Hot Issues Newsletter

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Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• Join the conversation about reviewing our education system

• Schools in crisis trying to support students with diverse learning needs

• New Employment Support Practice Guidelines launched

• Calls for repeal of Funded Family Care

• UN Committee releases ‘list of issues’ for New Zealand Government

• Consultation on Terms of Reference for Royal Commission on Historical Abuse

• Killing prompts review of disability services

• Autistic teenager kept in mental health unit for a year

• Election Access Fund Bill to be debated

• Self-advocates make video for World Down Syndrome Day

• Community member vacancies for the Mental Health Review Tribunal

• Over use of anti-psychotics for autism

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• Census may lead to a lower reporting of disability
• Royal Commission into historic abuse announced
• Mental Health Review
• Eliminating seclusion, reviewing restraint
• Disability delegations and briefings to incoming ministers
• New initiatives on inclusive and special education
• Deportation reprieve for young disabled Fijian man
• People with autism who have experience of criminal justice system sought for research

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• IHC survey reveals quality of life concerns for NZers with intellectual disability
• Call for more housing for disabled people
• Maxim Institute finds barriers to employment for people with disabilities
• New Minister Carmel Sepuloni responds to concerns
• New MPs’ maiden speeches on disability
• Ombudsman’s report on Ruru Special School
• Disabled men lose High Court case
• Mothers write book about discrimination against their disabled children
• Survey on assistive technology
• Outdated term ‘Mongol’ causes offence
• Immigration Tribunal overturns Immigration decision on autistic boy
• International Disability Day 3 December
• Seacliff: remembering our history through musical theatre
• 2017 Attitude Awards

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• A decade on, IHC’s complaint about the education crisis is still waiting
• Desperate need for help for children in early childhood education
• Negative attitudes can hamper help for disabled Pasifika children
• Ministry of Social Development and ACC using fake names in correspondence with clients
• Thankyou Mojo Mathers
• How well did the election work for voters with learning disability?
• Teenager sedated in locked mental health unit now has permanent home
• Increasing use of sanctions in our welfare system
• Online UK course to improve working relationships between disabled people and personal assistants

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• Election forum Tuesday 5 September, Wellington
• Gaps in early intervention
• Drop in public satisfaction with special education
• Roll out of Bay of Plenty Learning Support pilot
• Statistics NZ survey shows more support needed for disabled people
• Research reveals the hidden costs of disability
• New Bill disappoints pay equity advocates
• Supreme Court rules that relief carers are not employees
• More support for young carers
• UN plea for inquiry into historic abuse
• Auckland DHBs drop disability representatives
• IHC pays tribute to Colin Meads
• IHC library after-hour book returns to Wellington Public Library

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• People with intellectual disabilities missing from mental health announcement
• Lack of secure forensic units for people with intellectual disabilities
• Addressing the historic abuse of disabled children in State care
• Ageing parents of disabled adults
• Grandparents raising grandchildren poorly treated by Work and Income
• Cabinet Paper on Disability System Transformation released
• Transforming Respite 2017-2022
• One child with Down syndrome ordered to leave NZ and another case reconsidered
• Stats NZ proposal for disability statistics risks making ID invisible
• Ministry apologises for wrong answer on ORS funding
• Predictive risk modelling and decile funding
• Wellington Forum on Supported Living

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• Tracking progress - Valuing All: leave no one behind
• IHC Service Changes
• Update on IHC education complaint
• Support Staff Day marked by calls for more money to pay teacher aides
• Election forum, Wellington, 13 July
• Claim to extend pay equity to more support workers
• Research finds large numbers of disabled people have poor housing conditions
• Brain-injured teenager in police cells for three days
• Another disabled child excluded from NZ
• Preventing Elder Abuse
• Budget 2017 and disability
• Forum for Support Workers
• Minister’s tweet makes news

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• Disabled children excluded from NZ
• Children’s Commissioner’s State of Care report
• Sector Update from the Ministry of Education on new learning support projects and pilots
• Parents and schools battle for special education support
• Student Rights Service helpline
• Autistic teenage boy committed to mental health unit
• Nelson Marlborough DHB commissions review following death of disabled person
• Self-care resource kit for parents of disabled children under development
• Disabled woman who feeds the homeless becomes homeless
• Disability Connect advocacy courses and support groups in Auckland
• Disability Matters Conference, Dunedin, November 2017: Making the Convention Real
• Review of disabled people led monitoring for CRPD
• New Statistics New Zealand on-line tool for disability information (but not yet ID)
• Call for inquiry into abuse in Australian group homes
• Research shows shared home ownership is good for disabled people
• 2017 IHC Art Awards

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• Disability ‘system transformation’
• Carers win big pay increase
• Changes for IDEA Services
• Inclusive Education news
• Support for ageing parents worried about the future of their disabled adult children
• New Government agency to provide surveillance on vulnerable people
• Teenage boy with Down Syndrome held in mental health unit
• Claims pregnant women encouraged to terminate Down Syndrome babies
• Robert Martin at the United Nations in Geneva
• A blood test for Autism?
• They work for us election kits

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• Deaths of those with ID often incorrectly recorded
• Disability support system to be ‘transformed’
• Government response to Education and Science Select committee inquiry disappoints
• Education for All petition handover
• Children’s Commissioner wants disability screening for all five year olds
• Disabled people more likely to live in cold damp houses
• Ashley Peacock gets international attention and another incarceration case revealed
• Proposed new design and framework for Ministry of Health’s DIAS and NASC
• Ministry of Health developing new Respite Strategy
• Health and Disability Commissioner inquiry into those who cannot give informed consent
• Access Alliance established
• Government gives first ‘social bond’ to Australian provider

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• ‘Never again’ campaign calls for inquiry into historic abuse
• New Ministry of Health guidelines to prevent abuse
• Second killing of an autistic young woman by mother
• IHC makes submission on seclusion amendment
• Lack of post-school options for disabled young people
• Accessing support from Work and Income gets even harder
• Yes, there is a mental health crisis
• Are we sleepwalking into a world without Down syndrome?
• General Election 2017 and advocacy for intellectual disability

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• Urgent action needed to improve the health of people with intellectual disabilities
• School principals need more Government support to make inclusion a reality
• Education (Update) Amendment Bill Supplementary Order Paper on seclusion and restraint
• Children, Young Persons, and their Families (Oranga Tamariki) Legislation Bill
• Many early childhood education services substandard
• Latest case emphasises lack of services for young people with complex needs
• Time for change – addressing the issues in New Zealand’s mental health system
• New Human Rights Toolkit for Australian disabled women and girls
• Australian disabled workers finally win fair pay
• 10 interventions for families to encourage their child’s autistic neurodiversity

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• New NZ Disability Strategy launched
• New Bill is victory for disability advocacy
• Unfair Funded Family Care legislation highlighted
• More school seclusion rooms revealed
• Safeguards needead for online schools
• Dunedin School Principal’s open letter to Government to ‘Help our children’
• Education for All? Best Practice and the Community Voice forum
• Child poverty rates remain high - disabled children start life with disadvantage
• New contracts for community organisations will require handing over client details
• Statement on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at UN General Assembly
• United Nations report on New Zealand’s children

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• Select committee finally publishes report on dyslexia, dyspraxia and autism
• New Ministry of Education seclusion and restraint guidelines
• Youthlaw questions use of seclusion
• Education For All rally in Auckland
• Autistic Nelson boy receiving only four hours of education a week
• Consultation on Te Whāriki Early Childhood curriculum
• Families in Otara missing out on Child Disability Allowance
• Supreme Court to decide employment status of respite care workers
• Calls for inquiry into historic disability abuse

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• Seclusion rooms in use in several schools
• Increase in ‘informal removals’ from schools of students with special educational needs
• Education for All petition
• Feedback required for Ministry of Health’s respite review
• Depression and sleep problems common in adults with autism
• People’s review of the mental health system
• Optional Protocol for the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities comes into force
• Human Rights Commission review of Seclusion and Restraint
• What is a home? Workshop with Michael Kendrick
• Immigration denied to disabled child

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• Education for All Rally at Parliament 22 September 4.30pm
• Youthlaw report finds educational barriers for disabled children
• Does the Ministry really think early intervention will cure impairments?
• Visit of UN Special Rapporteur on Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• ‘A Life for Ashley’ Petition presented to Parliament
• New Zealand needs a new constitution to uphold disability rights
• NZ disability providers say system in crisis
• Supported decision-making resources available
• Amy Street – a documentary web series
• New Zealand ASID conference, November, Wellington
• Kia Noho Rangatira Ai Tātou Human Rights and the UN CRPD – free education programme
• Mourning disabled people killed in Japan

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• What is going on in Education?
• Learning support resources to shift from older to younger students
• Autistic boy expelled from pre-school
• Communities of Online learning (COOLs)
• Salisbury School fights closure
• Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline updated 
• What statistical ‘Enduring Questions’ do we need to ask about disability? 
• High Court hears institutional abuse allegations 
• Enabling Good Lives evaluation
• Union to appeal decision that respite care workers are not employees
• Outdated medical codes in Work and Income forms
• Quality jobs elusive for beneficiaries
• Workability International Conference in Auckland 

Inside Hot Issues:

• Making citizenship and rights real in the lives of people with intellectual disabilities
• A Life for Ashley Petition and other “cruel, degrading and inhuman” cases
• Win for paid parent carers
• Join the Conversation for a new Disability Strategy Part
• Optional Protocol of the CRPD will mean individuals can take complaints
• IHC Advocacy’s submission to Social Security Rewrite Bill
• Homeless family has four disabled children
• Lack of post-operative care for boy with Down Syndrome

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• New Zealander Robert Martin elected to United Nations Committee
• A life for Ashley
• Changes to out of home placement for disabled children
• Ombudsman responds to IHC request for data on involuntary sterilisation
• Court case to improve funding for respite carers
• Family threatened with prosecution unless son sent to residential special school
• Disability stocktake: new data released
• Disability protests against movie ‘Me Before You’
• Submissions sought for Parliamentary Inquiry into Captioning

Inside Hot Issues:

• IHC makes case for strengthened New Zealand Disability Strategy
• 2016 Budget and disability issues
• Neurodisabilities Forum exposes unmet need in prisons
• Social Security Legislation Rewrite Bill provides legal basis for welfare system
• New Margaret Mahy playground will now be accessible after protests
• Ministry of Education Special Education Update – questions welcomed
• Assistance dogs are essential technological support for some disabled people
• Australian Support Group established for LGBTI people with intellectual disability
• Feedback sought on residential services

Inside Hot Issues:

• Challenging the Minimum Wage Exemption
• Will the CYF review improve the lives of disabled children?
• Are schools ‘demonising’ children with challenging behaviour?
• Join the Conversation to update the New Zealand Disability Strategy
• Will revised New Zealand Health Strategy benefit people with intellectual disability?

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• Better advocacy needed for our children and young people
• Changing school decile rating: warnings from ‘special’ education.
• Boy shifts 500 kilometres for inclusive school
• Teacher aides in most poorly paid occupational group
• In-between travel settlement for home support workers
• Inquiry into the future of New Zealand’s mobility needs

Inside IHC Hot Issues:

• Why do we still lock up disabled people in seclusion?
• Immigration New Zealand Declines Residency for Disabled People
• Unveiling of Memorial to Forgotten Patients at Tokanui Hospital
• Back to Court for Payment for Years of Caring
• SENCO Survey Reveals Unmet Need for Diverse Learners
• Does Attack on Elderly Disabled Man Reflect our Attitude to Disability?
• Disability Makes Life Harder for Refugees