Continuous improvement
3.1 Overview
Continuous improvement is an integral component of the national Quality Strategy and the associated quality assurance system of certification.
Continuous improvement is usually handled internally by service providers. It allows you to constantly review your organisation’s performance against the Disability Services Standards and plan ongoing improvements.
To be certified and receive Australian Government funding, your organisation must be able to demonstrate the quality of your continuous improvement processes and outcomes. As part of your certification audit, an independent certification body assesses your continuous improvement processes and outcomes against Disability Services Standard 8. At the beginning of a certification audit, you also provide the certification body with your internal audits, which are prepared as part of the continuous improvement cycle (see Section 2 for more details about the certification process).
However, the real value of continuous improvement as part of the overall quality system is its potential to create stronger, more sustainable services that better meet the needs of all participants/supported employees.
As a service provider, your organisation must continually adapt to changes in the external environment, such as government reforms, variations in the economy and the needs of participants/supported employees. A continuous improvement culture means that you can accommodate change and continually develop a service quality that is of value to all your participants/supported employees. Standing still in a dynamic environment equates to going backwards, whether your organisation is just beginning to think about quality assurance or has already achieved certification.
Effective continuous improvement is integrated into the day-to-day life of organisations. It should be part of your organisation’s core functions.
3.2 Continuous improvement model
Continuous improvement operates at two levels:
- individual services levels—looking for improvements in your organisation’s processes and practices
- industry level—looking for improvements across the sector as a whole.
Ideally, these are closely related so that information about successful innovations within one service is shared across the sector, and areas of general underperformance are identified so that appropriate training and support can be provided. In this model, continuous improvement can be thought of as two interacting circles: an inner circle of continuous improvement applied in unique ways by individual services and another circle of sector-wide capacity building and support (see Diagram 3.1).
Diagram 3.1: Continuous improvement model
Description of Diagram 3.1
3.3 Developing an internal continuous improvement system
There are many varied ways you can choose to pursue continuous improvement activities within your organisation. Whatever you choose, you will need to develop a system that is responsive, systematic and well-documented. This is not only because of the importance of continuous improvement to organisations generally, but also because the certification process requires you to provide documented evidence of continuous improvement activities under Disability Services Standard 8. Part of this evidence is the internal audits that you are required to conduct annually, before being audited by your certification body.
For more information about internal audit systems that your organisation may wish to use, please refer to Standard 8 in this section of the toolkit. For more background on the certification process, see Section 2 of the toolkit.
One approach to internal auditing is to cluster the 12 Disability Services Standards into groups of related areas. This may help you detect where common evidence is available for related Disability Services Standards. You may wish to work through these groups systematically, covering one Standard each month.
Here is one suggested ‘clustering’ system:
- Service management and staffing arrangements
Standard 8: Service management
Standard 11: Staff recruitment and training
- Values and principles
Standard 1: Service access
Standard 4: Privacy, dignity and confidentiality
Standard 6: Valued status
Standard 12: Protection of human rights and freedom from abuse
- Service delivery
Standard 2: Individual needs
Standard 3: Decision making and choice
Standard 7: Complaints and disputes
Standard 10: Service recipient training and support
- Service outcomes
Standard 5: Participation and integration
Standard 9: Employment conditions
The rest of this section contains information about how your organisation can continually improve against each of the 12 Disability Services Standards.
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