This report details the findings from an initial evaluation of the Enabling Good Lives (EGL) Demonstration in Christchurch.
EGL is a new approach to supporting disabled people to live their vision of a good life. Under the approach, disabled people and their families are offered planning and facilitation along with greater choice and control over how resources are used to support the life they want to lead. The approach encourages the use of natural and universally available supports in the community. The EGL Demonstration has been established as a working model in Christchurch so that we can learn whether and how to implement the approach more widely.
The focus of this initial evaluation, conducted in February 2014, was to understand how the Demonstration was being implemented and working towards supporting disabled people to have a good life. The evaluation involved 25 semi-structured interviews and one group interview with a broad cross section of people involved in the design and implementation of the Demonstration in Christchurch along with four disabled people and four parents from three families. In addition, descriptive data on the number and types of participants was included in the evaluation where it was available. The evaluation will inform the next stage of the Demonstration design.
The evaluation found that there have been some early positive outcomes from the EGL Demonstration, despite a problematic implementation.