Quality and Safeguarding

Quality improvement means putting in place ways of doing things that work better for everyone.

What is quality?

Whaikaha funds providers to deliver a wide range of disability support services, to almost 50,000 disabled people each year.

To make sure these services are working well, Whaikaha checks the quality of the services it contracts to make sure:

people are accessing quality disability supports
services and supports are keeping disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori safe from abuse and neglect.

Whaikaha is responsible for checking that the services we fund deliver quality and safe supports. Our expectations are described in relevant contracts, legislation, regulations and policies.
We expect quality and safe disability supports to:

support disabled people, tāngata whaikaha Māori, family and whānau to achieve their good life outcomes
safeguard disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori from abuse and neglect
be experienced positively by disabled people, tāngata whaikaha Māori, family and whānau
have robust organisational policies and practices
be good value for money
be aligned with Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Enabling Good Lives and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

What is safeguarding?

Safeguarding protects a person’s right to make their own decisions about their life, including decisions about their safety and wellbeing.

Safeguarding means taking action to prevent, identify and respond to situations where a person is at risk of or experiencing abuse, neglect, violence or harm.

We know that disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori are much more likely to experience violence and abuse or neglect than other New Zealanders. 

This means that safeguarding becomes particularly important for disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori who are:

not able to remove themselves from a risk of serious harm and keep themselves safe
not having their human rights upheld
at risk of or experiencing harm, violence, abuse and neglect.

Help is available if you or someone you know is currently feeling unsafe or experiencing violence, abuse or neglect.
Help and support for violence, abuse or neglect | Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People

Whaikaha approach to quality and safeguarding

Whaikaha is working towards quality and safeguarding actions that aim to:

Prevent – Prevent issues happening
Identify – Identify issues when they do happen
Respond – Respond to issues that are found
Develop – Develop and improve disability supports.

For a more detailed description of the current ways Whaikaha currently aims to check quality and safeguarding, please download the document called ‘How Whaikaha checks the quality of disability supports and safeguarding of disabled people’ (quality and safeguarding framework) (DOCX 188KB).

Whaikaha acknowledges there are gaps in the systems and policies to safeguard people and check the quality of supports. We aim to learn, improve and develop ways to address those gaps.

Whaikaha is reviewing its quality and safeguarding framework to make improvements for the future. Information about how you can be involved in this work is available.

How Whaikaha checks quality and safeguarding

People for Us

People for Us will be delivered by community organisations and staffed by disabled people, tāngata whaikaha Māori, and Pacific disabled people. They will work alongside disabled adults who live in residential services to find out if they are safe, living their good life and experiencing high quality support and services. They will assist those with safety or wellbeing concerns to follow the relevant pathway to resolve them.
Growing Voice and Safety | Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People

Assisting Change

The Assisting Change service supports disability providers to improve the quality of their supports. It is being delivered by Te Pou Wairoa and will match the disability provider with advisors to assist them to address and resolve specific quality issues. Kaupapa Māori and Pacific advisors will be available for Māori and Pacific providers.
Growing Voice and Safety | Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People

Disability Abuse Prevention and Response prototype (DAPAR)

A team of disabled-led and community-led specialists in family violence and safeguarding disabled adults from abuse. DAPAR:

Responds to situations where disabled adults are experiencing abuse or who are unable to protect or remove themselves from abusive situations. They work directly with the disabled person and build a cross agency response with that person. Currently only receiving referrals from Whaikaha and NASC/EGL sites.
Builds capacity and capability across communities, agencies, and the health, disability, and violence prevention sectors, to be responsive to situations of abuse of disabled people.

Contract developmental evaluations and investigations

Evaluates and investigates Whaikaha contracted providers. Each year Whaikaha commissions evaluations for a number of contracted providers against their contracts, and investigations in response to serious complaints, incidents, deaths or concerns.
Audit and evaluation | Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People

Complaints

Manages complaints about the quality of Whaikaha contracted disability supports and services.
Complaints and feedback | Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People

For a detailed description of what Whaikaha does when managing a complaint about the quality of disability supports, please download the Whaikaha complaints operational guidance (DOCX 217KB).

The Whaikaha complaints operational guidance has been updated to reflect the recommendations for Whaikaha made as part of the Schmidt-McCleave Review and incorporates feedback from disability providers and the disability community. You can read the Schmidt-McCleave Report here external URL .

Feedback

Manages feedback about the quality of Whaikaha contracted disability supports and services.

Disability services complaints and feedback | Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People

Critical Incident Reporting

Receives and manages critical incident reports for all Whaikaha contracted services.

Reporting of critical incidents and deaths | Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People

Death Notifications

Receives and manages notifications of deaths of disabled people in Whaikaha funded residential care.

Reporting of critical incidents and deaths | Whaikaha - Ministry of Disabled People

Develop and publish quality data and insights (in development)

Whaikaha is developing data analysis and insights to inform learning and improvement to the system, which is intended to be published on our website.

We can all contribute to quality and safeguarding

Disabled people, tāngata whaikaha Māori and their families and whānau are central to our quality and safeguarding approach.
The disability community, disability providers, Whaikaha and other organisations across Government all have a role in improving the quality of disability supports and safeguarding of disabled people:

Disabled people and their families and whānau - bring their knowledge, experiences and expectations of quality supports. They can talk with their disability support provider or connector about things that are working well and things that could improve. People accessing support through Personal Budgets or Individualised Funding are responsible for checking the quality of the supports that they purchase.
Organisations that provide disability support - are responsible for delivering quality disability supports. This is agreed in the contracts between Whaikaha and disability providers.
Whaikaha –is responsible for checking that the services we fund deliver quality and safe supports, as described in the relevant contracts, legislation, regulation and policies.
Needs Assessment Service Coordination (NASC) and Enabling Good Lives (EGL) sites - work with disabled people and their families to access disability supports that enable their good life. This includes reviewing supports for the disabled person if quality or safeguarding concerns indicate a need for change.
Other government agencies also have a role. Whaikaha does not check the quality of services funded by other organisations (such as those in the health, education or social support system). For example, the Health and Disability Commissioner for complaints relating to the Code of Rights, the Ministry of Health to check providers against Ngā Paerewa standards, and the Police to investigate crimes.

Ensuring that we all recognise the role we can play in improving the quality of disability supports and safeguarding of disabled people is underpinned by the Whaikaha whakataukī external URL :

Me he aka rātā ka tipu-tahi, ka puāwai-tahi kia tū kaha I ngā hihi ō Tamanuiterā.

Like the rātā vines constantly growing and flourishing together to stand strong in the warmth of the sun.

Expected behaviours for Whaikaha staff and providers

All Whaikaha staff and disability providers are expected to manage quality and safeguarding concerns and processes in the following ways:

We act according to good quality management principles:
- we uphold the rights of disabled people
- we are responsive
- we treat all parties fairly
- we are accountable for what we do
- we learn and improve.
Our work is underpinned by our obligations to Te Tiriti o Waitangi:
- Kawanatanga – partnering and shared decision making: We work together to improve the quality of disability supports and safeguard tāngata whaikaha Māori.
- Tino rangatiratanga – self-determination: We enable tāngata whaikaha Māori me ō rātou whānau to have greater choice and control over their lives and the things of importance to them.
- Ōritetanga – we ensure our approach is equitable for Māori and ensure our safeguarding and quality systems and processes are culturally responsive and anti-discriminatory.
- Wairuatanga – we acknowledge the importance of cultural and faith-based values and beliefs in people’s lives.
We act in line with the EGL principles:
- Self-determination: we respect the choices disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori make about the quality of their support and their safety.
- Beginning early: we respond and act quickly to quality and safeguarding concerns.
- Easy to use: we ensure accessibility of the quality and safeguarding processes.
- Person centred: we seek out and value the perspectives and rangatiratanga of disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori.
- Ordinary life outcomes: we support disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori to live their good life.
- Mainstream first: quality and safeguarding concerns are managed by the right organisation (including police and family violence organisations).
- Mana enhancing: we treat quality and safeguarding concerns seriously. We value the mana of the person/people we engage with.
- Relationship building: we build trusting relationships with all parties to achieve a successful resolution of quality and safeguarding concerns, and aim to restore relationships.