DPA New Zealand

Annual Report 2002

Goal 2: DPA provides quality information and advice

In its consultative capacity as a provider of quality information and advice about the broad spectrum of disability issues, DPA has members who are representatives on a cross-section of organisations involved in the disability sector. Here we offer end of year reports from some of those representatives. We also take the opportunity to thank those members for willingly extending their time and energy to represent DPA on these various organisations.

Employment

Workbridge

Report from DPA representative, Robyn Hunt, Workbridge President, August 2002:

The past year has seen the completion of the governance structural changes to Workbridge. The new structure comprising the representative Council and a Council appointed Board of management is now established.

With strong representation of disabled people enshrined in the new constitution and a three-year leadership role for DPA, the voice of disabled people is assured. My retirement from the Council at the September 2002 AGM marks the end of the first year of that leadership.

The representative Council has members from the ABC (Association of Blind Citizens), Business New Zealand, representing employers, the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand, the Combine Trade Unions (CTU), one ordinary member who identifies as a disabled person, a Pacific Islands representative and a Maori representative. Including the president, there is a majority of disabled council members.

As well as a strong group of disabled people on the Council two Board members identify as disabled people.

At the last AGM I resigned from the Board, and as chairperson, and Paul Bayliss has taken up that role. I am pleased to see that important role in safe hands.

Ruth Harrison.Following the resignation of Pauline Winter earlier in 2001 and the completion of the work by the Change Manager, Ruth Harrison was appointed as CEO. Following her appointment the national office moved to Wellington.

 

At the AGM I will hand over the role of president to a new DPA appointed person according to the constitution.

With the strategic direction for Workbridge confirmed, the next two years will be an important time of consolidation. The leadership role played by DPA will be critical to the continued success of Workbridge and through it the achievement of positive employment outcomes for disabled people.

I thank DPA for entrusting this role to me, and for the support, and the challenges I have encountered in representing it. It has been a privilege. My good wishes go to my successor.

Robyn Hunt

Report from the Health Workforce Advisory Committee (HWAC)

Report from DPA representative, Mike Gourley

In April last year I was appointed by the Minister of Health to the Health Workforce Advisory Committee (HWAC) set up according to the Public Health and Disability Services Act.

The terms of reference for HWAC are, in summary, to advise the Minister on the most effective health workforce to develop and deliver key outcomes determined by the Health and Disability Strategies. HWAC's key tasks are to:

I am supposedly on HWAC to represent consumers and disability issues. My almost lone presence as the non-clinician — the others are respectively medical practitioners, nurses and mid-wives — has always been problematic. From the outset I have argued that the committee is not well-placed to consider, in any comprehensive way, disability workforce issues.

Though HWAC's terms of reference include the need to give effect to the Disability Strategy it has never been clear whether the Minister intended us to consider the whole strategy or just those parts of it that specified health outcomes. I spent much of the initial time on HWAC attempting, in consultation with DPA personnel, to come up with a workable and philosophically appropriate brief for the committee, with some suggested ways of working in the year ahead.

That led to a paper I put to the committee which proposed:

  1. The committee clarify with the Minister (and get agreement from Disability Issues Minister, Ruth Dyson) that we could appropriately consider the health sector workforce and those parts of the health sector workforce targeted to support disabled people.
  2. That to get expert input in respect of those issues a disability advisory group be established to establish points of reference when framing thinking around those issues. (The advisory group consisted of: Wendi Wicks, Robyn Hunt, Paul Gibson, and Frances Acey, with myself, George Salmond and Tessa Thompson from HWAC, and Gary Williams sitting in for DPA.)
  3. That at some future stage a separate process be established to consider, comprehensively, specifically disability workforce issues. Meantime, we should flag those areas of overlapping interest between the health and 'disability' sectors.

During the past year we achieved some clarification of understanding of what constitutes the health sector as distinct from the disability sector and where there might be overlaps. And there has been expert input from the advisory group which has helped immensely with a chapter on 'building the capacity of the workforce to better meet the needs disabled people'. That chapter is one of eight or of a document called Directions and Options, which will come out for public consultation in September or October. That engagement with the community will be followed by regional meetings through the latter part of the year, with a more formally organised 'summit' proposed for March 2003.

As far as the separate process on considering issues of the disability workforce goes, that is yet to be made concrete. But it is a matter of priority. Another matter which HWAC intends to make a priority, and should be of real interest to us, is the so-called group of 'informal carers' — some 30,000 of them who are the second next biggest group of workers after nurses. They were identified in a stocktake document, published earlier in the year. They are the most vulnerable group, in terms of pay and job security — and they primarily work with disabled people.

I believe that work on understanding more about this group and how they can better fit into the scheme of things is of utmost importance to us. It is a transition into the development and implementation of a mechanism to consider the disability workforce in general, in a way that acknowledges our 'leading voices'.

Mike Gourley

Ministry of Education's Physical Advisory Group

Report from DPA Representative, Huhana Hickey

As soon as I learnt I was on this group, I made myself known to the person convening this group and received a reply outlining the membership. I discussed with the convenor the possibility of having both Maori and non-Maori attending this on behalf of disabled persons and she is keen to discuss this with me.

The group is made up of parents, specialists and others in the field of disabilities and in emailing the convenor there are certainly some passionate ideas coming forward. The group has been in existence for only 18 months and they believe they have come together well as a group and hope to make some differences in the time ahead.

I can't yet report from any meeting as they have not yet had one. They meet four times a year and work other times through email although I have not received any information from them as yet. I have emailed the convenor for an update and will update the DPA CEO on this. I am keeping my emailing up to ask for more information and am prepared to get to the meetings if and when required. I look forward to seeing this all occur so we can get some real policies in place for children and young persons with disabilities attending primary and high school.

Huhana Hickey

Standards NZ: Ambulance Standards

Report from DPA representative, Ken Talbot

These Standards were commissioned by Ambulance New Zealand, the contract going to Standards New Zealand. As the DPA consumer representative it was my job to make sure that adequate provision was made for consumers, disabled and other under the Human Rights Act and the Code of Health and Disability Consumers Rights, plus to have an input regarding the Treaty Partnership. In this regard I was able to work with our National Maori representative, Huhana Hickey. I was quite satisfied that a robust monitoring and complaints system will be in place for consumers of the services provided by Ambulance New Zealand under these Standards. I attended meetings in Wellington on: 26 November 2001, 23 January 2002, 13 March 2002, 22 April 2002. The final meeting before the Standard comes into effect was to be on 20 August 2002 to consider public comment on the Standards (which would be amended as necessary).

Report from DPA Representative, Huhana Hickey

I was delayed in being able to access this network because of the lack of computer power. That was rectified when Workbridge assisted me with a new computer and I have been adjusting to it. I have often visited the website but find it a difficult process because there are no clear instructions as to my role. I have also found the documents do take a bit of getting used to in the ability to get them to open up. The computer often doesn't respond with the documents. So I am doing my best in a situation where access is not easily attainable.

The Ambulance Standards feedback was due by the 31 July 2002 and as I had difficulty receiving this, I did not put any comments in on time. I have now grasped the process and hope to be able to feedback on a more regular basis. My apologies for the slowness in grasping this project but it really is not set up easily and there are few guidelines about how to be involved as a member. Although no excuses, I should have put more effort in sooner.

I also have the difficulty of not being able to print the documents up as I haven't had the money for printer ink or paper but that is soon to be a lessened problem as I have begun tutoring and I have work through to next year which I hope, will make a difference in my ability to do the work as I need to and not be stopped because of financial limitations.

On the document that I should have commented on, the draft was on their code of practice procedures. I do believe the draft is good and has covered just about every area except on communication. I will write to them today and apologise for not getting the comment in on time as I was still adjusting to how to but that there is no process in place for emergency calls from those who can't communicate verbally and to be aware of a text, fax and telephone relay service to be available for those without the ability to communicate the emergency verbally.

Other than that they appear to have thought out their draft well. The document is called DZ8156. And while the comments are out of the time line I will still recommend they consider these issues.

The Standards documents coming up soon are:DZ5261: Gas installation (by 16.8.02); DZ5258: Gas distribution networks (by 16.8.02); DZ4509: Code of Practice for New Zealand Fire Service Fire Fighting Water Supplies (by 27.09.02); DZ8690: Water Safety Signage (by 09.09.02); DRO2352: Parking facilities, Part 1, Off-street car parking (by 23.08.02).

I will go through these particular documents and will address any issues pertaining to disabilities should they be a factor in the drafts. I am still trying to ascertain when the meetings occur but I have emailed the convenor and asked her to help me on this one. If anyone wants any particular copies off these documents, they can be printed up but I can't move them to word documents as they open up only under pdf. I will try my best to accommodate any requests.

DPA established Maxeq Consulting

Since establishment in 1983 DPA has vigorously advocated for the rights and entitlements of disabled people.

However, during the past few years it became increasingly clear that DPA needed to practically complement its national advocacy role with a functionally based operational or business arm. As a result, a new legally structured subsidiary of DPA, Maxeq Consulting was this year created.

Maxeq Consulting is the trading name for a limited liability company (Maxeq Investments Limited) with all its shares held by DPA. Maxeq has a Board of five Directors comprising the President and one other member of the DPA National Executive Committee, the CEO of DPA and two others experienced in business matters and disability issues.

Maxeq Consulting, operating as the business consultancy arm of DPA, is in a position to receive approaches from client organisations (eg, government, private or voluntary welfare) and to develop its own projects so as to be competitive in the many aspects of work associated with policy, training, monitoring, research and service delivery in the disability sector.

Currently, the New Zealand Disability Strategy (NZDS) presents opportunities for the collective advancement of disabled people in many ways. DPA recognised that, if we as disabled people were going to be accorded our essential and rightful role in the way the strategy is understood and implemented, then, we had to pro-actively organise ourselves, publicly promote the range of our skills and our capacity to undertake the work associated with implementing the NZDS.

To achieve this and other ends, Maxeq Consulting would develop and maintain a network of consultants with identified skills and knowledge about disability issues, services and policy.

Clients of Maxeq Consulting would be provided with the highest level of expertise available within the network, wherever possible provided by disabled people. Where any particular skill could not be sourced from disabled members of the network Maxeq would seek non-disabled members recognised by disabled people as allies in the promotion of disability issues.

Maxeq Consulting invited potential contractors with disability interest, expertise and experience in areas such as health, education, transport, accommodation, human rights, recreation, buildings, public and media relations (and information provision), equipment, management and so on, to express their interest in being a part of our Maxeq Consulting contracting register.

Disability Studies Journal

The journal has been edited from the Donald Beasley Institute over the previous few years, but a search has begun to find if a new 'home' may be found. The journal has continued to produce editions of interest to disabled people and while the focus is on academic format, the issues are of considerable relevance, most notably in relation to work.

Human Rights Network Trust

DPA policy researcher, Wendi Wicks, has continued to articulate a voice on disability human rights as a trustee for this organisation. Up to the completion of the trust deed formalities she chaired it. The trust produces a regular e-mail bulletin, has a website hosted by Amnesty International, and regional groups of a variety of human rights organisations in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch meet and network regularly, with support from the Human Rights Commission.

Standards New Zealand Home Support Committee

A range of providers, funders and disabled people have been working over the previous months to develop a standard on home support services that will be used by providers in both MOH and ACC systems of funding. There has been considerable emphasis on involving a wide range of those involved, and the document for public comment is due to be released shortly. DPA chief executive, Gary Williams and policy researcher, Wendi Wicks, have job-shared DPA's representation.

More from the 2002 Annual Report

Index . Vision, Mission, Philosophy . Acknowledgements . President's Report . Chief Executive's Report . National Executive . Goal 1: Lead . 2001 AGM Photos . Relay Service Rally Photos . Goal 2: Advise . Goal 3: Empower . Goal 4: Monitor . Goal 5: Community . Obituaries . Financial Statements

For previous reports contact gen@dpa.org.nz.