Posts by Hilary Stace
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The Productivity Commission's report has an appendix on disability. Not sure who wrote it, probably someone from the Office for Disability Issues. It is an interesting and carefully 'non political' summary of recent policy.
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Here is the December 2014 evaluation of Enabling Good Lives. There is also a lot of information on EGL on the Office for Disability Issues website.
The next issue for us to address is the report of the Productivity Commission which has recommended more market competition and neoliberal responses to disability and social service provision ie more vouchers, less State responsibility. Sigh. I suspect there will be hints in the Budget about the way the Government is going on the recommendations of this report. It is a big report and has lots about disability. It is out for consultation for the next few weeks.
http://www.productivity.govt.nz/inquiry-content/2032?stage=3
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This piece from Sciblogs about an article in North and South about Carrick Graham and attacks on public health scientists may have been already posted but worth reading again. Dirty Politics alive and well.
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Enabling Good Lives, and also Individualised Funding, are contractual systems maybe. But to describe them as vouchers divorces them from their philosophical base from deep in the disability community. And dooms them to failure.
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Using a targeted funding plan for 1% of the school population when anecdotally 6-10% of students have 'special education needs', illustrates several aspects of wicked problems. It is similar to throwing a voucher to a high needs school leaver and expecting them to transition to independent adulthood.
Such a solution has not really identified or understood the policy problem or looked at the context. Unintended but not unexpected consequences are inevitable. These include rationing of resources and limitations the ORS funding (so many students miss out altogether, the ORS student gets only a few hours rather than the full time support they need, schools refusing to take students without support etc).
If there had been an inclusive process to come to some agreement about what the policy problem was that needed addressing - which included parents, education support workers, disabled adults with lived experience of the education system as well as policy people - they might have been more successful at addressing the problem of inclusive education for all students including those with special educational needs.
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Bill English's description of Enabling Good Lives as a voucher system is bizarre. I'm sure not many of the dozens of people who have been developing and implementing this scheme over the last several years would see it as, let alone call it, a voucher system. He is one of the few in government who understands some of the complexities of disability and autism policy, so I doubt he actually believes it either. So he is illustrating another aspect of wicked policy - deliberate obfuscation.
Judge for yourself about Enabling Good Lives
http://www.odi.govt.nz/what-we-do/improving-disability-supports/enabling-good-lives/ -
From the Carers NZ newsletter
Funded Family Care: What now?
TVNZ would like to interview some family carers for a feature story about the Funded Family Care payment. After all the years of human rights action, are things any better for carers? The Ministry of Health is considering a report produced following a review of the FFC nearly two years after its implementation. Our feedback indicates that some carers love the FFC, many don't bother being assessed for it for various reasons, and some say their household is worse off now that they are receiving it. The bottom line is that $23 million a year was budgeted for this payment for up to 1,600 carers, and only about 200 are receiving it, with a fraction of the annual budget spent. Lots of carers are missing out, but why? If you have experiences of FFC to share, consider participating in the TV news story. Carers are also asking for a public rally to be held in Auckland about the FFC for open discussion and debate about the payment policy. We will facilitate this. Register your interest in attending a rally by emailing centre@carers.net.nz or phoning 0800 777 797, so we can keep you informed. We'll be asking the Ministry and MPs from all parties to attend the rally, to engage directly about the FFC with families, whanau, and people with disabilities.
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Easy targets. Attack the most vulnerable and use clever language to blame the victims. No wonder disability hate crime is rising in the UK.
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First riots breaking out in London. Maybe this is an indication of what is ahead.
I see Cameron has already announced council tenancies will no longer be for life but only short term. Sounds familiar. What's the bet the next step is selling them off to private providers.
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Two interesting pieces about the influencers. First the Guardian on the influence of Crosby Textor http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/08/lynton-crosby-wedge-politics-general-election-tories
And Russell Brand speaks up for the need for compassion as there is going to be a lot of meanness.
Wonder who will have the most influence by the time of the next UK election?