April 26 workshop Posted by Posted by Linda Skates on 28 April 2017 Posted on: 28 April 2017

Hi,

We held our second co-design workshop on Wednesday 26^th April at the Brentwood in Wellington. At the workshop, we:

• Clarified the scope for system transformation, roles of the co-design group and how decisions will be made
• Discussed and agreed the co-design process (including how we would work between workshops)
• Debated the Enabling Good Lives Principles and a working definition for ‘Mainstream first’
• Talked about past lessons, insights and research that we want to inform our co-design process
• Agreed what work will happen before the next workshop on 4^th May.

Scope of system transformation

Following the last workshop, there had been questions about the scope for system transformation, roles of the co-design group and how decisions will be made.

The scope for transformation is for all specialist disability support across government and how it connects to services that everyone receives such as education.

It will initially be implemented for disabled people who are eligible for Disability Support Services. The first region for implementation is MidCentral.  The co-design group needs to make recommendations about timeframes for implementation in MidCentral and then for rolling it out across New Zealand.

The role of the co-design group is to develop a high level design for the new system and a road map for change.  The co-design group will present their work to Minister Wagner and will have an opportunity to make recommendations outside the scope of their current task.

The high level design and road map for change will form the basis of a paper to be considered by Cabinet in late-June. This is only the first phase of the process, with more detailed design and planning for implementation in MidCentral to happen in phase two. This will include some ongoing input from the co-design group.

Questions were also raised about how the co-design group fitted in with established groups who are already part of the process.

There is a governance group that will make decisions on the draft paper that goes to Minister Wagner. This is the Joint Agency Group which includes members from the National Enabling Good Lives’ Leadership Group, the Ministries of Health, Social Development and Education, and ACC.

A Terms of Reference for the co-design group is being developed for the group to discuss and confirm at our next workshop.

Co-design process

We also discussed the co-design process. Over the next two months, the co-design group will work through a number of questions:

• What is the intent and scope of the change we are designing?
• Who are we designing for?
• What are things like now?
• What have we learned – what to do and what not to do?
• What does the future look like when we apply the Enabling Good Lives Principles?
• What needs to change in the system to enable this future?
• What do these changes look like for the people who will experience them, and the system?
• What would be the best way to roll out these changes?

Gerri Pomeroy (above, 2nd from right) and Esther Woodbury, who are disabled members of the co-design group, will work with me and ThinkPlace (our design experts) to co-create the content of future workshops.

Enabling Good Lives’ principles

We had a good discussion about the Enabling Good Lives’ principles to ensure we had a shared understanding for the design process. There was strong consensus across the group.

Issues were raised about ‘Mainstream First’ at the first workshop and also at the Disability Forum. More work has been done on this principle by the National Enabling Good Lives Leadership Group and some co-design group members in between meetings. They developed a new working description of this principle.

“Everybody experiences full participation and inclusion within their community (people, places, assets, infrastructure and supports) as of right and can choose funded supports to enhance and facilitate this.”  

This may not be the final version but the group agreed it was a good working definition for the co-design process.

Past lessons, insights and research

We talked about the need to consider past lessons, insights and research that we want to inform our co-design process. We pulled together a long list including the evidence that was gathered from the sector last year and work that has happened since on safeguarding and a good start in life for 0-8 year olds. 

Work going forward

Everyone in the co-design group is aware of the June deadline and we talked about whether there was enough time to do all the work required. There was general agreement we need to hold more workshops due to the complex task ahead and there was work that needed to be done between them. The dates for workshops have been revised and there have been new additions.

Before the next workshop, the five disabled workshop participants and the two family representatives will be interviewed about their lives and their experiences, both good and bad, with the current system. It’s to add a real life perspective to what we need to be thinking about when we design a new system.

As we reflected on the day, there were comments the group was building collective trust and everyone is keen to get going on the design with the deadline looming.

The next workshop will be held on 4^th May.

If you have any information or ideas to contribute, would like to add to the discussions or have any questions about the process, please email us at STfeedback@moh.govt.nz.

Sacha O'Dea

Programme Lead, System Transformation

This information is also provided via video, Te Reo, Easy Read in PDF and Word, a Brf file Braille and audio files at the following links.