Whaikaha stripped of support services role after review reveals it was set up to fail

Just two years after its establishment the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha is being massively scaled back following the findings of an independent review. 
The review, lead by Sir Maarten Wevers, found the delivery of support services was inconsistent and hampered by the way Whaikaha had been set up. 
“Recent events have revealed that the ministry was ill-prepared for its important role. Its establishment, in the late stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, was rushed, and challenges soon emerged in dealings with partner agencies that had been charged with providing shared services and other support,” Weavers said.  
He also found there was “inadequate budgetary control and commercial rigour” and the department was on track to once again blow its budget.  
Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston confirmed the overspend forecast for this current year was $150 million.  
Wevers said financial controls and oversight were poor.  
“The ministry, as it has been established, lacks many of the public sector disciplines and operational practices seen in other government agencies … It is difficult to gain a clear understanding of how well disabled people are being supported through providers the ministry has contracted. Monitoring of contracts and reporting of performance is inadequate, and risk identification and management, need to be strengthened.  
“There are also different levels of service being provided across the country – this is similar to describing health services delivery as a postcode lottery.”
As a result the review process is being expedited with recommendations being implemented by the Government at pace.  
“It is for this reason that the reviewers suggest that phase two of the review as originally conceived should not proceed at the current time. It would seem that the more pressing need is for a team of experienced staff to be brought into the ministry at the earliest opportunity to work with the chief executive to strengthen processes and systems, improving monitoring and controls, and reset current procedures and arrangements as necessary, to deliver stability and confidence to the ministry, and its critical role.” 
Upston said immediate action would be taken. 
“This Government is committed to supporting disabled people, which is why we provided a record $1.1 billion funding boost to disability support services in this year’s Budget.
“We must now take urgent action after an independent review found the delivery of these services is in a dire state, with unsustainable spending and a lack of fairness and transparency around what support disabled people can access.”
She said most of the problem lay with how Whaikaha was established under the former government and did not blame the current executive leadership team.
“I think it was grossly unfair to set up a ministry like that, where the Government and the ministers knew the risks, they knew the financial challenges, they knew the complexity that had existed for many years, and they plowed on regardless.
“If you look back at the original cabinet papers, looking at the establishment, I do think the disabled services were an afterthought.
“So I think Paula and the team have done the best job possible in what was, quite frankly, a mess.”
Responsibility for the delivery of support services would transfer to the Ministry of Social Development in October. 
This would be overseen by a taskforce that would also work through other recommendations made by the reviewers.  
Whaikaha chief executive Paula Tesoriero described the past two years as “enormously challenging”.
“I didn’t get as far as I wanted, but I am proud of what we achieved. The opportunity now is for disability support services to have the backing of a larger, more established organisation. It is really important that we focus on building a solid, sustainable system that disabled people, families and carers can rely on.”
Delivering support services via the current models, which included shared infrastructure and systems with both the social development and health departments was incredibly challenging.
“And despite the huge effort that the team went to, the reality is it would likely have taken us another two to three years to really build the infrastructure to support disability support services and disabled people have been waiting so long for change.”
Upston also confirmed Whaikaha would become a standalone ministry (currently it is held within the Ministry of Social Development).
“It will be responsible for leading work to improve the lives of disabled people through policy advice, monitoring the effectiveness of services education and advocating for positive change.”
She had confidence in Tesoriero, but said the Public Service Commission would work through the appointments process in due course.
Tesoriero would not confirm if she would re-apply for the role.
There were seven recommendations including firming up budgets for needs assessment services, enabling good lives demonstration sites and equipment providers, and freezing current funding levels for residential facility-based care while further review is done. 
The criteria and allocation settings for support services would be updated as well as a review of the flexible funding guidelines. 
The review, commissioned in April, was sparked by revelations in March that Whaikaha had tightened restrictions for what people could spend their allocated disability budgets on as it faced another annual cost blow out.  
Wevers said despite the review being conducted under a tight timeline and limited engagement with external parties, the recommendations were sound.  
Upston stressed nothing would change overnight for those impacted by the decisions.
“I appreciate that these are big changes to the disability landscape, but I cannot stress this enough to disabled people across the country, nothing will change overnight, and nobody’s support will be cut off.
“This is a fresh start, and it’s a chance to get things right, to get spending under control, and to address the longstanding problems that I’ve been hearing about in my many meetings with disabled people across the country. We can and we must do better.”