Opinion: Peter Reynolds, New Zealand Disability Support Network CEO

It’s been disappointing and insulting to see the rhetoric about our support provider colleagues working with Oranga Tamariki from the Minister for Children, accusing support providers of concentrating on building their own bank balances. Disability support providers, who often work with OT clients, must wonder if they’ll be next for this kind of accusation.

The reality is disability support funding increases have consistently been lower than inflation for the last four years – what business can survive that?

The sector is coping with 3,500 new disabled people seeking support each year, often with increasingly complex needs. That’s alongside the increasing costs of delivering that support, thanks to inflation and added complexity of the care required. The sector is simply being throttled.

The support sector is full of skilled and passionate all too familiar with doing their jobs on very little resource. The reality is, this is a sector where funding is always tight, and our members are always looking for how we can do things more efficiently.

So, rather than throw stones at providers, why not work with them? There is an open invitation to Ministers and MP’s to visit disability support providers, and meet the people delivering these crucial services, hear their korero and ask any questions to get clear on what’s happening on the ground.

They’ll tell you their challenges and how they try to overcome them, what effect a funding cut is having on their roles and the people they support, and where the remaining risks are. These are the very frontline workers the coalition government claims to support, but right now they’re wondering what the review panel recommendations, and the gutting of Whaikaha means for them.

Any politicians willing to visit providers will find they’re 100% focused on supporting disabled New Zealanders, as it should be. No-one is in this sector to make money – if they were, they’d soon be found out.

We deserve better from elected Ministers targeting providers performing really challenging roles in our sector – I think they deserve support, not spin.

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