New Zealand Disability Strategy Update - September 2026
The first 6-month update on the 34 actions in the New Zealand Disability Strategy 2026-2030 is now available in a detailed Implementation Status Dashboard.
The dashboard includes:
- an executive summary
- a summary table showing action timelines and status
- a detailed table with quarterly milestones.
Good progress is being made in the first year. Most actions (28) are on track and no actions are at risk.
If you would like to receive regular updates on the strategy subscribe to the New Zealand Disability Strategy Update external URL .
Progress on education and employment
As mentioned in our last update, the Early Intervention Service has been extended to support children to the end of Year 1 (education action 1). Previously support ended when a child went to school.
Two new professional development courses are now available for Learning Support Coordinators. The courses will help new and existing coordinators better support neurodiverse students (education action 3).
Of the 27 satellite classrooms funded through Budget 25, 2 are complete and 8 are under construction (education action 4).
Cabinet has also agreed to new planning and reporting requirements so it will be clearer how schools are supporting disabled students and the results they are achieving (education action 6).
Whaikaha and the New Zealand Disability Employers’ Network have set up a new public service community of practice. This will help agencies collaborate on disability employment initiatives and share good practice (employment action 5).
Health actions underway for roles and data
Whaikaha, the Ministry of Health and Health New Zealand have started scoping the work to build disabled people’s capability to take up health system roles, including advisory and governance roles (health action 3).
Work to improve disability data has also started. This includes improving disability identification in health data (health action 4) and recording disabled people’s accessibility needs against the National Health Index, so they can be easily shared with health providers (health action 5). With this in place disabled people will not have to repeat their needs and providers will be better able to meet them.
Key step for housing actions
In May, Cabinet approved the direction for a review of social housing. This is a first step towards reviewing how disabled people’s needs can be better met (housing action 7) and improving how disabled people are matched with homes (housing action 2).
A technical working group of housing experts, including people with lived experience of disability, is developing definitions of accessible housing (housing action 1). Clear definitions will be key to creating voluntary guidelines for accessible homes.
Justice action on protections for supported decision-making
The Government has agreed that changes are needed to New Zealand's main law about decision-making capacity.
Last year, the Law Commission recommended the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act be replaced. In August, the Government agreed in principal that changes are needed (justice action 5).