Our role

"The Office for Disability Issues was established in 2002 as a focal point for disability issues within government"

The Office for Disability Issues was established in 2002 as a focal point for disability issues, working across government agencies as well as between government and the disability sector. We work to create a non-disabling, inclusive society (as illustrated in figure 4.1).

Figure 4.1 Strategic focus of the Office for Disability Issues

Within this broader context, the Office has the following key roles:

• supporting the Minister for Disability Issues

"The New Zealand Disability Strategy underpins all our work"

• providing policy advice on disability issues, including
  – leading strategic policy development across government
  – maintaining an overview of, and contributing a disability perspective to, policy development by other agencies
  – meeting formal international obligations
  – promoting, monitoring and reporting on progress of the New Zealand Disability Strategy within government and the wider community
  – building strong relationships with the disability sector.

The New Zealand Disability Strategy underpins all of our work. However, we cannot implement the Strategy on our own, as the scope of change required is wide reaching and the policies and programmes of other government agencies have major impacts on the lives of disabled people. Rather, we promote, guide, lead, inform and advise wherever appropriate.

We do not hold funding or deliver services directly to individuals. We do, however, fund some capacity-building initiatives, and we place particular value on effective partnership with the disability sector.

Our responsibilities

Supporting you, the Minister for Disability Issues

"You have a direct working relationship with the Office's Director"

A primary function of the Office for Disability Issues is to support and advise you. We will ensure that you are well informed about key issues and trends for disabled people and the disability sector, and provide advice regarding opportunities for leadership.

As portfolio Minister, you are responsible for the priorities and work programme of the Office. There is a direct working relationship between the Office’s Director and you.

The activities of the Office are funded from Vote: Social Development. The Minister for Social Development and Employment is responsible for the administrative infrastructure that supports the work of the Disability Issues portfolio.

The Chief Executive of the Ministry of Social Development is accountable to the Minister for Social Development and Employment for the outputs and performance of the Office. This occurs through the formal accountability systems of the Ministry’s Statement of Intent, the Vote: Social Development Output Plan, and the Annual Report.

"You have key duties and powers concerning the New Zealand Disability Strategy"

Section 8 of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000 sets out your duties and powers as Minister for Disability Issues, including:

• preparing, amending or replacing a New Zealand Disability Strategy as a framework for the Government’s overall direction for the disability sector, and for improving disability support services
• consulting with organisations and individuals that you consider appropriate, before determining the Strategy
• reporting each year on progress in implementing the Strategy
• making publicly available, and presenting to the House of Representatives, a copy of the Strategy or any amendment of it or replacement to it, and reporting as soon as practicable after its determination or completion.

Cabinet assists you to ensure all government departments meet their responsibilities towards disabled people. This is formalised by a direction that:

• all government departments provide annual plans and reports on progress in implementing the Strategy
• where appropriate, Cabinet papers include a disability perspective
• ministers direct departmental Chief Executives to ensure that their staff are familiar with the vision and objectives in the Strategy
• officials consult us at the earliest possible stage on papers being submitted to Cabinet committees.

"All government departments report once a year on how they implement the Strategy"

The effective management of ministerial correspondence is critical to maintaining credibility with the sector and the public. For this reason we prioritise our support, including drafting replies to ministerial correspondence, parliamentary questions, notes for speeches and requests made under the Official Information Act 1982.

Fortnightly updates and briefings on request ensure you are well informed about current disability issues, particularly those that might arise in Cabinet discussions.

Building strong relationships

A number of other ministers, their associated departments and other Crown agencies have specific roles with regard to disability policy and services. These include the Ministry of Health, ACC, the Department of Labour, the Ministry of Education, the Mental Health Commission, the Human Rights Commission and the Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner.

"We have strong relationships with central and local government, disability groups and disabled people"

We maintain a close relationship with key members of these government organisations. We also have regular contact with all government agencies with a role in implementing the New Zealand Disability Strategy.

The disability sector has a high level of expectation about our role. Priority has been given to building strong relationships with the sector, and also to developing partnerships between disabled people, central and local government, communities and support agencies.

To help achieve this we:

• support and are advised by a Disability Advisory Council
• have regular meetings with the Chief Executives of large service providers and the Disabled Persons Assembly
• meet and exchange information with all parts of the disability sector on an ad hoc basis
• maintain disability sector contact databases, available to government agencies, to encourage consultation
• support disabled people’s participation in the New Zealand delegation to the United Nations for the negotiations on developing a convention on the rights of disabled people
• support some disabled people and their families to attend conferences.

Office Structure

The Office Director is supported by a team of three senior analysts, five analysts and one administrator. We currently also have two additional staff for the duration of a key project.

Relationship to the Ministry of Social Development

The Office is located within the Social Development Policy and Knowledge group of the Ministry of Social Development, along with several units with a whole of government perspective (as illustrated in figure 4.2).

Figure 4.2 Where the Office fits within the Ministry of Social Development

As the chart above shows, these other units are Strategic Social Policy, Regional Social Policy, the Centre for Social Research and Evaluation, and the Offices for Senior Citizens and the Community and Voluntary Sector.

Location within the Ministry of Social Development enables us to access the corporate support provided by the Ministry, including expertise in financial and human resource management, evaluation and research, and communications. Our administration and overhead costs are minimised through the economies of scale available to us as part of the larger Ministry.

Our inclusion within the Social Development Policy and Knowledge Group enables us to contribute to strategic policy development, and ensures that the issues and interests of disabled people are considered in the context of our Ministry’s social development policies.

Within the Ministry we also work with the Health and Disability team in the Working Age People’s Policy Group and with the Work and Income and Family and Community Services service lines.