Attachment 2

Terms of Reference for Hutt City Council’s Accessibility and Inclusiveness Plan 2017-2027

This Terms of Reference (ToR) sets out the roles and timelines for the development of the Hutt City Council’s Accessibility and Inclusiveness Plan 2017-2027.

The ToR covers:

· Project title and purpose

· Background/introduction

· Roles

· Project goals and objectives

· Sequential phases of work, represented as milestones

· Budgetary considerations

Terms of Reference

Project Title

Hutt City Council’s Accessibility and Inclusiveness Plan 2017-2027

Background

1.1 million or 24% of people in New Zealand identify as being disabled. This represents almost a quarter of New Zealand’s population and translates in Lower Hutt to 24,480 people living with disabilities in the city.

People aged 65 or over are much more likely to be disabled (59 percent) than adults under 65 years (21 percent) or children under 15 years (11 percent) and Māori and Pacific people have higher-than-average disability rates. Hutt City, as all cities, has an aging population. There are also more Maori and Pacific people living in Hutt City than the region as a whole – 16.2% and 10.4% compared to 12.4% and 7.7% regionally.

Disability is something that happens when people with impairments face barriers because the world we live in has been designed by people who don’t realise that not everyone is the same.

Central government has had a Disability Strategy in place since 2001 and many Councils across New Zealand have developed Disability Strategies in response and work actively with the sector to advance the rights and aspirations of disabled people in their communities.

Introduction

On 19 May 2016, the disability community partnered with Hutt City Council and held a forum at the Dowse to discuss and make recommendations on how Council might influence the liveability of the city for all people living here. The discussion focused on:

· Accessibility – ensuring everyone can easily access and use shared spaces, public transport, public information and media and Council facilities

· Inclusiveness – ensuring everyone in the city experiences the equal rights of citizenship

Those attending the Forum gave Councillors and staff present two key messages:

· we are ordinary kiwis – children, parents, grandparents, and friends – and we want to be able to contribute to our families and participate in our communities just like everybody else;

· we want to work collaboratively with Council to develop and implement a plan to make sure all people living in Lower Hutt gare given a fair go in achieving the aspirations they have for themselves, their families and the city.

Further discussions have led to the development of this draft Terms of Reference for discussion at a second forum.

Purpose

Development of Council’s Accessibility and Inclusiveness Plan 2017-2027

Project Manager

Wendy Moore, Divisional Manager, Strategy and Planning

Project Team

· Nick Ruane

· Raewyn Hailes

· Lucy Knowles

· Stamatina Bell

Wider project group

· Lower Hutt Disability Forum

Internal Stakeholders

· Strategy and Planning

· Community Partnerships

· Leisure Active

· City Development

· Libraries

· Parks and Reserves

· Environmental Policy

· Urban Design

· Road and Traffic

· Environmental Consents

· City Promotions (includes web site development)

External Stakeholders

· Office for Disability Issues

· CCS Disability Action

· HV Disability Resources Trust

· Autism New Zealand

· Iwi/Maori and Pacific Island community organizations

· Health organisations

· Other social service providers and community groups (e.g. Budget Advisory Service)

· Churches and youth groups

Budgetary Considerations

· Engagement workshops

· Any others?

Project Goals

Project Objectives

Key Milestones

Goal 1: Develop an Accessibility and Inclusiveness Plan 2017-2027 for Hutt City in partnership with the disability community for presentation to Hutt City Council

Goal 2: Engage with the disability community and wider community

Goal 3: Finalise the Accessibility and Inclusiveness Plan 2017-2027 subject to any amendments arising from consultation

Goal 4: Implementation of policy

Objective 1.1

Collect relevant facts and trends in relation to disability in Hutt City

Objective 1.2

Ensure Council sign off on draft Accessibility and Inclusiveness Plan 2017-2027 for engagement

Milestone 1

Milestone 2

Research the current climate on disability, nationally and locally, through relevant documentation and work with the disability community in Lower Hutt

Develop a draft Accessibility and Inclusiveness Plan 2017-2027 for engagement with the disability community that includes information on:

· Background

· Any legislation and or national document

· Mitigation of social impact

· Snapshot of current disability in Hutt City

· Vision

· Principles and underlying approach

· Goals

· Monitoring and reporting on progress

Completed

Objective 2.1

Work with Community Partnerships to facilitate Council’s preferred community consultation process

Milestone 4

· Undertake engagement signed off by Council

· Collate engagement findings

· Compare with draft Accessibility and Inclusiveness Plan and adjust where appropriate.

Completed

Objective 3.1

Plan finalised to take account of any amendments arising from community consultation

Milestone 5

· Report back to Council

· Accessibility and Inclusiveness Plan 2017-2027 adopted

· Council signs off on plan

Objective 4.1

Establish Accessibility and Inclusiveness Advisory Group

Objective 4.2

AIAG Group

· Develops work plan for AIGI to work to and a reporting structure including

i. Specific projects aimed at achieving the broad goals outlined in the Plan

ii. SMART targets to measure progress towards achieving projects

Milestone 6

· Establish AIAG

· AIAG agrees meeting schedule and process for addressing Council

· AIAG develops work plan relevant to the goals in the Accessibility and Inclusiveness Plan 2017-2027 with specific projects aimed at achieving those goals

· AIAG develops SMART targets to report against that reflect the KPIs developed by the disability community