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The Enhanced Audit Programme is a central part of our audit and assurance approach.
The programme supports our commitment to improving the quality, safety, and effectiveness of funded services. This includes working with providers to identify good practice and drive continuous learning and improvement across the disability support sector.
We are working with our strategic audit partner KPMG to deliver the programme, which replaces the previous developmental evaluation approach.
The programme started in early 2026, with a period of design, development, and ongoing refinement. Full roll-out of the programme began in mid-2026.
Audits are being introduced in stages, beginning with community group homes and expanding to other DSS-funded services over time.
Programme key features include:
- Focus on disabled people's perspectives: Audits include the voices and experiences of disabled people and their families and whānau, ensuring their views help shape findings and improvement opportunities.
- Focus on quality and safeguarding: Audits assess quality, safety, and the wellbeing of people using services. They are informed by lessons from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care.
- Consistent national approach: Common audit framework, tools, reporting methods, and quality standards are used across service providers to support consistent findings and benchmarking.
- Increased system insight: Audit findings are analysed across service providers to identify trends, emerging risks, and examples of good practice, providing a stronger understanding of service quality across the disability support system.
- Continuous improvement focus: Audit findings support service providers to strengthen service delivery by addressing areas for improvement and building on identified good practice.
- Risk-based and responsive: Different audit approaches are used depending on the type of service, level of risk, and information available. This allows us to respond quickly when concerns or issues arise.
How the programme works
The programme follows a consistent process that supports quality, safeguarding, and continuous improvement.
- Audit planning: DSS and KPMG work together to plan audits, including which services will be reviewed and the areas of focus. Audits are prioritised based on factors such as risk, service type, and programme priorities.
- Audit delivery: KPMG auditors gather information through document reviews, site visits, observations, and engagement with staff, disabled people, families and whānau. This helps assess how services are performing against requirements and standards.
- Reporting: Findings are shared with providers, highlighting strengths, areas for improvement, and opportunities to enhance service quality, safety, and outcomes for disabled people.
- Follow-up and improvement: Providers use audit findings to make improvements. DSS monitors progress, supports ongoing improvements, and uses programme insights to inform wider quality, safeguarding, and system improvement activities.
The Audit Framework
The programme is guided by an Audit Framework, and supported by a maturity model, which reflects what good disability support looks like and how quality will be assessed.
The framework brings together:
- Ngā Paerewa Health and Disability Services Standards
- DSS contracts and service specifications
- Enabling Good Lives principles
- Business viability standards
- Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles
- Voices of disabled people, whānau, providers, and sector stakeholders.
It helps ensure audits take a consistent, person-centred approach, focusing on the quality, safety, and effectiveness of services, as well as the outcomes that matter most to disabled people and their families and whānau.
Audit Types (Types 1–5)
The Enhanced Audit Programme currently includes five audit types. Each type has a different purpose, helping us gain a comprehensive understanding of service quality, safety, and performance across the disability support system. This can be subject to change, dependent on the evolving nature of the programme and a risk proportional approach to our longer-term audit activity.
Audit types:
- Type 1: Organisational audit (Community Residential Services): Provides a comprehensive review of organisational quality, safety, governance, safeguarding, and business practices.
- Type 2: Service / care audit (Community Residential Services homes with four or fewer beds): Assesses how policies and processes are applied in day-to-day service delivery and care.
- Type 3: Service / care audit (other disability services): Reviews service quality, safety, and outcomes across a range of disability support services.
- Type 4: Organisational Audit (other disability services): Provides a focused review of quality, safety, governance, and organisational capability.
- Type 5: On-demand audit (Issues-based, Tracer, or No-notice audit): Provides a rapid and targeted response to specific issues, risks, or concerns.
Who is Involved
The Enhanced Audit Programme brings together DSS, our strategic audit partner KPMG, disability support service providers, disabled people, and families and whānau. Each plays an important role in supporting safe, high-quality, person-centred services, and continuous improvement across the disability support system.
- Disability Support Services (DSS): DSS leads the programme and sets its strategic direction, priorities, and expectations. DSS uses audit findings and insights to strengthen quality, safeguarding, and service improvement activities, and to guide system-wide decision-making and improvement.
- KPMG, strategic audit partner: KPMG is DSS's strategic audit partner and delivers audits on behalf of DSS. KPMG provides independent audit expertise, gathers evidence and insights, and applies a consistent audit approach across disability support services.
- Disability support service providers: Providers participate in the audit process by sharing information, supporting site visits, and engaging with findings and recommendations. Providers play a key role in using audit findings and insights to strengthen service quality, support ongoing improvement, and improve outcomes for disabled people.
- Disabled people, families and whānau: Disabled people, families and whānau play an important role in the audit process by sharing their experiences and perspectives on the quality and responsiveness of services. Their feedback helps shape audit findings and insights, ensuring the programme remains focused on the needs, aspirations, and outcomes of disabled people.
Our strategic audit partner, KPMG
As our strategic audit partner, KPMG, delivers audits on behalf of DSS.
KPMG works closely with us and our contracted providers to support a consistent, independent, and outcomes-focused approach to audit and assurance across disability support services.
KPMG is responsible for:
- planning and delivering audits
- gathering evidence and insights
- reporting findings
- supporting providers to understand areas of good practice and opportunities for improvement.
KPMG brings experience in audit, quality improvement, data analytics, and programme delivery. Its national audit team includes specialists with expertise in disability services, safeguarding, quality systems, cultural capability, and service improvement.
The partnership between DSS and KPMG is built on shared principles of collaboration, transparency, continuous improvement, and a focus on the experiences and wellbeing of disabled people.
Audit findings will help us identify trends, risks, and improvement opportunities.
Find out more
To learn more about the Enhanced Audit Programme, watch our Provider Quality Forums held on 10 February 2026 and 29 April 2026.
These forums explain the purpose of the programme, how audits are carried out, what providers can expect during the audit process, and how audit and assurance support safe, high-quality, person-centred services for disabled people.