Peter Reynolds: Disability Support Network CEO on disability support services being moved to the Ministry of Social Development

There's risk the needs of disabled people won't be met as their ministry is carved up.

Support services are moving to the Ministry of Social Development, after a review found a lack of control over funding and services at Whaikaha.

Disability Support Network CEO Peter Reynolds says the sector has been struggling for over a decade - and doesn't have faith in MSD.

"As recently as June 30, three contracts expired across a couple of hundred providers. No replacement contracts were issued for two months - that's two months that those providers didn't receive any funding."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Afternoon. So the governments announced it's going to gut the
Ministry for Disabled People. The place has apparently not been
delivering services consistently around the country, operating some sort of
post code lottery, and it's also blowing its budget by
one hundred and fifty million dollars this year. So the
government's decided to move the disability support services away from
the Ministry and instead to the Ministry for Social Development.

(00:21):
Peter Reynolds is the CEO of the New Zealand Disability
Support networking with us. He Peter hi Heather not keen
on this.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
No, not at all. There's a big difference between overspending
and underfunding, and what we're seeing is for over a
decade a sector that has been underfunded consistently. The way
by Kaha, the Ministry for Disabled People was set up
in the first place, it was never funded properly to
do the job. So of course you're going to see
from one perspective overspending. But we're saying, well, help if

(00:51):
you don't put enough money into the system, what do
you call it?

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Well, didn't the government just check another billion dollars into
the system at.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
The last budget one point one billion? Yes, million of
that was to bail Thai Kaha out because they ran
out of money.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
So it's obviously so sort of an underfunding problem. I mean,
there's a billion dollars right there.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Well, the trouble is is about two point one billion
dollars worth of expenditure needed. So it is an issue
and it's fair to look into that and say, well,
why have we got that increased demand? We know, for example,
in residential services, one of the areas that's been highlighted
by the review as a part that needs to be
cut back that the increasing complexity and age range of

(01:31):
disabled people needing that level of support has been increasing heavily.
So with that added complexity, where else do those people
go if they need that level of support? What are
they supposed to do? Do they turn up to an
old folks harme? Do they go to the local emergency
department of the hospital. If the services aren't available to

(01:52):
support disabled people, then what are they supposed to do?

Speaker 1 (01:56):
In terms of what's happened today, which is moving the
services delivery from from this ministry to another ministry, is
that necessarily a bad idea to move it to another
ministry that it can actually deliver.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Not necessarily, but I guess we've got a question mark
over its capacity to deliver. Clearly I Faikaha had struggled.
They haven't been set up right in the first place,
then they're never going to be able to achieve what
they need to. But our experience, I mean, across our sector,
there are about eight different funders for different contracts. It's
all quite complex. MESD are one of those funders now.

(02:30):
As recently as June thirtieth, three contracts expired across a
couple one hundred providers. No replacement contract was issued for
two months. That's two months that those providers didn't receive
any funding and didn't have a contract to provide the
service to the people in their care. It just doesn't

(02:50):
give me a hell of a lot of confidence that
NESD are in the right position to be able to
do this.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Peter listen, thank you for talking us through to really
appreciate it. Peter Reynold's the CEO of the Stability Support Network.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
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Speaker 1 (03:05):
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