Jonny Wilkinson: Disabled people and whānau need to be in the driving seat of Enabling Good Lives

A key objective of Enabling Good Lives is that disabled individuals and their families will have input into designing and governing systems, support and services. Photo / 123rf

OPINION:

EGL. Extremely Good Luck? Extraordinarily Good Looking? Extra-Good Lie-in? Oh, no, no, no. If you’re disabled, whānau of a person with a disability or a service provider for the community of disability, you need to get with the programme: Enabling Good Lives.

Yes, another enigmatic acronym for the community to wrap its collective head around. Let me try and explain it.

EGL is a broad aspirational concept that heralds a new approach to providing disability support services. It’s new, but its origins date way back to 2008, when concerns arose in a report to the Social Services Select Committee during its “inquiry into the quality of care and service provision for disabled people”.

The core concerns in the report included the multiple eligibility and planning processes required in order to access different types of support from several different agencies, and disabled people being allocated existing services that didn’t necessarily work for them. Disability services had become the centre of their lives, rather than helping them to connect to the kind of community support that is available to everyone.

Three years later, another report was produced for the then-Minister of Disability Issues, Tariana Turia. The report was produced by a working group of disabled people and their whānau, with support from the Office of Disability Issues and the Ministry of Social Development. This working group came up with a new approach to providing disability support services. The name of this approach was the same as the title of the report, and thus was born: Enabling Good Lives! Ta-da!

Dame Tariana then instructed the ministry involved to progress Enabling Good Lives. The new approach was then trialled in three geographical “demonstration sites” - the Waikato, Mid Central (North Island) and Christchurch. The rest of New Zealand has been waiting for years, wondering when it will be their turn to experience the fruits of EGL.

Last year, the shiny, brand-new Ministry of Disabilities - Whaikaha was born. With it was the declaration that EGL would be implemented nationwide. EGL is based on eight principles: self-determination, beginning early, being person-centred, creating ordinary life outcomes, being mainstream-first, mana-enhancing and easy to use, and facilitating relationship building.

A key objective of EGL is that disabled individuals and their families will have input into designing and governing systems, supports and services. This will be achieved through both the National EGL Leadership Group and Regional Leadership Groups.

National EGL Leadership Group (NEGL) is tasked to be the community guardian (kaitiaki) of the EGL approach, vision and principles. NEGL is therefore responsible for promoting the EGL approach across Government and throughout the disabled community.

There will also be Regional Leadership Groups (RLG) throughout New Zealand. The purpose of these RLGs is to build local leadership, contribute to ongoing co-design work and local implementation, to promote and protect EGL principles and values, to provide feedback to the minister and to connect with the NEGL.

It is important for Northland to have a strong Regional Leadership Group with disabled people and their whānau at the helm. That is why Tiaho Trust is holding an EGL Forum this Tuesday, March 21, with two guest speakers from the NEGL for disabled people and their whānau to attend.

With such aspirational principles and ambitious goals, it can be hard to comprehend how EGL will take shape in Northland. One thing I am certain about is that disabled people and whānau need to be in the driving seat of Enabling Good Lives in Te Tai Tokerau.

Jonny Wilkinson is the CEO of Tiaho Trust - Disability A Matter of Perception, a Whangārei based disability advocacy organisation.