{ Safe and sound } is an idea for a new, multi-faceted service designed for people managing their own disability support through the Ministry of Health Individualised Funding scheme or ACC direct payments.

People opting into this method of support do so because they are looking for customised support to fit their lifestyle, which current home-based support services struggle to provide. However, it does involve the responsibility of employing one or more people.

{ Safe and sound } is a collaborative initiative led by me, which aims to provide simple, effective, affordable support that you can buy with personal funding.

We are planning the following services:

Meals: Restaurant quality meals delivered to your door. You pay for the food — your funding pays the rest.

Cleaning: Superior housekeeping by people who know about your needs.

Safety and protection: Low-level security (a drive-by to check you're ok) or 24-hour personal protection (in situation of emergency or sickness) — you decide what you need.

Personal support: We'll provide someone competent and friendly to meet your daily personal support needs.

First of all though, we need to know if people want access to services like these.

We've used KickoffLabs to create a quick and easy "landing page" through which to collect email addresses of people who may be interested in such services.

By sharing your email address you commit to nothing but give us an indication of demand. Once we feel there's enough interest we'll get in touch to ask more questions.

So far we've had 7 expressions of interest. It would be great to double or even triple that number before we send out a questionnaire to find out more about people's needs and how we can best meet them.

So, if you could spread the word to one or two others, and ask them to do the same, that'd be fantastic.

Here's the link: http://safeandsound.kickofflabs.com/

I'll post an update towards the end of January.