On 28 February 2022 the updated Ngā Paerewa Health and Disability Services Standard NZS 8134:2021 came into effect.
Ngā Paerewa Health and Disability Services Standard
Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, introduces the Ngā Paerewa Health and Disability Services Standard.
The Minister of Health has approved the updated Ngā Paerewa Health and Disability Services Standard (NZS 8134:2021) for use under the Health and Disability Services (Safety) Act 2001. On 28 February 2022 the Ngā Paerewa Health and Disability Services Standard came into effect.
Ngā Paerewa replaces the Health and Disability Services Standards NZS 8134:2008, the Fertility Services Standard NZS 8181:2007, the Home and Community Support Sector Standards NZS 8158:2012, and the Interim Standards for Abortion Services in New Zealand. There was significant duplication across the four standards and amalgamating them into one means a wide range of health and disability providers and settings will now have a consistent standard for providing safe and quality of care.
Providers of fertility services, primary maternity centres, hospices, overnight hospital inpatient services (public and private), age-related residential care, residential addiction, mental health, and disability services will be required to comply with the Ngā Paerewa Health and Disability Services Standard NZS 8134:2021. Ngā Paerewa is also fit for use by home and community support services and abortion service providers in New Zealand Aotearoa.
Ngā Paerewa defines the updates to the quality and safety requirements for the provision of included services in New Zealand. A copy of the standard is available on the Standards New Zealand website.
HealthCERT provided a variety of workshops, education sessions, and printable resources to ensure the health and disability service providers, health professionals, designated auditing agencies, and the people and whānau who use these services are well supported in preparation for Ngā Paerewa to come into effect. For more information about engagement opportunities, see Training and support.
About Ngā Paerewa
Ngā Paerewa reflects the shift towards more person- and whānau-centred health and disability services. People are empowered to make decisions about their own care and support in order to achieve their goals, with a stronger focus on outcomes for people receiving support.
Ngā Paerewa adopts a modular certification framework. This means that services are only audited against the sections, sub-sections and criteria relevant to those services. Each of the six sections is outcome focussed, which gives service providers flexibility in how they demonstrate they are achieving the requirements within the context of their service.
Each sections’ outcome statements have been updated to reflect the partnership between service providers and the people and whānau who use their services - and the service provider’s additional responsibilities under Te Tiriti to be responsive to the needs of Māori. To read more about how these were developed, see People statements.
Mapping analysis: Comparing the current standards to Ngā Paerewa
HealthCERT completed an official mapping analysis of the Health and Disability Services Standards NZS 8134:2008, the Fertility Services Standard NZS 8181:2007, the Home and Community Support Sector Standards NZS 8158:2012, and the Interim Standards for Abortion Services in New Zealand to the updated Standard NZS 8134:2021. A post implementation review was also completed resulting in a second update to the standards mapping. A high-level version of the mapping analysis is provided below. This high-level summary of the mapping analysis shows what percentage of Ngā Paerewa’s material is new and what percentage is similar or the same. The detailed mapping analysis demonstrates what key areas of the standard have changed and make it easier for providers to determine what they need to focus on as they prepare to implement Ngā Paerewa. HealthCERT’s training and support will be framed around the unmapped criteria.
The detailed mapping analysis can be viewed at Standards Mapping Analysis.
The mapping analysis is categorized into three elements:
- Mapped: criteria are explicit or intended in the previous standards
- Partially mapped: criteria are not explicit in the previous standards and/or have a new component added in Ngā Paerewa criteria)
- Unmapped: criteria do not map to previous standards
Mapping the Health and Disability Services Standards NZS 8134:2008 to Ngā Paerewa indicates that:
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63% directly map
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22% partially map
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15% do not map
Certification transition planning
HealthCERT is adopting a transparent, supportive approach to implementing Ngā Paerewa. This includes an update to the Designated Auditing Agency Handbook and adopting a staged approach for unmapped and partially mapped criteria, where there are not immediate risks of harm to people and whānau using services.
A transition model for Ngā paerewa surveillance audits has been developed with inclusion of all new Te Tiriti criteria to support providers implementation of cultural safety services, particularly for Māori. The surveillance audit criteria is to be used for a transition period of 18 months to 2 years from 28 February 2022. The transition surveillance audit criteria is outlined in the following document.