While the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is expected to largely replace the current provision of services to people with disability under the National Disability Agreement (NDA), in 2017-18 many people were still receiving support under the NDA.

This report documents the significant problems facing the respite care system in New Zealand, many parts of which are broken and need fixing.

Carers report that the provision of care can be very stressful. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2012 data reveals that 50% of primary carers identified that caring has one or more negative impacts on their physical or emotional wellbeing.

This publication is intended to help current and prospective providers of respite support and services in New Zealand to better understand the characteristics of the respite market in each region and areas of expected demand.

This paper presents research that indicates it is becoming increasingly difficult to access aged residential respite care and suggests some policy solutions to make respite care more readily available to carers of older family members and friends.