June 1 Provider forum Posted by Posted by Linda Skates on 22 June 2017 Posted on: 22 June 2017

Forum for service providers in the MidCentral region

A forum has been held in Palmerston North to introduce service providers to the work under way to transform the disability support system.

A group including disabled people, those with disabled family members and providers are co-designing a new system which will be rolled out initially in MidCentral and then nationally.

The provider’s forum (1 June) was an opportunity to:

• meet some of the people involved in the co-design and get an update on progress
• Plan a forum to identify and explore key local issues for providers (4th July)
• Begin thinking about the formation of a Leadership Group in mid-Central  

There were approximately 20 participants from six organisations.

Presentations and Introductions

Tina Lincoln, Helena Tuteao and Lawrence Chok, who are members of the co-design group, introduced themselves and gave a brief update on the co-design process

Mark Benjamin, Chief Executive SAMS (Standards and Monitoring Services)/Care Matters) provided an overview of why a Regional Leadership Group was needed.  This included the following points:

• A real opportunity to contribute to sector transformation
• This is the start of a process – local people will explore how they want to do this
• We want to end up with a diverse and bold group who will safeguard the principles and vision of Enabling Good Lives, effectively influence co-design, be well connected with local community and national networks, and ensure the changes stay “on-track”
• Four groups of people would be on the Regional Leadership Group: Mana whenua, Disabled People, Families/Whānau and Providers
• Important there are ways for a wider group of providers to feed into places/spaces - so the members on the Regional Leadership Group can gather and consider lots of views.  How we do this needs to be credible and robust as there are high stakes
• An exciting opportunity to be involved in creating a new and better way of doing things 
• Next step – keep discussing ideas about what this looks like in the mid-Central region
• Aim for the Regional Leadership Group to have first meeting early September

Discussion

What are the initial things you think are important when thinking about setting up the Regional Leadership Group?

Group responses included:

• Need for clarity and communication
• What is the authority of people in this group?
• Need to be brave
• Must leave previous “stuff” at the door – be collaborative
• Need to be bold – don’t need all the answers
• Good to work with disabled people and families
• We need to think differently
• Willingness to have hard conversations
• Need to understand the EGL principles
• Need for perseverance

The meeting then talked about what next. Responses included:

• More conversations
• More information / forums to understand the principles
• Start developing a structure
• More opportunity to talk with each other

Next provider forum

A two-hour provider forum has been organised for the 4^th July (2pm-4pm) and there will be a one day forum hosted by the New Zealand Disability Support Network and the Enabling Good Lives National Leadership Group on the 19^th July.