From:
MaES requests (WHAIKAHA)
To:
Brian Coffey; Brian Coffey; s9(2)(a)
@parliament.govt.nz; ss9(2)(a) @parliament.govt.nz
Cc:
MaES requests (WHAIKAHA); Emma Williams
Subject:
FW: Flexible Funding
Date:
Thursday, 28 March 2024 12:26:00 pm
Attachments:
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Kia ora
Further information as requested from Amanda.
Ngā mihi,
Emma Williams (she/her)
Manager, Ministerial and Executive Services
eople
s9(2)(a)
whaikaha.govt.nz
www.Whaikaha.govt.nz
[GIF image of the logo and email signature banner of the Ministry]
Me he aka rātā ka tipu tahi, ka puāwai tahi kia tū kaha i ngā hihi ō
Tamanuiterā.
Like the rātā vines growing together and flourishing to stand strong in the
warmth of the sun.
From: Amanda Bleckmann s9(2)(a)
@whaikaha.govt.nz>
Sent: Thursday, 28 March 2024 12:25 pm
To: Emma Williams <s9(2)(a)
@whaikaha.govt.nz>
Cc: Brian Coffey s9(2)(a)
@parliament.govt.nz>; MaES_requests (WHAIKAHA)
<[email address]>
Subject: Flexible Funding
IN-CONFIDENCE
Hi Emma, please see below
Source Host Provider
Below is a snapshot of some of the items that have been purchased under respite.
Out of scope, s9(2)(ba)(i)
Personal Budgets
IF Respite
IF- HCSS
Ngā manaakitanga
Amanda Bleckmann
(pronoun she/her)
Deputy Chief Executive
Commissioning, Design and Delivery
Whaikaha – Ministry of Disabled People
s9(2)(a)
@whaikaha.govt.nz| Whaikaha.govt.nz
I work flexible hours, if this email arrives in your inbox outside of your working hours, I do not
expect you to read, take action or respond until you are next at work and able to respond.
Me he aka rātā ka tipu tahi, ka puāwai tahi kia tū kaha i ngā hihi ō Tamanuiterā.
Like the rātā vines growing together and flourishing to stand strong in the warmth of the sun.
From: Brian Coffey
Sent: Thursday, 28 March 2024 1:11 PM
To: s9(2)(a)
@parliament.govt.nz>; s9(2)(a)
@parliament.govt.nz>
Subject: FW: flexible purchases
Out of scope
Out of scope
IN-CONFIDENCE
You can edit as you wish, but this is more context.
The Purchasing Rules were introduced to provide disabled people and family carers flexibility to
purchase support that works for them, in their specific context.
Over time, particularly carer support and flexible respite funding have been used with an
increasingly broad interpretations of ‘sustaining the carer in their role’.
Some of these purchases have recognised that effective support of the disabled person,
including psychological services, speech language services, services that work with young people
who have both intellectual disability and mental illness, and the purchases of items that support
disabled children to self-regulate, are an effective way to reduce the need for more intensive
breaks.
However, this use of flexibility enables access to services that for the general public are subject
to limited availability due to fiscal constraints within the public health, social development and
education systems. Whaikaha has become concerned that use of flexibility for these services
may undermine general efforts within government to work within fiscal limits.
Arguments have been made that hairdressing appointments and other appearance services can
be part of supporting often solo carers to have time for themselves, spend time with other
adults, and achieve a sense of wellbeing.
We have recorded evidence through providers of the range of purchases that are occurring, with
access to pedicures, hairdresser appointments, and massages at the extreme end of the
continuum.
Whaikaha considers it is not clear that paying these expenses is necessary to overcome any
barrier to undertaking these activities arising from having care responsibilities.
The same can also be said of domestic or overseas travel costs for families and individual
disabled people, where the cost of alternative care is not sought.
In the grey area between these kinds of investments have been gym memberships for family
carers, sporting and recreation goods that are used for carers undertaking physical lifting work to
maintain their fitness and ability to physically provide care safely.
While there is perhaps a stronger argument for these kinds of expenditure, fundamentally
Whaikaha believes these cannot be considered a high priority at a time when some family carers
must wait for essential equipment such as wheelchairs or equipment necessary to do lifting
safely to be provided.
This has contributed to pressure on the disability support budget, creating the need for a pause
and tightening of the rules, to managed immediate budget pressures and to ensure that money
appropriated for disability support is spent on the highest priority uses at this time.
Snapshot
Here is the first view of spending based on an analysis of the last 6 months of
spending data for s9(2)(ba)(i)
We have analysed 25729 bank transaction records and have categorised the majority of
them.
The pivot below shows the $ total value and also the number of records in each of the
categories.
I have described some of the categories below where they need some explanation.
There are still many Misc items that lack enough details/particulars to categorise quickly
and will require a lot more time to continue to categorise.
Categories Defined:
Bank Payments: are bank transfers to organisations or people we cannot identify or
categorise
Healthcare: are various items like pharmacy costs and charges and health related
costs that are not Therapies
Cash: are transactions that we can clearly identify as Cash Withdrawals
Retail Purchases & Items: are various retail and hardware store purchases (e.g.
Harvey Norman, Mitre 10, etc)
Bill Payments: are various payments for services (e.g. Electricity, etc)
