The obligation to maintain compliance with the Aged Care Quality Standards (ACQS) is an ongoing journey that is shared across the organisation. Once you’re meeting the ACQS, the challenge is to not only continue demonstrating how you meet the standards, but to identify improvements.
To start off with, all staff members – from board members to part-time staff – should have a fundamental understanding of the ACQS. This will not only help you work towards compliance, but also help you identify opportunities to improve your systems and processes and, as a result, improve the quality, safety and consistency of the services you deliver.
We’ve developed a comprehensive package of self-assessment modules for the Aged Care Quality Standards for all aged care providers, from smaller home care providers or single residence operators through to complex multi-site providers.
Some of our modules are designed to help you better understand the detail and intent behind requirements, while others are designed to streamline your preparation for assessment contacts and internal reviews. All of them provide access to our extensive library of linked templates and other resources.
Aged Care Quality Standards - Self-Assessment Tool
This module is the simplest approach to demonstrating compliance with the ACQS, and aligns with the Commission’s self-assessment tool template. The module enables you to include:
- A Self-Rating;
- Examples of Actions and Evidence;
- Areas for Improvement; and
- Any Other Information that may be relevant.
Aged Care Quality Standards - Educative
Our educative module for the ACQS provides a detailed walk through the Standards. It draws on the Commission’s “examples of action and evidence”, and will help providers understand the intent of every requirement contained in the Standards. The educative module is very useful for organisations wanting a deep dive into the Standards.
Aged Care Quality Standards – Full Standard
This module is cross-mapped to other sets of standards in our platform, so is best suited to providers who are required to meet multiple sets of standards. It mitigates the duplication between the ACQS and other leading standards such as the NDIS Practice Standards. As you complete work in the module, your answers and evidence will automatically map across to common requirements in modules for other standards. The cross-mapped module is a useful tool to identify areas of overlap, as well as gaps, between different standards.
Guidance for governing bodies
We have a separate Board Governance Toolkit available for governing body members of aged care providers. The Board Governance Toolkit assists governing body members to understand and manage their responsibilities as set out in the requirements of Standard 8 of the Aged Care Quality Standards. It includes a simple introductory video and summary of the indicators, to provide governing body members with an introduction to, and overview of, the ACQS requirements.
Clinical Governance
We also have a module to help providers develop and review their clinical governance framework. This module is based on guidance issued by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. The module guides providers through the core elements of clinical governance, and outlines the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder group that should be involved in the process. It helps providers identify any gaps and opportunities for improvement and meet their clinical governance obligations under the Aged Care Quality Standards.
Just released: 5 key risks in home care
We’ve just released a new module based on the Commission’s guidance regarding the key areas of risk identified in home services. This new module supports governing bodies and senior management teams to critically examine their performance against 5 key risk areas, to ensure that they meet their obligations and deliver safe and quality home services.
Where should you start?
All of these modules can be accessed on the Standards tab, along with hundreds of other sets of standards. If you’re looking for anything in particular in our platform or would like to provide any feedback or suggestions, we’d love to hear from you!
