27882 (2025). Kahurangi Carter to the Minister for Disability Issues

27882 (2025). Kahurangi Carter to the Minister for Disability Issues: What advice, if any, has she received on the risk liability of situations where Needs Assessment and Service Coordination are not able to fund residential support to the level needed to manage risks?

Hon Louise Upston: I am advised by the Ministry of Social Development that Needs Assessment Service Coordination (NASCs) are required to prioritise services to those with the greatest need. That includes a focus on risk management. In late 2024, officials advised that they had made changes to the Review Panel Terms of Reference to give NASCs and Enabling Good Lives (EGL) sites further flexibility to manage cases where there was a potential for a high risk of harm if a disabled person was unable to enter residential care. This meant the Review Panel could consider specific high priority cases for residential care even when NASCs and EGL sites could not offer assurance that there was availability within their immediate residential budgets. The Terms of Reference for this panel are available here: www.disabilitysupport.govt.nz/about-us/taskforce/independent-review/review-panel/terms-of-reference-review-panel More recently DSS advised me they had provided NASCs with the ability to apply for one off exceptional circumstances funding for cases they considered high priority that they had not been able to coordinate into residential care.