15 January 2026
Elspeth Baker-Vevers
[FYI request #33111 email]
Tēnā koe Elspeth
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00105214 Thank you for your email on 3 December 2025, asking Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
(Health NZ) for the following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the OIA):
“Timeframe: This request covers the period from 1 July 2022 (establishment of Te Whatu
Ora) to the date this request is received.
Format: Where datasets, tables, or modelling outputs are provided, please supply them in
machine-readable format (CSV or original spreadsheet file) with accompanying data
dictionaries or field definitions.
Scope clarification: To reduce unnecessary work, I am not seeking internal email chains,
drafts, or personal information unless they are the sole record of the substantive
information described.
1. Assignment of responsibility
1.1 Please provide any documents (for example, letters, memoranda, governance
papers, briefings, or agreements) in which:
-Manatū Hauora;
-Medsafe;
-Pharmac; or
-any other agency
assigns, requests, or describes a role for Te Whatu Ora in:
(a) implementing the New Zealand Clinical Principles Framework for ADHD (2025);
and/or
(b) preparing for or implementing the February 2026 changes allowing GPs and
nurse practitioners to diagnose and treat ADHD without specialist sign-off.
1.2 Please confirm whether Te Whatu Ora has been formally assigned responsibility
for any aspect of:
-implementing or operationalising the Framework;
-workforce or service preparation for the February 2026 prescribing changes;
-providing guidance or support to GPs or nurse practitioners;
-monitoring the impact of these changes; or
-system governance or oversight for ADHD care.
If such responsibility has been assigned internal y within Te Whatu Ora, please provide the
documents that record this.
If no such documents exist, please confirm this.
2. Implementation planning and service delivery
Please provide any documents describing Te Whatu Ora’s planning or decisions
relating to implementation of the Framework or the February 2026 prescribing
changes, including:
-service-delivery models or proposed pathways for ADHD in primary or specialist settings;
-any national or regional ADHD pathways, models of care, or service-design documents
(draft or final);
-analysis of risks, dependencies, or barriers to implementation;
-decisions relating to the scope of Te Whatu Ora-funded ADHD services.
If no such documents exist, please confirm this.
3. Workforce training, competence, and support
3.1 Please provide any documents that describe Te Whatu Ora’s role (if any) in
supporting or preparing the workforce for the ADHD prescribing changes, including
GPs, nurse practitioners, primary-care teams, mental-health teams, or specialist
services.
3.2 Please provide any documents describing:
-ADHD-related training, capability-building, or professional-development initiatives
(planned or implemented);
-Te Whatu Ora’s engagement with the Royal New Zealand College of GPs, Nurse
Practitioners NZ, or other professional bodies in relation to ADHD training or
competence.
3.3 Please provide any documents discussing how GP or nurse practitioner
competence in ADHD assessment and diagnosis will be determined, verified, or
supported in practice from February 2026.
If no such documents exist, please confirm this.
4. Funding, commissioning, and access to services
Please provide any documents that:
-describe commissioning approaches or funding decisions relating to ADHD assessment,
treatment, or follow-up;
-outline whether adult ADHD services wil or wil not be publicly funded, and the rationale
for any decisions;
-analyse projected demand for ADHD services due to the February 2026 changes, and any
planned commissioning or funding responses.
If no such documents exist, please confirm this.
5. Monitoring, equity, and system risk
Please provide any documents describing:
-how Te Whatu Ora intends to monitor the impact of the February 2026 changes;
-any monitoring or reporting relating to ADHD outcomes, access, unmet need, wait times,
or service use;
-any analysis of equity impacts for Māori, Pacific, or Rainbow+/Takatāpui populations;
-any recorded concerns, system risks, or mitigation plans relating to workforce capacity,
clinical safety, or regional variation under the new prescribing settings.
If no such documents exist, please confirm this.
6. Communications and sector guidance
Please provide:
-any national guidance, bul etins, or communications issued by Te Whatu Ora to primary
care, NGOs, specialist services, or locality networks regarding the Framework or the 2026
prescribing changes;
-any documents describing how Te Whatu Ora has communicated expected roles,
responsibilities, or pathways for GPs and nurse practitioners.
If no such documents exist, please confirm this.
7. Absence of information
If Te Whatu Ora does not hold:
- documents assigning responsibility;
- implementation or service-delivery plans;
- workforce or training materials;
- funding or commissioning documents;
- monitoring or equity plans; or
- communications to the sector
relating to the Framework or the February 2026 changes, please confirm this.
If any relevant work is recorded as “proposed,” “paused,” “deferred,” or “under
development,” please provide those documents where held.”
Response
On the 10 December 2025, we contacted you advising that, under section 18(A)(2) of the OIA, we
would merge your three OIA requests about ADHD. However, on 12 December 2025, you advised
that you wanted these addressed separately.
In regard to part 1.1, I note that the publication
New Zealand Clinical Principles Framework for
ADHD (2025) is from the Ministry of Health | Manatū Hauora (the Ministry) and whilst some Health
NZ employees were attendees of the group that developed the consensus framework, there was
no funding sought or allocated by the Ministry to Health NZ for implementation. Your request for
this information is refused under section 18(e) of the OIA as this information does not exist or,
despite reasonable efforts to locate it, cannot be found.
Please note that funding allocation sits with the Ministry. In regard to part 1.2, the Ministry assigned
the national Care Pathways programme responsibility for updating the guidance for General
Practitioners held on HealthPathways with the relevant information about the planned ADHD
prescribing rules.
HealthPathways is an online resource that provides concise, local y-tailored clinical guidance for
health professionals to use at point of care. Community HealthPathways are written assuming
medical knowledge with the primary audience of general practitioners, and is freely available to
primary care clinicians nationwide, with nine local platforms that host pathways that reflect local
health system nuances.
The scope of the HealthPathways programme team is to work collaboratively with Subject Matter
Experts (SME) to document the national consensus guidance and agreed local pathways of care.
The HealthPathways team are not responsible for the risk analysis, implementation planning,
service delivery model design or workforce training in relation to the introduction of new guidelines.
In response, HealthPathways are planning:
• Updated ADHD in Adults HealthPathway to be published across the nine local
HealthPathway sites by 1 February 2026. This wil reflect the prescribing rule changes, with
links to the National Consensus Clinical Framework and recommended guidelines and
training opportunities.
• A national webinar is scheduled for 17 February 2026 to promote the updated
HealthPathway and raise awareness of Royal New Zealand Col ege of General
Practitioners (RNZCGP) endorsed training opportunities. Co-presenters are our national
SME: Dr David Codyre, and RNZCGP Medical Director Dr Prabani Wood.
The remaining parts of your OIA (parts 2 to 7) are very broad and the information is not held in the
way you have you requested. Please note, we also consulted with the Ministry regarding your
request. While the ADHD Clinical Principles Framework is a document of the Ministry, the
substantive portion of the OIA relates to Health NZ implementation actions for the changes. As
such the Ministry does not hold this information.
Your request for information is very broad, and a substantial manual research and
collation effort would be required to source and bring together any documents that existed within
scope of your request. SMEs at Health NZ were able to confirm that they are not aware of any
documents relevant to your request and a full scoping exercise across all sites from 1 July 2022
onwards, would amount to substantial collation and research. As such, these parts of
your request are refused under sections:
• 18(g)(i) as the information requested is not held by Health NZ and the person dealing with
the request has no grounds for believing it is held by another agency subject to the OIA;
and
• 18(f) of the OIA as the information requested cannot be made available without substantial
collation or research.
While the ADHD Clinical Principles Framework is not a document that Health NZ can provide, we
can share that the FAQ’s for this document are available on the Ministry website at the following
li
nk: www.health.govt.nz/news/changes-to-adhd-prescribing-rules-from-1-february-2026. Health NZ also has publicly available information on our website that you may find helpful:
•
https://info.health.nz/health-topics/mental-health/mental-health-conditions/adhd-in-adults
•
https://info.health.nz/search?q=ADHD&size=n_1000_n.
How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can contact us at
[email address]. If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
by phoning 0800 802 602.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, Health NZ may proactively
release a copy of this response on our website. Al requester data, including your name and
contact details, wil be removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Danielle Coe
Manager (OIA) Government Services
Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Health NZ, PO Box 793,
Wel ington 6140, New Zealand
