Spectrum Care

Spectrum Care Every person with a disability deserves a life of choice, freedom and independence. We provide services to help make that happen. What’s our work?

At Spectrum Care, ours is no ordinary job. Many of the people we support are non-verbal, but they have plenty to say if you know how to listen. More than a few have substantial physical challenges to meet. Many of the families we work with have been tested to the limits before we even meet them. Their strength, their resilience and their love for the people we are asked to support is without quest

ion, as is the respect we have for them. To help identify the unique potential in every one of the people we support, then lend a hand to help them realise it. No matter how complex someone’s challenges may be, they are worthy and they are of immense value. In our books, to not see this is the true disadvantage.

Over the past two weeks, we've shared our concerns about the Disability Support Services Bill. Now we'd like to hear fro...
04/06/2026

Over the past two weeks, we've shared our concerns about the Disability Support Services Bill.

Now we'd like to hear from you.

👉 Complete our two-minute survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/58Y9FZD

For the first time in New Zealand, the purpose and rules for Disability Support Services could become law.

Some say the Bill will bring greater clarity and consistency to the system.

Others are concerned about what it could mean for disabled people's rights, the role of families and whānau, and how support is accessed in the future.

These decisions matter.

And the people most affected by them deserve to be heard.

We've put together this short survey to help inform Spectrum's submission to the Select Committee.

The Bill is currently before Parliament and submissions close on Friday 12 June.

Some nights are about having fun. Some nights are about belonging. Our Luau Night was about both. 🌺The celebration broug...
02/06/2026

Some nights are about having fun. Some nights are about belonging. Our Luau Night was about both. 🌺

The celebration brought together the people we support, whānau and staff to share Pacific culture through music, food, dance and connection.

Fa'afetai, mālō 'aupito, vinaka vakalevu, meitaki ma'ata and fakaue lahi to everyone who helped make the evening possible.

And we're only just getting started. Next up: Fiafia Night, hosted by our Samoan Group.

Pink Shirt Day was two weeks ago. A lot has happened in our community since then.But one thing is clear.Kindness is more...
29/05/2026

Pink Shirt Day was two weeks ago. A lot has happened in our community since then.

But one thing is clear.

Kindness is more important than ever.

Thank you to the people we support for putting smiles on our faces, not just on Pink Shirt Day, but every day. 🩷

Growth deserves to be celebrated. Especially in a sector that asks so much of people every day.Over the past nine weeks,...
28/05/2026

Growth deserves to be celebrated. Especially in a sector that asks so much of people every day.

Over the past nine weeks, staff from across Spectrum Care, Homes of Choice, and Spectrum Foundation have taken part in our Coaching, Diversity and Leadership programme, building confidence, challenging themselves, and growing alongside their peers.

Now in its third year, the programme continues to evolve alongside our kaimahi, shaped by the realities of the work they do every day.

Leadership in our sector is deeply human. It asks people to hold complexity, build trust, support others through hard moments, and keep showing up with care.

Congratulations to this year's graduates, and arohanui to everyone who makes this programme possible. 🙌

20/05/2026

The same day we shared our thoughts on recent decisions affecting disabled people in Aotearoa, the Government introduced the Disability Support Services Bill.

This Bill changes what disability support is.

Not just how it is funded.
Not just how it is managed.
What it is.

It defines support as “a contribution”, provided “from within public funding available”.

It states that “families and whānau have responsibility in the first instance for the well-being of their members”.

And it says that before receiving support, people should use “their resources and any other support that is available to them”, including from “their family, whānau, and their community”.

That is a profound shift.

It moves disability support out of the system’s responsibility, and into something people are expected to piece together themselves.

Families already carry so much.

They carry it because they love their people.
Because they have to.
Because when support is delayed, reduced, or missing, someone still has to do the caring.

But love is not something the government gets to rely on to fill the gaps.

It should not be expected to make up for what the system chooses not to provide.

When the government steps back, that pressure doesn’t disappear.

It lands in homes.
In relationships.
In bank accounts.
In bodies.
In the everyday trade-offs people are forced to make just to keep going.

This Bill doesn’t sit on its own.

It comes at the same time as decisions on housing, transport, and funding that are all pointing in the same direction.

Less being provided.
More being expected.

That’s the shift.

And we'll all feel it.

Our mates at The D List NZ are running sessions, both online and in person, to help people understand the Bill and support them to make submissions on it.

If you want to learn more or have your say, this is a good place to start: https://thedlist.co.nz/were-under-attack-take-action-online/

Let’s get loud about this.

18/05/2026

In the past few weeks, a series of decisions have been made that will have a real impact on disabled people in Aotearoa.

Kāinga Ora has scrapped its target of having 15% of new homes built to universal design standards, dropping from 562 accessible homes last year to just 97 planned this year.

The Lottery Grants Board is closing the Individuals with Disabilities fund, which has helped people for decades access things like mobility vehicles, essential equipment, and assistance dogs, removing a direct pathway for individuals to access this kind of support.

And changes to the Total Mobility Scheme are now being finalised, reducing subsidies and making it harder for people to qualify.

Three separate decisions. Same outcome.

Disabled people in Aotearoa already experience worse outcomes across many major measures of wellbeing. Housing. Income. Health. Safety.

This is why.

The systems that are meant to support people are becoming harder to access.

Harder to find a home that works.
Harder to get where you need to go.
Harder to get what you need for everyday life.

That’s not a coincidence. That’s direction.

And there’s a symmetry here that’s hard to ignore.

Spectrum Care supports people to live full lives in their communities. When transport becomes harder to access, those lives shrink.

Homes of Choice builds accessible homes because the need is already there. When accessibility is deprioritised, that need only grows.

Spectrum Foundation funds initiatives that strengthen the disability community. When individual access to funding is removed, the pressure builds.

We do what we can, with what we have.

But the responsibility is shifting in the wrong direction.

Away from the systems designed to support people, and onto the people themselves. And onto the organisations trying to hold the line.

This is the marginalisation of the already marginalised. And it’s not okay.

Lives are getting smaller.

And so, we have to become louder.

This is us doing that.

And in your own way, we encourage you to do the same.

Here in Aotearoa, colonisation changed more than land, language, and systems. It reshaped how human worth was understood...
11/05/2026

Here in Aotearoa, colonisation changed more than land, language, and systems. It reshaped how human worth was understood. Value became tied to productivity, independence, and fitting within systems that made little room for difference.

And in that shift, disability came to be understood through lack. Through what was absent, rather than what was present.

But te ao Māori has long held a different truth.

A person’s difference did not diminish their mana, their whakapapa, or their place in the collective. They remained whole.

In some traditions, that difference carried honour. A connection to wairua and to parts of the world not witnessed by all.

And that understanding reaches beyond Aotearoa.

Across many Indigenous cultures, disability has long been part of the human story. Not outside community, but woven through it.

What many of us are working towards now, dignity, belonging, and recognising disabled people as whole, is often spoken about as progress.

But maybe it is also remembrance.

A return to something people have always known.

Address

Level 2, 205 Great South Road, Greenlane
Auckland
1051

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

Telephone

+6496343790

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