was definitely a duplication of what DPA was doing.

Now, Beverley has been local DPA president there for two years and the little Eastern Bay DPA assembly has about 15 members — quite a mixture of people from different areas of disability and organisations. There are people from Grey Power, CCS, and people representing the post-polio organisation.

As for Beverley, she was born with spinal muscular atrophy. It's just a muscle weakness.

Also now a member of DPA's national executive committee, Beverley's key interest is in fostering leadership among young people with disabilities — mentoring youth with disabilities so that they can take an active role in their communities.

To that end Beverley is helping with the organisation of the Youth Camp DPA has planned for January next year at Hamner Springs and sitting on the interview panel to find a co-ordinator for that event.

Beverley is also hoping to establish more use of Internet chat among people with disabilities, especially young people. It's something her members are keen on. They're wanting to start a youth network of youth with disabilities — hopefully to connect with each other through the Internet, through email, in chat rooms .

We're looking at starting some kind of network where people can stay in touch with each other. People can discuss issues with anyone, without having to go anywhere. It's great. She intends suggesting it to the NEC as something to be considered.

Eastern Bay members have themselves been staying in touch through bi-monthly forums they have been hosting, the most recent on mental health issues.

Meanwhile, Beverley is also putting energy into her business. She's been self-employed doing work in print and design for the past five years after training through the Auckland Institute of Technology. She does web design for Internet sites as well as the publishing work.

More recently, as Presentation Solutions, Beverley has been providing training to corporates and businesses about disability awareness. Clients have included WINZ and the needs assessment service, NASC. All up, Beverley has run workshops for a total of 56 people so far.

Feedback from the half-day workshops has been very positive. I guess more and more people are becoming interested. The response to having an actual person with a disability doing the training has been really positive. They like to hear the scenario come alive with a personal perspective.

People generally seem to be quite interested and more aware of disability issues and how to act appropriately.

Is the training helping break down the barriers? Yes, definitely, says Beverley.

Employment

DPA believes that it is the right of all persons with disabilities to have the opportunity to be engaged in productive and meaningful employment which provides flexibility, equal opportunity and career path development.

Change at Workbridge

New chief executive at Workbridge, Ruth Harrison, is making her mark on our national employment organisation for people with disabilities. Ruth wrote this article for DPA Bites at the special request of DPA chief executive, Gary Williams.

Workbridge has been making some changes. Before I talk a little about those changes, there are some things that haven't changed and should not change.

Workbridge is a not-for-profit organisation,
Workbridge helps people with disabilities find jobs in the open labour market
Workbridge is a contracted disability service provider.

Some of the changes have been to Workbridge's constitution. Instead of having a Board appointed by the Minister we now have a Council and a Board that is appointed by the Council.

We have both a Council and Board because the Council's role is to keep an eye to the future and give us our direction and the Board takes care of the day-to-day governance as any other Board.

DPA has the Presidency of the Workbridge Council for three years and under the constitution at least 51 percent of Council members must have a disability. Robyn Hunt has been our President and as she has been appointed to the Human Rights Commission and has resigned, we are waiting for DPA to appoint the next President of Workbridge.

The other changes to Workbridge are that we are working hard to continue to improve the quality of our service to those who use it. We are also looking at how we can get services to those that currently can't get any service.

We will not be considering opening new branches but look at ways to use technology.

In summary, having made changes to the constitution our whole focus is on improving the quality of services to you. We want the partnership between DPA and Workbridge to be alive and strong.

DPA membership guidelines explained

The National Secretariat of DPA has been sorting out the details of "operationalising" the new membership categories for the full and associate members

We are going to assume all corporate will be associate members unless they supply us with a copy of their rules or constitution that show us they are entitled to full membership. Corporates are entitled to full membership if their governance arm e.g. executive committee or board has a majority of disabled people.

For individual members and families we are going to leave it up to regional assemblies to decided what category people belong in.

New DPA membership forms for individuals will now have a space for members to fill out their ethnicity if they wish. It's just so we can collect that kind of data Gary Williams says.

Last Word from President, Bill Wrightson

Things are looking up for people with disabilities, Bill Wrightson says.

There are a lot of good things happening. The doors are being opened after 10 years of having them slammed in our faces.
The deaf relay system is about to happen. After seven years they are actually going to do something about it.
The Disability Strategy is starting to have an impact. Government departments are now having to look around to get people to help them fulfil their commitments under the strategy.
Robyn Hunt has been made a Human Rights Commissioner.
DPA is going to be a leading participant in the year-long review of Total Mobility. Having been on the outer, we are now in as one of the players.
And we are having regular six-weekly meetings with the Disability Issues Minister.

DPA Diary 2002

June

20 June DPA meets with Ruth Dyson

30 June End of DPA's financial year

July

6 July NEC meeting, Wellington, including meeting with Ruth Dyson

31 July Regional financial statements to National Secretariat

August

1 August DPA meets with Ruth Dyson

16 August Close call for nominations and remits

September

DPA Bites published

NEC elections

12 September DPA meets with Ruth Dyson

12 September NEC meeting via audio-conference

October

8 October Close NEC elections

11-13 October National Assembly and Conference, Invercargill

31 October All Regional AGMs held by this date

December