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The Aged Care Quality Standards and the NDIS Practice Standards: common themes – and gaps

Posted on by Quentin bngonline

Residential aged care providers who support NDIS participants will be aware that as of December 1st 2020, they will become registered providers under the NDIS.  Importantly, providers do not need to do anything to facilitate this – registration will happen automatically.

Residential aged care providers have played an important role in supporting younger people with disabilities, and will continue to do so.  Becoming an NDIS provider brings new obligations, and providers should be aware of the specific goals and responsibilities outlined in the NDIS Quality and Safeguarding Framework, which comprises the NDIS Code of Conduct and NDIS Practice Standards. 

The NDIS Practice Standards compared with the Aged Care Quality Standards

Our SPP Platform cross-maps different sets of standards to each other.  This means that users of SPP can quickly identify thematic gaps between different standards.  And there is some good news – if a user satisfies 100% of SPP’s self-assessment for the Aged Care Quality Standards, they will automatically have completed just over 70% of our self-assessment for the NDIS Practice Standards (Core Module).  For the NDIS Code of Conduct, the crossover is even higher, with 90% completed!

So the reassuring news for RAC providers is that there is a high degree of commonality between the two sets of standards.  It is likely that if your quality management and compliance systems are keeping up with the obligations of ACQS, then you are already well on your way to accreditation against the NDIS Practice Standards.

Similarities between the standards

In our view, the main areas of similarity are in the themes of:

  • Individual Values and Beliefs
  • Privacy and Dignity
  • Violence, Abuse, Neglect, Exploitation and Discrimination
  • Information Management
  • Continuity of Supports
  • Access to Supports
  • Support Planning

For these key areas, pertaining to client rights and service access, it is likely that your organisation already has many policies and procedures in place that will align, in full or at least in part, with the requirements of the NDIS Practice Standards.

Gaps between the standards

However, there are also some clear gaps between the ACQS and NDIS Practice Standards, and these are areas that your organisation may need to focus on when preparing yourself for transition into the NDIS.  In SPP, users who satisfy all of our self-assessment for ACQS will still need to do further work regarding the following NDIS outcomes:

  • Transitions to or from the Provider
  • Safe Environment
  • Participant Money and Property
  • Management of Medication
  • Management of Waste

This is not to say that these themes do not feature in the ACQS, indeed many of you will already have policies on those matters in place within your residential aged care facilities.  However, the requirements in the NDIS Practice Standards are of sufficient specificity or detail as to delineate them from the requirements of the ACQS, and for this reason, RAC providers should pay particular attention to these areas of the NDIS Practice Standards, and the requirements outlined.

Gaps: complaints management and incident management

Another two areas which are distinct within the NDIS are complaints management and incident management.  This is because specific legislative instruments have been drafted to articulate the exact processes that must be followed for the management of both complaints and incidents by registered NDIS providers.

For incidents, the rules include the conditions under which an incident must be reported, and they also set out a comprehensive list of all of the elements that must be addressed in a provider’s incident management system procedures.  For complaints, the rules include requirements for an accessible complaints management system, and a similarly rigorous set of mandatory elements.

RAC providers should familiarise themselves with the rules.  Our SPP platform helps organisations in this, as we take users through each element of the NDIS complaints and incidents requirements, in our specific NDIS modules. 

Worker Orientation Module

Alongside compliance with the NDIS Practice Standards, there are some additional conditions of registration.  All members of your workforce who have more than incidental contact with NDIS participants are required to complete the Worker Orientation Module, ‘Quality Safety and You’.  This is a straightforward online module that can be completed in approximately 90 minutes, and is available on the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission website.

Worker screening

In February 2021, the NDIS Commission will launch a National Worker Screening check that will replace existing arrangements which differ across each state and territory.  It will set a single national standard for all workers supporting NDIS participants. Registered NDIS providers will need to make sure that workers have a valid and current clearance.

Until that time, workers who have more than incidental contact with NDIS participants will need to be screened according to State based legislation.  RAC providers should ensure they are familiar with State based requirements.

More information on worker screening is available here. 

Behaviour support/restrictive practices

Under the NDIS, behaviour support focuses on person-centred interventions to address the underlying causes of challenging behaviours, while safeguarding the dignity and rights of people with disability who require specialist behaviour support.  This is not dissimilar to the aim of minimising the use of restraint under the Aged Care Quality Standards.

Any behaviour support plan which contains a restrictive practice must be developed by an NDIS registered specialist behaviour support provider.  Specialist behaviour support providers must lodge behaviour support plans with the NDIS Commission and notify the Commission of the use of regulated restrictive practices.

Providers using restrictive practices as part of a behaviour support plan must report monthly.

The RAC is responsible for ensuring workers receive appropriate training and understand the risks associated with using a restrictive practice.

RAC providers should familiarise themselves with the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Restrictive Practices and Behaviour Support) Rules 2018, with which they will need to ensure they are compliant. 

Wrapping up

Ultimately, RAC providers supporting NDIS participants should not be too overwhelmed about these new compliance requirements.  The proposed regulatory approach will be proportionate, recognising the co-existing regulation that RAC providers will continue to be subject to under the Aged Care Act 1997, and as highlighted, much of your organisation’s quality and safeguarding work will carry across to the NDIS framework.  However, the NDIS Practice Standards are a distinct set of standards, and organisations should familiarise themselves with some of the new obligations imposed by the NDIS Quality & Safeguarding Framework.  Please access any of the resources listed below to help you in this process.

Additional resources

Need help understanding your obligations?

For assistance with compliance with the NDIS Practice Standards, contact our team.

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Implementing the 5 principles of co-design

Posted on by Quentin bngonline

There is increasing focus on the important role that co-design and consumer engagement play in community service delivery.  All health and human services quality and safeguarding frameworks seek to ensure that every consumer receives person-centred care that is safe, effective, and individualised.  Co-design and consumer engagement incorporate the consumer’s lived experience and perspective, which should be central to the design, delivery and review of services.

However, co-design and consumer engagement can be hard concepts to nail down. They can sometimes be used a little too broadly, for example to describe situations where consumers have simply been asked for feedback, or to provide their opinions.  But there is more to co-design and consumer engagement than that.

Recently, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission released a very helpful literature review, which points providers to a number of resources to help them streamline their co-design processes.  Included in that review is a concise summary of what is involved in co-design and consumer engagement:

  • Co-design is involving consumers, their families, carers and staff in the design of care and services to ensure they achieve desired outcomes, and consumer experience is used to inform quality improvement.
  • Consumer engagement is about engaging consumers in discussions and decisions about day-to-day care, service planning and delivery, setting priorities, identifying improvements, and evaluating health care services.

There is considerable overlap between the two concepts, however there are also some subtle differences.  Organisations who already have effective consumer engagement processes are likely to have implemented many key aspects of co-design.

Another valuable resource for community service providers is the Client voice framework for community services, published late last year by the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services.  It is a great resource to assist services to consider how they “seek, listen and act on the client voice”.

Benefits and outcomes of implementing a co-design approach

Evidence from the health sector suggests that co-design improves the quality of services and the consumer’s experience of care.  Consumers receiving services which have been co-designed have seen improvements to their self-esteem, identity, and dignity. It also empowers consumers’ decision-making ability and increases the transparency between the provider and the consumer.

Staff also benefit from a co-design approach, with evidence suggesting an increase in staff satisfaction. Trust and confidence in staff increase when there is transparency and cooperation, leading to better outcomes for consumers and service providers.

Co-design principles

There are five principles which service providers should practice in the implementation of co-design processes.

  • Effective leadership and acceptance of change
    It is important for leaders and senior management to embrace consumer-centred care, and ensure that consumers are engaged from governance to service delivery.
  • Education and training for staff
    Staff must receive training to understand their role in partnering with consumers and positioning consumers as experts in their own care to improve consumer engagement.
  • Empowering staff to make change
    Staff at all levels should be involved in identifying actions and driving improvement.
  • Communication and information sharing
    Ongoing communication between all people involved in a consumer’s care will help to build rapport and trust, to encourage participation.
  • Monitoring and continuous improvement
    Performance measures should be established with outcomes measured and improvements identified and implemented.

Implementing co-design

Implementing co-design and consumer engagement comes with a unique set of challenges. Along with adherence to the above principles, there are some other techniques which may prove useful.

Formalise the process

To ensure effective co-design processes are in place, it is important to formalise the process. 

Begin at the top

Properly implemented co-design begins at the top. Involving consumers at a board level gives those who have received services the opportunity to have input into the policies and procedures which affect them. Co-designing board processes may mean inviting consumers to be board members or having them act as consultants to the management team.

Co-production working group

Providers may want to form a co-production working group. This working group, made up of consumers and stakeholders, can provide valuable review of programs which can improve service outcomes. They are also able to provide suggestions for new programs. Council on the Ageing (COTA), has a practical guide with more information on how to form a working group with consumers.

Positioning consumers as training advisors

Positioning consumers as training advisors is another strategy which has been used to great effect in implementing co-design. Consumers are a great source to help identify the gaps in staff training and knowledge, and should be consulted in the development of training programs. In the same vein, consumers should be consulted when the organisation is reviewing its service delivery processes, as they are able to identify gaps that may not be obvious to the service provider.

How BNG can help

We have a number of resources that service providers may find useful in implementing co-design. SPP has assessments on service design, individual service planning and responsive service delivery, amongst others.  We also have several templates that will help with implementation, including the following:

  • Client Decision Making and Choice
  • Client Involvement checklist
  • Supported Decision Making
  • Providing Client Advocacy and Support
  • Client Rights
  • Client Participation and Social Inclusion
  • Partnering with Consumers

Further Reading

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You have policies and procedures – but are they being implemented?

Posted on by Quentin bngonline

A common theme across just about all standards that apply to community and health service providers is a requirement to have appropriate policies and procedures in place in order to:

  • ensure the delivery of safe and high-quality services to clients, and
  • meet the governance and quality management requirements of the standards and legislation that applies to them.

But having policies and procedures in place is only the first step.  Even more important is that the policies and procedures are specific to the services and operations of each individual provider, and that they are understood and followed by all workers.

We’ve reviewed a number of recently published audit reports, and we’ve also had some discussions with auditors, and it is clear that some providers fall short along the way to actually implementing their policies and procedures across their organisation.  The consequences of this can be very serious, ranging from unprepared or ill-informed workers, through to the delivery of services that have an increased risk profile, or that are unsafe.

For example, in one recent audit it was found that while the provider had an open disclosure policy and risk framework policy, workers were not consistently following procedures in relation to risk management and incident and feedback identification, and so these were not effective.

In another audit, a provider was found to be non-compliant in their medication management.  Despite the provider having a policy for medication management, workers demonstrated poor practices, including leaving medication out and not keeping them secured. Additionally, despite the service having an incident reporting system, many workers appeared to not use or be aware of the system.

In a number of cases, auditors have reviewed providers’ policies to find that they didn’t even refer to the correct organisation, or the specific services delivered by that provider.  A very early indicator to an auditor of a shortfall between documentation and implementation!

So, how can providers improve the consistent implementation of relevant and appropriate policies and procedures across their organisation?

We’ve set out below some key principles that should be followed.  As well as a couple of key actions.

The policies and procedures must reflect how your particular organisation operates, the services you deliver, and the types of clients to whom you provide services 

  • Auditors report that policies often fail to reflect the practices of the organisation and the skill base of the staff.  Your policies need to be relevant to your organisation and the needs of your consumers.  When tailoring policies to your organisation, consult with consumers, other relevant stakeholders and your workers, to ensure that they reflect the needs and rights of consumers as well as the capabilities and expected practices of workers.


    Policies and procedures also need to address and meet the specific requirements of the legislation and service standards that apply to your organisation, so ensure you refer to and understand the relevant legislation and service standards that apply.  Ensuring that policies and procedures reflect how your organisation operates means that they will underpin consistent practices and service delivery across the whole organisation.

Ensure that staff have read, and understand, your organisation's core policies and procedures 

  • Auditors have provided feedback that organisations often fail to adequately communicate policies and procedures to staff.  You should ensure that each worker reviews, considers and acknowledges their understanding of policies.  To ensure that staff have read and understood them, you can distribute a core pack to each worker containing the relevant policies and procedures, and then structure discussion sessions so that they understand what these mean in practice.  You could maintain a record that each worker has acknowledged receipt of, and read and understood the core pack, for example:

     “I, [insert name here], confirm that I have read and understand the organisation’s policies and procedures relating to (e.g. Client rights, medication management, complaints management, Code of Conduct, incident reporting etc).

    Policies and procedures should be easily available to staff on an ongoing basis, so that they can re-familiarise themselves with them as needed.

Boards play an important role in implementation 

  • Board members play a critical leadership role in setting expectations for behaviour and organisational culture.  They have a responsibility to ensure that policies and procedures are in place, so that all aspects of the business are functioning in line with their purpose and objectives.  Board members should create a culture of review and understanding of policies and procedures.  They need to periodically evaluate the policies that are in place, and be alert to the need for new or updated policies.

Policies and procedures must grow with the organisation 

  • The organisation’s policies and procedures should reflect its sense of identity, its approach to service delivery and the standards it expects of all workers – and these policies and procedures must also be living documents.

    They must be reviewed and updated regularly, to take into account changes to or expansion in services provided, experience from incidents and near misses, as well as feedback and complaints.  Auditors often find that as organisations grow, sometimes their policies and procedures do not adapt to reflect these changes and growth.  Organisations can then find themselves providing certain supports that their policies and procedures don’t address.  It is important for senior management and the governing body to review and update policies regularly throughout the year, so that they reflect any changes.  A good way to implement this is to incorporate a review of policies into regularly scheduled meetings.  

Reinforce policies and procedures through training 

  • Auditors have also found that staff are often not provided with regular refreshers of policies and procedures, some of which may have been amended or updated.  In addition to new staff receiving training on policies and procedures, six monthly refreshers could be scheduled (and records of attendance kept), to ensure that all staff remain familiar with current policies and procedures and are trained on any new requirements, for example for any new or specialised service delivery.

The delivery of consistent, safe and high-quality services does not just depend on having policies and procedures in place for your organisation.  You must ensure that they reflect the services that you currently provide, how you provide those services, and that they are understood and followed by all workers.

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COVID-19 in residential aged care – how to respond in the first 24 hours

Posted on by Quentin bngonline

The prospect of dealing with a case of COVID-19 in your aged care facility is a daunting one. However, preparation is key, and an effective response in the first 24 hours of an outbreak can mitigate the extent of the outbreak dramatically. Here’s why you should get a handle on your response plan now.

The Commonwealth Government Department of Health has released a fact sheet called First 24 hours – managing COVID-19 in a residential aged care facility. This fact sheet walks providers through the steps they should follow in their immediate response to the identification of a COVID-19 positive case. These steps are based on the Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA) national guidelines for the prevention, control and public health management of COVID-19 outbreaks in residential care facilities.

The guidelines identify the following key steps providers should take, in the time periods as follows:

First 30 minutes

  • Isolate and inform the COVID-19 positive case(s)
  • Contact your local Public Health Unit (PHU)
  • Contact the Department of Health
  • Lockdown the residential aged care facility

Minutes 30-60

  • Convene your outbreak management team
  • Activate your outbreak management plan
  • Establish screening protocol
  • Release an initial communication 

Hours 2-3

  • Contact tracing
  • Identify key documents
  • PPE stocktake
  • Communication

Hours 4-6

  • First meeting of the Outbreak Management Team
  • Bolster your staff and plan your roster
  • Conduct testing
  • Clinical management of COVID-positive cases

Hours 6-12

  • Cohorting and relocation
  • Move to a command-based governance structure
  • Rapid PPE supply
  • Infection control

Hours 12-24

  • Clinical First Responder from Aspen to commence
  • Review advance care directives
  • Establish strong induction and control processes
  • Maintaining social contact
  • Follow up communications
  • Continue primary health care
  • Support your staff
  • Continue to monitor state/territory guidelines

Our First 24 hours self-assessment

We’ve built a self-assessment in SPP called Aged Care Facilities – COVID-19 Outbreak First 24 Hours, that follows each of the above steps in the Commonwealth’s guidelines. This self-assessment will serve as a useful tool to prepare your organisation for potential outbreaks. We have broken down the key steps into separate modules and quizzes, which providers can work through to help familiarise themselves with the processes they will need to follow in the event of an outbreak. By self-assessing against the guidelines, you can identify gaps in your existing systems, and download an Action Plan to address these gaps.

We strongly advise that you self-assess against these steps now, well ahead of any outbreak.  Many of the processes required in the first 24 hours following an identified case of COVID-19, will need to have already been established, ahead of time. For example in minutes 30-60 of an outbreak, providers are asked:

“As part of an effective outbreak management plan, has the provider already drafted some pre-prepared email templates for this initial communication?”

Here, it is flagged for providers that they should have email templates prepared, in anticipation of any outbreaks.

Similarly in hours 2-3, providers are asked:

“Does the provider supply the following information to the PHU and the state branch of the Commonwealth:

  • a detailed floor plan which include residents’ rooms, communal areas, food preparation areas, wings, and how staff are apportioned to each area;
  • an up-to-date list of residents, identifying residents with COVID-like symptoms, onset date, testing status, their location in the facility, and staff contacts;
  • a list of all staff employed by the facility; and
  • a list of the respiratory specimens collected and the results of tests?”

This signals to providers what information they will need to have already collected and stored on record somewhere that is easily accessible, if this has not yet been done.

The self-assessment also links to some key resources developed by the Communicable Diseases Network Australia (CDNA), that will be very useful in the event of an outbreak,  including a sample template letter to GPs, and a template report to the local Public Health Unit (PHU).

Our Respiratory Outbreak Preparedness self-assessment

We’ve also made available a self-assessment to guide providers through the components of an outbreak management plan. The self-assessment is based on recommendations from the Department of Health, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. See our earlier blog post on 6th May 2020 for more information. 

Items to address in an outbreak management plan include:

  • Identifying clients at greater risk and with complex support needs
  • Business continuity plan
  • Communication of the plan to staff, clients and families
  • Preparing a staff contingency plan
  • Maintenance of appropriate levels of necessary stock items
  • Implementation of regular health assessments of clients and staff
  • Preparation of a communications plan for keeping authorities, staff, clients and their families informed after an outbreak is identified
  • Cleaning plan
  • Plan to restrict visitors if relevant

Reviewing your practices against our First 24 Hours and Respiratory Outbreak self-assessments can help ensure your outbreak preparedness planning is up-to-speed, so that your facility is protected and well-prepared.

COVID-19 in aged care - outbreak management

Do you have a clear outbreak management plan? Are you  prepared for the actions you need to take during the first 24 hours of an outbreak?  Sign up to SPP to access our self-assessment, among many other resources.

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NDIS Code of Conduct guidance for providers

Posted on by Quentin bngonline

The NDIS Code of Conduct, which has been in place since 2018, ensures that workers understand how they must act, and their responsibilities to provide high quality, safe services and supports to people with disability.

There are certain requirements placed on providers regarding worker compliance with the Code of Conduct.  Providers must implement systems to ensure that their staff are conducting themselves in line with the expectations of the NDIS Rules.

This blog post looks at the worker’s responsibilities from the provider’s perspective and examines how the provider can ensure that the conduct of their workers conforms with the values outlined by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. This is not intended to be an exhaustive resource; for further reading see the NDIS Commission’s Code of Conduct guidance for providers and workers.

Service delivery

Under the NDIS Code of Conduct, it is the responsibility of providers to ensure that workers delivering supports have the appropriate training, qualifications and competence to deliver supports.

In practice, these requirements mean:

  • Supporting workers to understand and implement the core values of the NDIS, including person centred support delivery;
  • Refining recruitment and selection processes to ensure that workers with appropriate skills and values are selected by the organisation to deliver services;
  • Providing workers with relevant training;
  • Providing workers with supervision to ensure that services are being delivered safely, with care and skill; and
  • Discussing with workers to ensure that they are competent and feel comfortable delivering the required supports and services.

In addition, as part of the recruitment and induction process, providers must ensure that:

Incidents & complaints

Registered NDIS Providers must have incident and complaints management systems in place.  It is the responsibility of the provider to ensure that staff are familiar with these systems.  This includes training to ensure that workers are able to identify, respond to, and report incidents and complaints to their supervisor and/or authorities where relevant.

Workers must understand that, in relation to incidents, their first priority is always the safety of people with disability.  Immediately following an incident, workers must ensure, to the best of their ability, that the person with disability is safe, following which they should then follow the provider’s processes for responding to and reporting incidents.

Workers should be familiar with the organisation’s complaints management systems, as well as how to make complaints directly to the NDIS Commission.  Workers are expected to support people to make complaints to the provider or the Commission, and so should be familiar with the appropriate processes for doing so.  Workers must not, under any circumstances, threaten or take adverse action against someone who proposes to make a complaint.

Staff responsibilities

Under the NDIS Code of Conduct, workers are expected to speak up to authority and call out any conduct that is not compliant with the Commission’s rules.  Staff are expected to inform senior staff if they are unable, or do not feel comfortable, to carry out particular tasks in connection with service provision (see p14, NDIS Code of Conduct – Guidance for Workers).

Staff should be aware that they are required under the Code of Conduct to declare any conflicts of interest related to their beliefs and values that may impact on the delivery of services or supports provision (see p19, NDIS Code of Conduct – Guidance for Workers).

All workers should understand that they are able to contact the Commission if they have any concerns regarding the conduct of their employer or others.  In some circumstances, which include the reporting of serious incidents, the Commission has legislative powers to protect those who raise concerns with the Commission.

Fostering a culture that encourages feedback and complaints

It is the responsibility of providers to ensure that they welcome and encourage feedback, and that their staff feel comfortable reporting any misconduct that they witness.  From the provider’s perspective, this involves encouraging and welcoming feedback and complaints.

The organisation should ensure that staff, as well as clients and advocates, will not face any adverse action for raising concerns regarding the conduct of the provider or its staff.  The workforce should be made aware that the provider will not undertake any action in retaliation for a worker raising, in good faith, their concerns about conduct.

How BNG can help

We have a number of resources and self-assessments to help providers ensure that they, and their workers, comply with the Code of Conduct.

  • SPP’s NDIS Code of Conduct self-assessment will walk providers through their obligations, as well as provide resources, policy templates and guidance
  • Worker recruitment, screening and training policy templates and guidance
  • Incident and complaints management system policies and guidance
  • Conflict of interest policy templates and guidance

NDIS Code of Conduct

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Working in partnership with family, friends and carers

Posted on by Quentin bngonline

Historically, staff training and delivery of care for people with a mental illness have been based around the individual. The emphasis on confidentiality has sometimes acted as a constraint when caring for an individual. Carers often report that they are not recognised and are not given sufficient information to fulfil their role. The failure to engage with carers has excluded the very people who are often responsible for putting care plans into action.

In 2013, the National Report Card on Mental Health and Suicide Prevention recommended that a practical guide be developed and implemented for the inclusion of families and support people in services and that this must include consideration of the services and supports that they need to be sustained in their role. Similarly, in 2014 the National Review of Mental Health Programmes and Services – Contributing lives, Thriving Communities highlighted Australia’s complex mental health care system and the importance of ensuring that “people with lived experience, families and support people encounter a system that involves them in decisions, is easily navigable and provides continuity of care.”

In 2016, the Practical Guide for Working with Carers of People with a Mental Illness (the Guide) was released. A number of mental health care experts worked together to develop the Guide including: Helping Minds, Mind Australia, Private Mental Health Consumer Carer Network (Australia), Mental Health Australia and Mental Health Carers Australia.

In developing the Guide, national consultation with relevant stakeholders found that:

  • Current practices were not meeting national, state and territory policies of carer engagement;
  • Staff did not feel that they were trained to undertake the practice of Family Therapy;
  • Carers often felt that they were not recognised sufficiently or given key information or support in their role;
  • Where carers persist in the quest for information, they are often labelled as ‘angry’, ‘over-involved’ or ‘difficult’; and
  • There is a no consistency in treatment across clinicians and across service sectors.

There was also strong support for adoption of the “Triangle of Care” model that was developed by the UK Carers Trust.  The Triangle of Care recognises that there are three partners in the care relationship, being the consumer who is living the experience of illness, the carers of the consumer, and the service provider.

Family members are in a unique position where they know the person, and in many cases knew them before they became unwell. The Triangle of Care model combines the knowledge and skills of staff with the knowledge and lived experience of the consumer, their family and other carers in a partnership approach to service delivery across all settings.

About the Guide

The Guide seeks to assist providers to better engage, support and work with carers in all areas where mental health is provided.

There are six partnership standards contained in the Guide:

  1. Carers and the essential role they play are identified at first contact, or as soon as possible thereafter.
  2. Staff are carer aware and trained in carer engagement strategies
  3. Policy and practice protocols regarding confidentiality and sharing of information are in place.
  4. Defined staff positions are allocated for carers in all service settings.
  5. A carer introduction to the service and staff is available, with a relevant range of information across the care settings
  6. A range of carer support services is available.

Within each of the six standards there are practical examples of tasks that individuals and organisations may undertake to demonstrate that they are able to work in a partnership manner. These practical examples aim to assist providers to work with carers in a mutually beneficial way.

How can your organisation implement the standards?

A self-assessment for the Practical Guide for Working with Carers of People with a Mental Illness has recently been added into SPP. By self-assessing against these standards, your organisation can highlight priority areas and create action plans to make improvements to the engagement of carers.

Implementation of the standards will demonstrate your organisation’s commitment to working in partnership and to meeting the requirements of the accreditation processes.

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Spotlight on the National Quality Framework for AOD providers

Posted on by Quentin bngonline

Alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment in Australia is provided by a variety of organisations.  Previously, there was no consistent approach to ensure minimum quality standards and continuous quality improvement in the AOD treatment system.  However, in late 2019, the National Quality Framework for Drug and Alcohol Treatment Services was endorsed by the Ministerial Drug and Alcohol Forum.

Governments and peak AOD bodies have worked together to develop the National Quality Framework, a nationally consistent quality benchmark for providers of AOD services. Importantly, the framework includes strong clinical governance requirements.

The framework is an important step in improving the consistency and quality of AOD treatment services across Australia.

What’s the framework all about?

The National Quality Framework aims to achieve positive health outcomes by improving the quality and safety of AOD treatment services for consumers and their families.

The National Quality Framework has nine Guiding Principles:

  • Organisational Governance
  • Clinical Governance
  • Planning and Engagement
  • Collaboration and Partnerships
  • Workforce, Development and Clinical Practice
  • Information systems
  • Compliance
  • Continuous Improvement
  • Health and Safety

These nine guiding principles are articulated with reference to their relevance to the sector.  For example, Planning and Engagement should be informed by what works for the needs of clients, including cultural security requirements, and as part of Collaboration and Partnerships, providers should identify co-occurring issues, such as mental health, physical health, housing and employment, and support clients through referral or collaboration to support these needs.

How do I comply?

There are a number of accepted accreditations available to providers who wish to comply with the National Quality Framework. SPP hosts self-assessments for many of these accreditation standards, including:

  • Alcohol and Other Drug Human Service Standard (WANADA) 
  • Australian Service Excellence Standards (ASES)
  • Human Services Quality Framework Queensland (HSQF)
  • ISO9001: Quality Management Systems 
  • National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS)
  • QIC Health and Community Services Standards (QIC)

Governance and monitoring of the National Quality Framework will be conducted via the shared oversight of state and territory governments and the Commonwealth.

Feature standard: WANADA

In 2019, WANADA released its Alcohol and other Drug and Human Services Standard.  Like WANADA’s earlier version of this Standard (the Standard on Culturally Secure Practice), the Alcohol and other Drug and Human Services Standard has a strong focus on culturally responsive and evidence informed ways of working.  It is intended to support and encourage information sharing, mentoring and collaboration across the sector. 

The Alcohol and other Drug and Human Services Standard  is a new addition to our SPP platform and demonstrates an up-to-date and nuanced understanding of cultural competence.  The Standard is flexible enough to be applied by a diverse range of human services.  It is recommended as an excellent benchmarking tool for service providers throughout Australia.

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The importance of spiritual health when delivering quality care

Posted on by Quentin bngonline

Over the past few decades there has been a move towards a more holistic concept of care that includes emotional, physical, social and spiritual aspects.  Consideration of a patient’s spiritual health has been identified as a key component when providing high quality health care.  Research has demonstrated that patients want their spiritual needs considered as part of their overall health care, and that an increase in discussion around spiritual beliefs strengthens the trust between the provider of services and their client or patient.

Everyone has spiritual needs – for some, this is intertwined with their religious beliefs, and for others it may involve a search for a deeper understanding of their purpose and meaning.  Spirituality plays many roles in the lives of patients and of those who are elderly.  For many patients, spirituality can help them cope with health outcomes, and contribute to their having a more positive outlook on life.  Spiritual care often holds greater importance at the end of one’s life, when it can help a person explore what has given meaning to their life, and reduce their stress as they contemplate dying.

Spirituality has also been found to assist with recovery, and spiritual practices such as meditation have been found to improve health outcomes through increasing relaxation.  Spirituality is an important aspect of health, and assists with coping with changes to health and maintaining positive wellbeing throughout the recovery process.

How can your organisation ensure that people's spiritual care needs are met?

Spiritual Health Association’s Guidelines for Quality Spiritual Care in Health, and Meaningful Ageing Australia’s National Guidelines for Spiritual Care in Aged Care were both developed with extensive stakeholder consultation and research, to help providers implement a nationally consistent and best-practice approach to spiritual care.  The two guidelines provide a wealth of information and resources, within their frameworks, to assist providers and practitioners to deliver spiritual care services in a way that ensures high-quality and safe care, and which addresses each person’s individual needs.

Guidelines for Quality Spiritual Care in Health

These Guidelines emphasise the importance of considering the whole person when providing person-centred care.  They provide a standardised and consistent approach to spiritual care, which aligns with the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards, the National Palliative Care Standards, and evidence-based care.  They focus on responsive and respectful patient-centred care and serving all aspects of patient care.  The Guidelines assist providers with the delivery of quality, evidence-based care through offering a consistent approach to the provision of best practice spiritual care in health services. 

National Guidelines for Spiritual Care in Aged Care

The National Guidelines for Spiritual Care in Aged Care state that “spirituality is integral to quality of life and well-being and it should be accessible to all older people in a way that is meaningful to their beliefs, culture, and circumstances”.  The Guidelines reflect best practice and highlight that the offering of spiritual care is the responsibility of all caregivers.  The guidelines provide resources and suggestions, as well as ideas for implementation.  They are intended to offer spiritual care and support to older people living in residential aged care or receiving care and support through home care packages. 

Assess your organisation's approach to spiritual care

In order to provide more holistic and high-quality care, organisations should work towards embedding spirituality into their key systems and processes.

We’ve developed self-assessments in Standards & Performance Pathways (SPP) for each of the two Guidelines.  Using SPP’s new self-assessments will assist organisations to better understand the best-practice frameworks for delivery of spiritual care, and track their progress over time towards delivery of those best practices.

You can find these self-assessments in SPP under the Standards tab > Australian National Standards.

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What really is “best practice”? And how do we achieve it?

Posted on by Quentin bngonline

For over 20 years now, we’ve been helping NGOs improve their governance processes, implement continuous improvement practices, and meet the standards compliance requirements for all of the services they deliver. From time to time, we also help government departments or standards owners develop new standards, or identify commonalities and gaps between different sets of standards. 

So many standards…

A large part of our work is to monitor developments across upwards of 60 sets of health and community service standards Australia-wide. This means we’re in a fairly unique position to identify common (and differing) approaches to certain core themes, as well as track new approaches and shifts in focuses, that impact on how providers are guided to meet the standards for the services they deliver. 

Differing focuses, new approaches…

Recently, there has been an increased focus on targeted outcomes in some of the newer national standards. In some cases, this has also been coupled with a reduction in the level of prescribed requirements for certain processes. 

This means that the provider may have more flexibility in how they implement the detail of the systems or processes that are required to ensure the necessary outcome for the consumer, client or participant – provided that the outcome for the client is achieved. 

How do I know what my process should include?

If a set of standards is less prescriptive about the particular requirements for some procedures or processes, the provider may need to spend a little more time thinking about what procedures or processes would best suit their service, as well as ensure that the targeted outcomes are met. 

A great example could be in the area of risk management. A set of standards may require that the provider have effective risk management systems in place, or that the business planning process considers organisational risk. But how does the service ensure that its risk management system is effective? What processes does it follow to consider organisational risk? 

That’s where we thought we could provide some help! 

Best Practice modules…

There are a number of core themes contained in most modern sets of standards.  We’ve built educative, fairly detailed Best Practice self-assessment modules to address these core themes, to help NGOs evaluate what their particular service needs to put in place in order to meet those themes.   

By drawing from the huge range of standards we follow (and the recommendations and guidance for all of those standards), we hope that our Best Practice self-assessments will really help NGOs to understand what systems or processes they should have in place, and also decide on the particular steps in those processes that are appropriate for their service, and the issues they have considered in putting them in place. 

As well as being informative, the Best Practice self-assessments are a great way for NGOs to benchmark their current practices and service delivery, collaborate within teams and their boards, and then implement and track improvement steps over time. 

To help NGOs work towards best practice, we have created the following self-assessments:  

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Competence 
  • Continuous Improvement 
  • Finance 
  • Governance 
  • Human Resource Management 
  • Infection Management and Control
  • Information Management and Privacy
  • Risk Management 
  • Workplace Gender Equality 

The self-assessments were developed to be educative resources that service providers can use to better understand a particular facet of organisational governance. They are also designed to be aspirational. As such, providers will not necessarily be able to satisfy all of the demands in the self-assessments, which will help them to identify areas for improvement.  

The self-assessments contain many resource templates, to help NGOs understand and take the necessary steps towards best practice organisational management and service delivery.   

Mapped to all of the standards…

And the best part is, wherever requirements in the Best Practice self-assessments reflect requirements or indicators in any of the 60+ standards in SPP, they will be mapped across.  This means that as you progress through our Best Practice self-assessments, you’re also making real compliance progress with all of those service standards!  

Going the extra mile …

For organisations that are serious about quality, we also try to identify supplementary best practice guidelines and recommendations published by key stakeholders across different sectors. For example, in the aged care sector we’ve worked with a number of peak bodies to develop self-assessments to highlight their suggestions for best practice, and to assist providers in identifying areas for continuous improvement, which is such a critical part of all major standards.  

We are always interested to receive suggestions for additional self-assessments and resources we can develop, to make the compliance and quality improvement processes easier for NGOs. 

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You can try all of our Towards Best Practice modules and much more in the SPP platform.

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