Terms of Reference for the Disability Advisory Council

1. The Office for Disability Issues (the Office) set up the Disability Advisory Council (the Council) to help the government implement the New Zealand Disability Strategy. It is made up of 13 disabled people and family carers.

2. The New Zealand Disability Strategy says that the best way to know if disabled people’s lives are being made better is to ask disabled people and their families directly.

3. The Council will do its job by disabled people and their families talking about things that help disabled people live a good life and participate in society. Disabled people want to have a good life as other people do.

What the Council does

4. The main job of the Council is to talk about implementing the New Zealand Disability Strategy. We also want to know about things happening to disabled people and their families that stop them living good lives and being able to participate in society.

5. The Council will talk to the Office and to other government agencies about these things.

6. Council members do their job based on their own individual knowledge and experience. Members are expected to talk with their appointing organisation, other groups and other people so they can do their job as best as they can.

How the Council works

7.  The Council has an advisory role. This means its job is to talk with the Office and other government agencies.

8. The Council can not make the Office or other government agencies to do something.

9. It is up to the Office or other government agencies to decide what to do in response to what Council members say.

10. Decisions at Council meetings will ordinarily be made through consensus. This means all the Council members need to agree on what is being talked about. It is only when everyone agrees that the Council will make a decision about something.

11. If the Council agrees that something should be done to implement the New Zealand Disability Strategy, then the Office will think about this decision.

12. If the Office does not agree to do what the Council says should be done, then the Office will tell the Council why we do not agree.

Council membership

13. The Council shall be made up of thirteen (13) members.

14. Members shall be chosen who are disabled people and/or family members of disabled people. The separate Member Position Description describes the type of people that we want to be Council members.

15. The Office will ask some disability sector organisations to choose the Council members. This is talked about in a separate document called Terms of Reference for Appointing Organisations.

16. Council members will be chosen that can talk about different experiences of disability. We want the Council to have many different perspectives of disabled people and family members. This is because there are lots of different disabled people and families, and they all have different kinds of experiences and problems.

17. The thirteen members should include:

• people with experience of mental illness
• people with sensory impairment (hearing impaired, vision impaired, and Deaf)
• people with learning disabilities (intellectual disability)
• people with experience of chronic illness
• people with an impairment caused by an accident
• Maori
• Pacific people
• men and women
• people living in different areas of the country, including rural and urban
• older people
• youth
• family members.

18. People will be chosen to be a Council member for three (3) years.

19. A person will stop being a Council member if their appointing organisation decides to choose a different person to be that member.

20. A person will also stop being a Council member if the appointing organisation changes what it does, so that it is no longer what we want an appointing organisation to be.

Chairperson

21. The Office will choose one Council member to be the Chairperson. It is the responsibility of the Chairperson to run the meetings, and to work with the Office in preparing for meetings.

22. The Office will also choose one or more Council members to be a Deputy Chairperson. If the Chairperson is not able to be at a Council meeting, then it is the responsibility of a Deputy Chairperson to run the meeting.

Supporting the Council

23. The Office is responsible for organising the Council meetings, and preparing papers for Council members.

24. The Office will organise for Council members to travel and attend Council meetings. The Office will also organise any supports needed for Council members to participate in the meeting. These supports will be reasonable and appropriate.

25. The Office will pay for the costs of getting Council members to the meeting. However, the Office needs to approve in advance anything that will need to be paid for before we agree to pay for it.

26. The Council member handbook has more information about these types of things.

Duration

27. The role and purpose of the Council will be reviewed regularly. This will usually be done every five years or sooner. The review will make sure the Council is working well, and whether any changes are needed to improve how it works.

28. The Office is responsible for reviewing the Council.

29. The Office will inform the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Social Development about each review.

Conflict of interests

30. Council members must tell the Chairperson and the Office if they have any conflict of interest.

31. A conflict of interest happens when a person works for, or receives funds from, a service provider or employer that the Council may be talking about.

32. If this is so, then the member must talk to the Chairperson and the Office about the conflict. This should happen as early as possible.

33. If it is decided there is a conflict, then the person may be asked to leave the room for some of the meeting. Or they maybe allowed to stay in the meeting, but not talk during that part of the discussion.

34. There are different kinds of conflict of interests. They may be perceived (that is other people may see a conflict) but not real. They may also be immediate (that is happening right now) or potential (that is something that could turn into a conflict in the future).

35. Conflict of interests can usually be managed, such as the Council member not being in the room when something is discussed that affects them. It is important that any conflict of interest is known about.

Confidentiality

36. Information provided to Council members will usually be able to be shared with other people.

37. Council members may sometimes have access to information that is confidential (and not to be shared with anyone else outside the Council meeting). The Office will make sure we tell Council members if information is confidential.

38. Council members should make sure they ask the Office if they do not know if some information can be shared.

Meetings

39. The Council meetings will be held up to four times a year. They will usually be in Wellington and may involve an overnight stay.

Fees and expenses

40. Council members will be paid a fee of $200 per day (inclusive of GST).

41. The Chairperson will be paid $275 per day (inclusive of GST).

42. A member designated as a Deputy Chair and who is required to chair a meeting will be paid the same fee as the Chair ($275 per day inclusive of GST).

43. Withholding Tax will be deducted from the fee.

44. Fees are regarded as income by Work and Income. Fees may be reviewed from time to time by the Office, but the fees will remain consistent with the government's Fees Framework guidelines.

Authorised

45. This Terms of Reference comes into effect on 1 December 2008, and replaces the previous Terms of Reference.

46. Council members that were appointed under the previous Terms of Reference will only have their time on the Council extended (from two years to three years) if the member and their appointing organisation both agree.

Jan Scown
Director, Office for Disability Issues

26 November 2008