Can someone with knowledge of New Zealand help me?

[Mitchell81]

We are looking into moving from the UK and have afew questions.

What is the medical like?

Are the facilities for disabled children any good?

Do you know of any good websites that I can go look at for houses, schools, jobs etc?

Do the schools have an inclusion policy?

Thank you for your help, if anyone has any advice would really appreciate it.

Hi Mitchell81. Lots of questions! There is no exact equivalent to the NHS here, but a lot of health care is covered by government funding. I have a son with mild special needs (a significant speech delay) and although we had a short wait, we've received excellent support here. Much better than we were getting in the UK a year ago, and all funded by the Health service. Yes, schools have an inclusion policy. www.trademe.co.nz is a good start to look at housing/jobs, but there are lots of specialist websites too. Depends what you're after. There are plenty of other kiwi mumsnetters who I'm sure can help too.

Thank you Shells, that info helps

Mitchell81, if you get stuck I can can get you in touch with my mother in law - she's in Hastings (North Island near Napier). She is a teaching assistant and works with 'disadvantaged' kids which seems to include anything from being from 'bad' background to disabled

Good luck! We're migrating to Australia in May... scary stuff isn't it ;)

Mitchell - happy to try and help - have been out of the country for (scarily) ten years or so now, but my folks are still in Auckland and have neighbours with small children, so happy to help. CAT me if you have specific questions (or perhaps post some more specifics here?)

(MrsBigD - am a Hastings girl myself - is your DH from the Bay?)

Hi legalalien yup dh is originally a Bay Boy went to Hastings Boys, then joined the RAF and ended up in Wellington for some time...

hello
have a look at these sites:
govt site
another one with a good chat forum
site with chat forum

have you also had a look at the other threads in this topic? There's quite a few with advice on what it's like to live here, moving etc.

we moved to Christchurch in Sept 2006 (from London) although it was slightly less daunting for us as my parents are from here and I have citizenship. still a big move though!

for houses look here for a good start
for jobs, trademe is good, also seek

I'm afraid I don't know much about facilities for disabled children other than a little bit about music specialist work in that area (twentypence knows a lot more than me about that though)

this site shows you the enrolment zones for all schools (if you live within that zone, the school HAS to take your child)

also has some links to other things on schooling

I googled a few things for special needs provision, don't know exactly what you're looking for but these might help:

1
2
3

from a cursory glance it seems similar to the UK in that there are 'special' schools but also inclusion in mainstream education.

How did you get on Mitchell81? Any more questions? Sorry didn't see this earlier. I'm in Wellington (kiwi).

Sorry I haven't replied sooner, thanks for everyones help. But it doesn't look like it is even a possibility getting into New Zealand with a disabled child. Spoke to some immigration advisors.

really? Did they outright say that?

They basically said that it would be very unlikely because she would require care for the rest of her life. But I think we will forget about it for the moment and try again in afew years time.