Quality Strategy Toolkit
for Disability Employment and Rehabilitation Services
Home » Quality Strategy Toolkit » Section 1: Overview
The Australian Government introduced the Quality Strategy for Disability Employment and CRS Australia in 2002.
The goal is to ensure Australian Government funded services meet certain standards so that they offer employment support and assistance to people with disability in a quality environment, enabling them to enjoy the same basic rights and opportunities generally available to all working Australians.
Specifically, the objectives of the Quality Strategy are to:
The Quality Strategy includes a quality assurance system that passed into law in 2002. It requires services funded under the Disability Services Act 1986 (Cth) to be independently assessed and certified as complying with the Disability Services Standards. All disability employment services must meet the requirements of the independent quality assurance system to receive funding from the Australian Government.
Audits against the Disability Services Standards are conducted by independent third party certification bodies. These certification bodies are accredited to perform audits against the Disability Services Standards by the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ) (see Diagram 1.1).
Diagram 1.1: Hierarchy of the quality assurance system
There are three linked components to the Quality Strategy (see Diagram 1.2):
The first component of the Quality Strategy is a quality assurance system of accredited certification, well-established in Australian industry, which uses international standards of best practice. Service providers are required to be certified against the 12 Disability Services Standards with 26 related key performance indicators (KPIs).
The second component of the Quality Strategy is continuous improvement. This is about constantly reviewing your organisation's performance against the Disability Services Standards and planning ongoing improvements. The aim is to increase service providers' abilities to fulfil and exceed the requirements of the Standards.
The third component of the Quality Strategy is complaints and referrals. Job seekers/ workers/service recipients who are not satisfi ed with their service provider's internal complaints and disputes mechanisms can contact the Complaints Resolution and Referral Service (CRRS). The CRRS operates through a free call hotline, which is run in conjunction with the National Disability Abuse and Neglect Hotline. This is the single contact point for anyone to report claims of abuse and neglect of people with disability using government funded services.
The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) is responsible for administering the Quality Strategy for all service types. FaHCSIA also funds the service types Business Services and Targeted Support.
The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) is the funding body for the service types Disability Employment Network and Vocational Rehabilitation Services.
The Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ) is responsible for accrediting the certification bodies that audit service providers against the Disability Services Standards. The criteria for accreditation of certification bodies are set out in JAS-ANZ Procedure 18 General Requirements for Bodies Providing Audit and certification of Disability Employment Organisations. Procedure 18 contains requirements for certification bodies (not service providers). It covers requirements governing the impartiality, confidentiality and competence of the certification body. Procedure 18 also sets out guidance for how certification processes are to be conducted. Procedure 18 is included in this toolkit (see Attachment 1).
JAS-ANZ Procedure 18 should be read in conjunction with the international standard, AS ISO/IEC 17021:2006. A read-only version of AS ISO/IEC 17021:2006 is available on the FaHCSIA Online Funding Management System (FoFMS), if you are a FaHCSIA-funded service provider. Alternatively you can buy a hard copy from SAI Global Ltd, GPO Box 5420 Sydney NSW 2001, ph: 02 8206 6355, fax: 02 8206 6025.
More information about JAS-ANZ, including all JAS-ANZ Procedures, is available online
Certification bodies are third party accredited entities which independently audit organisations funded by the departments against the Disability Services Standards. Certification bodies rate the performance of Business Services, Targeted Support, Disability Employment Network and Vocational Rehabilitation Services organisations against the 12 Disability Services Standards and 26 KPIs, using a scale of 0 (major nonconformity), 1 (nonconformity) and 2 (conformity). These results are reported to FaHCSIA in the form of an audit report.
The Disability Services Standards and associated KPIs are based on the Disability Services Act 1986 (Cth). The Standards are central to the quality assurance system. They define the elements of quality service delivery for people with disability. To achieve certification, service providers need to comply with, and demonstrate continuous improvement against, the Disability Services Standards.
The Disability Services Standards have the same intent across all service types, but may require different kinds of evidence to demonstrate compliance and continuous improvement. You must ensure that your organisation follows the relevant set of Standards and KPIs for your service type.
Disability Services Standards for different service types are in Section 2B of this toolkit.
Evidence Guidelines are tools to help you gather and develop evidence to:
There are four sets of Evidence Guidelines; one for each service type. This has a particular impact on organisations that provide a mixture of services types, as organisations are required to provide evidence against each service type.
The Evidence Guidelines are not an all-inclusive checklist. You may have different examples of evidence than those in the guidelines for demonstrating compliance with the KPIs for each Standard.
The Evidence Guidelines for different service types are in Section 2B of this toolkit.
The Quality Strategy applies to four categories of Australian Government funded services:
Business Services are funded by FaHCSIA. They are sometimes referred to as supported employment.
Business Services directly employ and support people with disability who may not be able to work in an open or competitive environment. This type of service approach is aimed at people with disability who require substantial ongoing support to obtain or retain paid employment.
Wage Phase-in services are those Business Services organisations which have been granted until May 2008 to meet the requirements for paying pro-rata wages under Standard 9, KPI 9.1. Wage Phase-in services need to comply with the same Disability Services Standards as other Business Services organisations, except for Standard 9, where they have a specific transitional KPI 9.1.
Targeted Support was designed as a non-vocational program for people in supported employment who were assessed as having low productivity on a recognised wage assessment tool. Access to enter a Targeted Support service was available for a specific period of time and is no longer available. Targeted Support services can be brokered out to state or private services, or run by Business Services organisations.
People who transitioned to Targeted Support are offered activities including:
Disability Employment Network services are provided by a network of organisations contracted by DEEWR.
These service providers aim to place or support people with disability in the open job market. The type of assistance generally provided includes:
The Disability Employment Network has a capped and an uncapped program stream. The capped program stream provides services to job seekers with an assessed work capacity of eight or more hours per week, who require either long-term support in the workplace and/or are unable to work at award wages. The uncapped stream provides services to job seekers with a part-time participation requirement and an assessed work capacity of 15 to 29 hours per week, as well as an ability to work at award wages and to become independent in the workplace within two years.
Vocational Rehabilitation Services are offered through organisations that are contracted by DEEWR. They provide a comprehensive service that combines vocational rehabilitation with specialist employment assistance. Vocational Rehabilitation Services assist people who have an injury, disability or health condition to work independently in the open labour market.
This program aims to help people to understand, compensate for and manage their disability, illness or injury, and the associated limitations or restrictions. This is achieved through offering specialist assistance such as occupational therapy, ergonomics, vocational counselling or physiotherapy. These interventions help job seekers to build work capacity and to develop or adopt new work styles to avoid re-injury. These services are combined with specialist employment assistance for the job seeker, including job placement. It can also include assistance for employers, with job design and workplace modifications.
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