Budget Policy Statement
The Budget Policy Statement 2026 (BPS) sets out the Government’s priorities for the 2026 Budget. It explains the approach being used to develop the Budget and the broad parameters within which decisions will be made.
We are heartened by the changes to Disability Support Services (DSS) and welcome the shift to flexible funding and support. We are hopeful that the settlement with IHC and the Ministry of Education, and the associated Framework for Action will lead to better provision of inclusive education to all children. Nevertheless, the current state of affairs for disabled children remains grim.
The Budget Policy Statement 2026 prioritises efficiency in core services, and long-term productivity. Addressing the poverty and material hardship experienced by children living in disabled households directly improves education access/outcomes, health equity, and long‑term economic participation. This strongly aligns with the 2026 Budget priorities and supports multiple government goals simultaneously (social, economic, and human rights obligations).
PVI recommends that Budget 2026 prioritises and funds the following:
- Adequate and sustained investment in supports and services for disabled children across education, health, and disability systems, including supports for parents and whānau.
- Addresses chronic and historical underfunding affecting disabled children, recognising the cumulative impact of unmet need over time.
- Reduces child poverty and material hardship, particularly for families with disabled children, through adequate income support and targeted cost-of-living interventions.
- Implement the Government’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), including the most recent Concluding Observations already agreed to by Cabinet.
- Resource and embed the Enabling Good Lives (EGL) approach across the disability system, ensuring reforms align with its principles and are properly funded.
- Whole-of-government investment in accessibility and inclusion, so disabled children can participate as a matter of course, not exception.
- Strengthen public sector capability, ensuring disability perspectives are embedded in policy design, delivery, and evaluation.
We strongly urge the explicit incorporation of child poverty reduction into the Government’s Budget 2026 priorities, and that this is linked to disability policy outcomes. This means targeted investments that:
- Strengthen social security and income supports
– e.g., increasing benefit levels/thresholds, inflation indexing, and targeted payments for families with disabled children.
– Ensure families are not forced into material hardship due to inadequate income support. - Boost access to affordable, nutritious food
– Properly fund and expand universal free school meals and community food assistance programmes, with emphasis on accessibility for disabled households. - Prioritise food security and healthy nutrition within disability and child wellbeing strategies
– Include outcomes for dietary quality and food security in cross‑government reporting on child wellbeing and disability inclusion.
Read our submission in full here:
Education and Training
The Education and Training (System Reform) Amendment Bill talks about efficiency, clarity, and oversight, but once you dig into it, the Bill fails to protect the rights and inclusion of disabled learners.
This is a problem, especially given the new settlement between IHC, the Ministry of Education, and the Minister of Education, and the Framework for Action: A Quality Education for All:
- The Bill makes big structural changes but doesn’t explicitly protect disabled learners
- The Government has already acknowledged systemic discrimination through the IHC–MoE settlement
- The Bill fails to reflect or embed the Framework for Action: A Quality Education for All
- Centralisation without safeguards risks leaving inclusion “to chance”
- Disabled learners shouldn’t lose protections because reforms focus on “efficiency”
Key points from PVI:
- Many families already have to fight for supports, access, and understanding
- The Bill risks increasing inconsistency across schools
- Centralised reform doesn’t help if inclusion isn’t enforceable
- Families shouldn’t have to be legal experts just to secure basic rights
PVI recommends that the Education and Workforce Committee:
- Undertake a disability and human rights impact assessment of the Bill, in partnership with disabled people and representative organisations, prior to further progression.
- Amend the Bill to explicitly recognise and give effect to the IHC–Ministry of Education settlement and the Framework for Action: A Quality Education for All, including alignment with the Crown’s obligations under the UNCRPD and UNCRC.
- Embed a clear statutory duty to uphold inclusive education for disabled learners across all system actors, including the Minister, the Ministry of Education, ERO, the Teaching Council, and any new regulatory or property agencies established under the Bill.
- Require that all new or restructured governance, regulatory, and oversight functions include disability expertise and lived experience, including formal mechanisms for engagement with disabled learners and whānau.
- Ensure that any transfer or reconfiguration of regulatory functions strengthens—rather than weakens—monitoring, accountability, and enforcement of inclusive education obligations, particularly in relation to access, participation, and outcomes for disabled learners.
- Mandate transparent data collection and reporting on disabled learners’ participation, access to supports, and educational outcomes, consistent with commitments made under the IHC–MoE Framework.
- Pause or reconsider reforms that centralise decision-making unless accompanied by explicit protections for professional autonomy and localised, learner-centred practice, which are essential for inclusive education.
Read our submission in full here:
