The New Zealand Carers' Strategy and Five-year Action Plan
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The Strategy
The New Zealand Carers’ Strategy and Five-year Action Plan was published on 28 April 2008 by Hon Ruth Dyson and is a major step towards valuing the immense contribution of carers to New Zealand.
The Carers’ Strategy, is supported by a Five-year Action Plan to begin addressing some of the issues that impact on the thousands of New Zealanders who assist friends and family members that need help with everyday living because of ill health, disability or old age.
The Carers’ Strategy was developed in a partnership between government agencies and the New Zealand Carers Alliance, a network of over 40 non-governmental organisations.
This strategy is an important first step in acknowledging the very real difference carers make in people’s lives. Improving support for informal carers is important for developing strong healthy families and meeting future challenges of providing care.
Vision
This Carers’ Strategy outlines the Government’s vision for carers in New Zealand:
New Zealand Aotearoa is a society that values individuals, families, whanau or aiga who support others who need help with their everyday living.
This will be achieved when:
- carers have choices and opportunities to participate in family life, social activities, employment and education
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carers’ voices are heard in decision-making that affects them.
Principles
The Strategy provides a framework of principles to guide policy development and the delivery of services by Government Agencies and Non Government Organisations (NGOs) that work with carers. These are:
- recognise diversity: acknowledge and respond to the diversity of needs and aspirations of carers
- be proactive: enable family focused support to be in place for carers when they need it
- enable carers: enable carers to have choices and the autonomy to develop, grow and sustain their personal, family and community support systems; and ensure that formal supports are reliable and are able to provide real support to carers
- be inclusive: acknowledge that the needs of carers, family, whanau, or aiga and the person being supported are often intertwined.
The first Five-year Action Plan
The Government is committed to ensuring that the Carers’ Strategy is making a difference. It has approved a Five-year Action Plan which sets out a whole-of-government collaborative approach with tangible actions. The proposals in the Action Plan address areas of key priority identified by carers during the consultation process.
There are 13 actions divided into five areas. These areas are:
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Provide information
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Protect the health and wellbeing of carers
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Enable carers to take a break
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Provide financial support for carers
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Provide training and pathways to employment for carers.
This Action Plan is the first step towards achieving the vision. There will be ongoing action plans to ensure that the Strategy continues to represent the priorities of carers and the Government.
Stakeholders
A key part of keeping the Strategy vibrant and effective is a partnership of commitment to the Strategy between government and stakeholders. These stakeholders, along with Government, will have a role in achieving the vision of this Strategy and include:
- carers
- families, whanau, aiga or circles of friends of carers
- people receiving support
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the community and voluntary sector, including NGOs and advocacy
organisations - funders
- employers, unions and other workplace organisations
- crown entities, for example ACC and District Health Boards
- the wider public.
Development
The New Zealand Carers’ Strategy has been informed by the voices of carers, the people they support and the organisations that work with them every day. An extensive consultation process was held from Monday 23 July to Friday 14 September 2007.
Working closely in partnership, the Carers Alliance and representatives from a number of Government Agencies analysed the consultation findings.
