The New Zealand Minister of Health approved the updated Ngā Paerewa Health and Disability Services Standard (NZS 8134:2021) on 28 February 2022 for use under the Health and Disability Services (Safety) Act.

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.

The Ngā Paerewa ensures providers of fertility services, primary maternity centres, hospices, overnight hospital inpatient services (public and private), age-related residential care, residential addiction, mental health, disability, home and community support services and abortion services meet indicators and outcomes for delivery these services. 

To comply with the standards, providers that deliver services are audited by Conformity assessment bodies that have applied and received New Zealand Ministry of Health approval as a designated auditing agency (DAA).

DAAs use the Designated Audit Agency (DAA) Handbook to audit these providers. This Handbook was developed by the New Zealand Ministry of Health to ensure that DAA’s comply to the auditing requirements when auditing each provider. 

JAS-ANZ is a recognised accreditation body in the DAA Handbook. The DAA Handbook is used by JAS-ANZ for carrying out accreditation assessment activities for CABs.  

Benefits

• Demonstrates satisfactory attainment (conformity) to the Ngā Paerewa Health and Disability Services Standard, NZS 8134:2021. 
• The standards are mandatory for services subject to the Health and Disability Services (Safety) Act 2001, and are designed to establish safe and reasonable levels of service for consumer and to reduce risks from those services.
• Adherence to the standards, in accordance with criteria prescribed in the DAA Handbook, demonstrates as a provider that you uphold consumer rights, effectively manage your organisation, maintain service delivery continuity, and provide a safe and appropriate environment.
• Satisfying auditing against requirements in the DAA Handbook is a condition for certification by HealthCERT under the Health and Disability Services (Safety) Act 2001.

Scheme owner

The New Zealand Ministry of Health, as represented by HealthCERT.

More information

An application pack, application form and other relevant material is not available on this site. These documents are available through our SharePoint portal. If you are a body that we currently accredit, you can access this information through the Shared CAB Portal. If you are a new applicant, please complete an application enquiry form. Once this form is submitted, the Secretariat will contact you to advise the next steps.  For other stakeholders, please submit your inquiry through the online feedback form.