59083 (2025). Arena Williams to the Minister for Disability Issues

59083 (2025). Arena Williams to the Minister for Disability Issues: What, if anything, has the Minister done since January 2025 for the 8.9% of young people that are disabled?

Hon Louise Upston: The Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha (the Ministry) is taking significant steps to improve outcomes for disabled young people. In December 2025, the Ministry launched the refreshed New Zealand Disability Strategy 2026–2030 (the Strategy), which sets measurable actions across education, employment, health, housing, and justice. These actions will support better outcomes for disabled children and young people and their families and whanau. The Strategy was co-designed with disabled people and whānau to ensure practical, transparent progress. The Strategy includes a range of actions that are particularly relevant for young disabled people, including in education, employment, and justice. You can read the Strategy here: https://www.whaikaha.govt.nz/about-us/our-work/new-zealand-disability-strategy-2026-2030 Other key actions taken by the Ministry included: • refreshed the New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Strategy to support to ensure deaf children, and children who use NZSL to communicate, and families acquire, learn and use NZSL. • launched the All-of-Government Disabled Summer Internship Pilot, where disabled students/recent graduates were placed into internship positions across 10 government agencies. The internship programme provides paid, practical work experience, targeted learning, and dedicated career support, directly equipping young disabled people with skills for their future careers. • supported the launch of an All-of-Government Deaf Kaimahi network to support Deaf employees and raise awareness of Deaf culture across the public sector. • supported equitable participation at the 2025 Youth Parliament programme, including supporting the Disabled Learners working group. • ensured disabled young people were represented on the Ministry’s advisory groups. • hosted a working session for 100 public servants focused on accessible employment practices, resulting in commitments to involve disabled people in organisational design and to standardise reasonable accommodation policies. • sponsored the I.Lead youth conference. • collaborated with the Disabled Person’s Assembly, the DPO Coalition, and the New Zealand Disability Employers’ Network (NZDEN) to develop comprehensive recruitment guidance for both public and private sector employers. This guidance, to be released in early 2026, will help employers implement accessible and inclusive practices. These actions aimed to create equitable opportunities for disabled young people to learn, work, and thrive. From the Ministry of Social Development, Disability Support Services consulted disabled community about the changes they wanted to needs assessment, allocation, and flexible funding settings in early 2025. This included targeted engagements with young people to ensure their perspectives were included in changes now being made, and to be introduced to DSS from February 2026. From February 2026, the needs assessment process will take a life-stage approach and will include tailored enquiry and assessment aspects specific to the needs of young people. Changes to the assessment are being introduced in February to respond to what we have heard. Families and carers whose needs are relevant to the care of the disabled person, including disabled children, will be consistently considered as part of the assessment – because better support for the wellbeing of families and carers also improves the disabled person’s wellbeing and quality of life.