The development of services and policies in New Zealand for people with disabilities reflects the general change from the medical model of disability to the social model.

In New Zealand in the first part of the 19th century, government had little involvement in the provision of services for people with disabilities. This reflected a general government position that the voluntary sector should meet any community needs. The lack of a voluntary sector infrastructure in New Zealand, and growing social need, meant that government was taking an increasing role in provision by the second half of the nineteenth century. However, this occurred largely through making grants to voluntary organisations providing "charitable aid", and in establishing and funding Hospital Boards, with no specific provision for people with disabilities.

Government support specifically for people with disabilities began in the early years of the 20th century, in a series of provisions for the education of “backward” children, beginning with the Education Amendment Act 1907, which allowed “defective” or epileptic children to receive compulsory education. The medical model of disability was the basis from which this and other provisions up to the end of the 1960s were made.

These other provisions include:

• The availability of income support for individuals with disabilities. The Invalids Pension was introduced in 1936, acknowledging the Government’s responsibility to support people unable to work due to illness or disability. This was followed by the provisions in the Social Security Act in 1938 that provided for support and medical needs for people with disabilities.
• The establishment of large government-funded psychiatric and psychopaedic institutions. The institutions were typically located in isolated rural areas and operated self-sufficiently, away from other residential or commercial activity.
• The establishment of medical rehabilitation. This began after the First World War, for ex-servicemen. It developed through the Disabled Servicemen’s League, established after the Second World War, and, from 1954, services were available to civilians.
• The development of sheltered employment opportunities for people with disabilities.The Disabled Persons Employment Promotion Act 1960 exempted operators of sheltered workshops from employment conditions applying elsewhere. This created a market distinction between sheltered employment and employment in the open labour market.

This orientation and trend to large institutions began to be challenged during the 1950s and 1960s. In particular, the IHC (established in 1949 as the Intellectually Handicapped Children’s Parents Association) set up day care centres, occupation groups and residential homes, and pursued a more rights-based approach in seeking appropriate educational facilities for their children.

From the mid-1970s, Government’s approach to services for people with disabilities became increasingly community-based and rights-based. Following the 1972 Royal Commission into Psychopaedic Hospitals, government funds were increasingly channelled into building small residential facilities rather than large institutions. In addition, over the next decade:

• A principle of entitlement was established through the Accident Compensation Act. The Act, passed in 1972, provided assistance on an individual entitlement basis to people whose disability was caused by injury through accident.
• Provision increasingly recognised the need for people with disa-bilities to have access to a wide range of community-based support. The Disabled Persons Community Welfare Act, passed in 1975, gave people with disabilities who were not ACC claimants access to a number of services specifically to help them remain within the community.
• There was increasing recognition of the need for people with disa-bilities to have opportunities for mainstream employment. In 1973, the Industrial Relations Act established the under-rate workers permit that enabled a person with a disability to work in the open labour market and receive a wage commensurate with their productivity.

During the 1980s, deinstitutionalisation, accompanied by government support for community-based services, continued. This orientation to community-based support for people with disabilities was reinforced by the passing of an amendment to the Education Act in 1987 that enabled the mainstreaming of children with disabilities into a “normal” school environment.

An expansion of vocational service programmes available to people with disabilities occurred over the 1980s and 1990s. This period included the introduction of a formal contracting system by government agencies for the services, replacing the former funding system of government grants for the ongoing work of service providers.

The late 1980s and the 1990s were characterised by sweeping change in the public sector. As part of this, the Government in 1992 announced a "New Deal" for people with disabilities, proposing that all services for people with disabilities should be transferred from a number of govern-ment agencies into one, to improve accessibility and efficiency.

Following consultation, it was announced that services for people with disabilities, with the exception of vocational services, would be transferred to the Regional Health Authorities. This took place from 1993 to 1995. The Department of Social Welfare retained responsibility for vocational services until 1999, when these were transferred to the Department of Work and Income.

Concerns continued to be voiced through the 1990s that vocational services for people with disabilities lacked direction, overall objectives and clear priorities. In May 2000, Government began a formal review of vocational services for people with disabilities, led by the Department of Labour. This resulted in the strategy document Pathways to Inclusion, publicly released in September 2001 and setting out the future direction of vocational services for people with disabilities, to be implemented over five years.

The recommendations are focused on ensuring people with disabilities have opportunities to gain skills and jobs with the same rights and condi-tions as other workers, and include the repeal of the Disabled Persons Employment Promotion Act 1960 as an essential measure to achieve this.

More general concerns were also expressed through the 1990s about the limitations of current government provision for reducing social barriers faced by people with disabilities.

Over 2001-2002, Government responded to these concerns in particular through:

• the development of the New Zealand Disability Strategy; and
• the decision to establish an Office for Disability Issues within the Ministry of Social Development.

For further information contact the Office for Disability Issues.