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Disability in New Zealand
News and Publications

Disability Services Newsletter - Issue 15 - May 2006

In this issue:
NASC Development Programme
Geraldine’s update
Kimberley Closure
Report on the Environmental Support Services Review
Introducing New Staff
DSD staff movements
ASD Workforce Development Project

NASC Development Programme

A two-year development programme is under way with needs assessment and service coordination organisations (NASC) contracted to the Disability Services Directorate (DSD) of the Ministry of Health.

A steering group of DSD and NASC members is providing leadership and working collaboratively on the various components of the programme. The Association of NASC Managers (NASCA) is providing co-ordinating and administrative support.

What’s the programme about?
Its AIM is to ensure all DSD-funded NASCs are responding to the individual support needs of disabled people and their families when they are facilitating needs assessment processes and co-ordinating planning and access to support, including disability support services.

The VISION is that the assessment and support allocation process will be responsive to individual needs, be the same throughout the country and clearly contribute to disabled people being able to live in their own homes and participate in their own families/whanau and communities.

Currently, outcomes, and key performance indicators to measure these, are being finalised. The Consumer Consortium gave input to these at its inaugural meeting late in 2005. (See Newsletter 13, January 2006 about the Consumers Consortium.)

What’s included in the programme?
The programme comprises a number of projects under the two workstreams of Capability and Capacity.

Capability
Competency and training are a key focus here. Work is continuing on entry level and postgraduate qualifications for people working in assessment and co-ordination roles in health, disability and community settings.

While these are being developed, a training plan is being worked on for 2006 and 2007. It will include the development and implementation of nationally consistent induction materials for NASCs to use; disability, Māori and Pacific cultural competency training; and support to NASC managers in their ongoing responsibility for NASC training. A tender process is nearly complete to appoint a co-ordinator to work on this until February 2007.

DSD’s senior management team has also made a contribution to NASCA for an inaugural New Zealand conference on assessment, planning and co-ordination. This will provide an opportunity for those working in needs assessment and service co-ordination roles to meet, learn and debate nationally. Their website is www.intothefutureconference.co.nz.

Capacity
A priority has been the development of a nationally consistent, equitable way to fund DSD-contracted NASCs. Additional money has been given to NASCs to enable them to catch up with any outstanding reviews or facilitate any reassessments of support needs.

Contact
Jennifer Moor, Development Manager NASC Planning and Development, DSD.

Geraldine’s update

Geraldine Woods
Deputy Director-General, Disability Services Directorate

As many of you will know DSD has been visiting cities and towns around the country to talk to service users about what they think of disability support services.

These consumer forums have provided us with an excellent opportunity to meet with the people who use the services we fund and it has been great to see so many people turning up. I have been able to attend a number of the forums and it has been valuable to be able to hear disabled people’s concerns first hand. We are almost at the end of the first round of forums and will be running hui and fono for Māori and Pacific people over May and June. I am also hoping to be able to get to as many of these as possible.

I have been working on a strategic vision and how we can best use the funding we have. I have discussed this draft vision at the meetings to get feedback from service users that we are heading in the right direction. I have asked what outcomes you want from the available funding and what outcomes will provide you with the same kind of home life that other people experience? I will be continuing this discussion at the remaining forums, hui and fono.

Improving consumer participation and communication between service users and the Directorate is a priority and this programme of consumer consultation is one we will continue on an annual basis. We will also continue to develop these forums to ensure that disabled people, their families, whānau, aiga and carers get an opportunity to meet with us and express their concerns. I am committed to listening to the issues of our services users and working to address them where possible. I am also committed to improving the relationships and processes we have with other agencies that provide support to ensure that access to information and services for disabled people is as easy as possible.

Kimberley Closure

MidCentral Health has announced the target date for the closure of the Kimberley Centre is 30 September 006. This is reliant on Housing New Zealand being able to ‘hand over’ all homes to new residential service providers by 30 June 2006. The target date for all residents moving into their new homes is 31 August 006.

Report on the Environmental Support Services Review

This report summarises the findings from the Review of Environmental Support Services that was carried out last year.

It provides an outline of how the review was conducted, and lists key findings and recommendations for the future provision of environmental support services. A team from the Ministry of Health have developed an outline for how they will manage the work programme to address these recommendations. This information will be available on our website as it progresses.

The report will be available shortly on www.moh.govt.nz/disability

If you would like more information please email the ESS Development Programme Manager on ESS@moh.govt.nz

Introducing New Staff

Tony Wolke
Contract Relationship Manager
Southern Operations

I am very proud to say I was born in Yorkshire, England, although I have not lived there for several years. I worked for many years in the intellectual disability field with roles that ranged from Support Worker to Resource Manager. I have a background in Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) working as a Clinical Nurse Manager in an ASD treatment and assessment unit and as a Service Manager for a large private organisation developing residential services for people with ASD. I have also worked for the Learning Disability Adult Services, a part of Devon Social Services in the United Kingdom. I have lived in New Zealand for two years with my wife Diane and two sons Ryan and Stefan, and am enjoying the rugby and fishing and spending time exploring New Zealand.

Sarah Hamlin
Contract Relationship Manager
Environmental Support Services

I recently joined the Disability Services Directorate (DSD) as Contract Relationship Manager for Environmental Support Services. I am a registered physiotherapist and have also completed postgraduate studies in Health Service Management at Massey University. Working as a registered physiotherapist in the disability sector, and the additional knowledge I gained while studying at Massey University, provided a valuable background for this role and for my previous role working for Enable New Zealand. During my three years at Enable New Zealand I worked in, and managed, the Policy and Professional Advice and Information teams. Among other challenging and rewarding experiences, this provided practical experience in working within the Environmental Support Services framework. This has helped me to hit the ground running for my 12-month contract at DSD. I am working in this role until next year while Sue Primrose is seconded to the Planning and Development team as the ESS Development Manager.

DSD staff movements

Over the last six months a number of staff have moved to new positions within the Directorate.

Annette Brown has moved from the Quality and Audit Team to the Southern Operations Team as a Service Analyst.
Murray Darroch joined DSD from Public Health. He is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Policy Team.
Terry Hibbert joined the Business Support Team as a Project Manager. He previously worked within the Policy Team.
Marianne Linton moved from Planning and Development to the Policy Team as a Senior Research Analyst.
Sue Primrose is on a one-year secondment to the Planning and Development Team as the Project Manager for the ESS Review programme. She was previously the ESS Development Manager in the Operations Team.

ASD Workforce Development Project

In 2004, Cabinet agreed to fund a number of projects, from the Blueprint Investment Strategy (BIS) Fund, that will help improve health and education outcomes for clients in the care of Child, Youth and Family services (CYF).

The Autistic Spectrum Disorder Workforce Development Project is one such project. This demonstration project will focus on initiatives to improve service delivery for children and young people diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). It will tie into the wider ASD work programme.

The project is being led by Karen Scott from DSD, with Sue Robertson contracted to manage it. Both are members of the project working group, which includes representatives from CYF and the Ministry of Education. The group reports to the ASD BIS Steering Group, which includes representatives from across the sector (health and disability, education, CYF and social development). A reference group, with expert members in the field, will provide direction to the working group.

Over a three-year period at least three groups of support workers and professionals across CYF, health/disability and education will participate in the training. Parents/whānau/ aiga, the foster family and representative(s) from respite or a home support setting may also participate.

We are currently seeking to appoint a training facilitator who will work with the project manager to develop and deliver the training.

The first group of participants to be trained will be identified shortly. The location of the first training group is subject to CYF identifying the whereabouts of appropriate children and young people in their care. The two groups will be selected from different regions of the country in 2007.

A framework to evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of the project and the benefit of inter-sectoral training will be conducted. The project ends June 2008, when the final report will be delivered to the BIS Steering Group.

If you are interested in finding out more about this project, contact:

Sue Robertson,
Project Manager
ASD Workforce Development Project
Ministry of Health
Private Bag 92522
Wellesley St, Auckland

or email to Sue_Robertson@moh.govt.nz

Document Availability

This publication is available on this website in PDF format below.
Disability Services Newsletters: Issue 15 - May 2006 (pdf, 449.14 kB)

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Ministry of Health publications

Unless otherwise specified, you can obtain copies of all Ministry of Health publications from:

Ministry of Health
C/o Wickliffe Limited
PO Box 932
DUNEDIN
Tel: (04) 496 2277 (Wellington)
Fax: (03) 479 0979 (Dunedin)
Email: moh@wickliffe.co.nz
Ministry of Health publications are also available on our website: www.moh.govt.nz

Your Comments Welcomed

If you would like to make any comments on this newsletter or would like any further information, please contact us on (04) 4962001 or disability@moh.govt.nz

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