Continuous improvement
Standard 8b: Continuous improvement and quality management systems overall considerations
Continuous improvement is one of the key components of the Quality Strategy. Continuous improvement should be part of the day-to-day life of your organisation. However, organisations are also required to conduct (at a minimum) one internal audit annually against the Disability Services Standards. The absence of systematic internal audits is one area where many services receive nonconformities in their audit results.
In this section, you will find a series of tools to help you to create a system of internal audits
8b: Planning for excellence
In addition to planning continuous improvement activities in your service relating to the Disability Services Standards, your organisation should also consider the wider context in which you can develop quality practices. For example, you could:
- investigate other areas of quality assurance certification, such as ISO certifications
- participate in awards for excellence in the disability or employment sectors
- develop a quality network with other organisations.
Investigate other areas of quality assurance certification
There are a number of systems of quality assurance outside those specified by the Disability Services Standards which you can investigate to help your organisation develop quality practices and quality service delivery.
One of the most commonly used quality management certification systems is AS/NZS ISO 9001: 2000 Quality management systems - Requirements. This is an international system for recognising organisations that have appropriate quality management systems in place. AS/NZS ISO 9001: 2000 Quality management systems - Requirements -based management systems focus on putting in place quality controls to ensure consistency and improvement of key processes, which in turn provide products and services that better meet customers' requirements.
The specific requirements under ISO 9001 cover:
- management system
- management responsibility
- resource management
- product realisation
- measurement analysis and improvement
Refer to International Organization of Standization for further information and SAI Global webshop
to download or purchase copies of ISO Standards. You can see how ISO 9001:2000 compares to the requirements of the Disability Services Standards and other standards in the disability sector through Tool 8b.5.
Australian Disability Enterprises may also wish for consider quality management systems relating to your particular area of production.
Participate in awards for excellence
There are a number of Australian awards for excellence in the business, disability and community sectors which your service may wish to pursue.
Investigating and entering into awards for excellence can give your service the opportunity to:
- benchmark your service's practices against those of other high quality service providers
- learn more about the quality practices of other services
- share your service's knowledge and experience about quality service provision
- potentially showcase your achievements in quality service provision and receive recognition for your work.
These awards may connect with your practices under the Disability Services Standards, for instance through:
- excellence in promoting the valued roles of people with disability (Standard 6)
- excellence in service management (Standard 8).
Here are some awards you may wish to investigate:
There may also be sector-specific awards that you could consider based on the services, activities or business that your organisation operates.
Develop a quality network
A quality network is a group of similar organisations that works together to continuously improve the quality of their service delivery. Participating in a quality network can provide opportunities to:
- discuss common problems
- work together to find solutions
- generate 'best practice' tools and ideas'
- share the cost and administration of joint events, such as:
- training
- information sessions'
- guest speakers
- jointly apply for funding for specific needs that you identify.
LINK: Tool 8b.3 describes how you might set up a quality network in your area, and some of the issues that your network could address.
Here are some overall considerations relating to continuous improvement and quality management systems.
| Review: |
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Could we improve our system of internal audits against the Disability Services Standards?
LINK: see Tools 8b.1 and 8b.2 for a sample system of internal audits and an internal audit worksheet ( pp.123-127 hardcopy) |
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Could we improve how well we address identified problems?
- How do we make decisions about change?
- How do we record those decisions?
- How do we verify that identified changes have been made?
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Could we improve how well we engage all staff members in continuous improvement?
LINK: see Tool 8b.4 for a sample exercise to encourage staff participate in Continuous Improvement. |
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Could we improve our document control system? Check:
- where are all our documents (e.g. contracts, forms) kept?
- who is responsible for keeping them up to date?
- are they regularly and systematically reviewed?
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Does our organisation investigate other quality management systems?
LINK: see Tool 8b.5 to see how where the Disability Services Standards intersect with ISO 9001:2000 and other standards in the disability sector. |
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| Do we participate in awards for excellence within our sector? |
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Have we formed a quality network with other similar organisations?
LINK: see Tool 8b.3 for a sample process for developing a quality network. |
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8b: Continuous improvement and quality management systems case study
Case study 8b.1: Developing a Quality Network (QA Development Group, New England North-West region NSW)
'Our service participated in the QA Development Group with other rural and regional services in the New England North-West region. We had an existing relationship with other services in our region, but we decided to form a QA Development Group to enhance our understanding of the Disability Services Standards prior to our first certification audit. We conducted monthly meetings on each Standard.
Once all the services had gone through the certification process, our group concentrated on continuous improvement activities. For instance:
- several business services in our group were involved with recycling, so we decided to pursue ISO accreditation for recycling services
- we developed a regional marketing plan by assessing where we had business synergies, so that we could pursue joint marketing initiatives
- we created a regional website to link services in our region, and to provide information to service users and customers.
The Ascent Group, NSW
Australian Disability Enterprise and Disability Employment Services provider
Consider these questions:
- How could we benefit from setting up a quality network?
- Do we know any other organisations that share our goals/concerns/interests?
- Would we like to share resources, information or ideas through a network?
For a sample process for setting up a quality network, refer to Tool 8b.3 below
Some additional quality network links:
Disability Peak Bodies:
8b: Tools
Tool 8b.1: Sample process for systematic internal audits
You can use the process below as a guide for how your service could arrange and document a system of internal audits.
Systematic internal audits—a sample process
This sample process describes one systematic way of conducting regular internal audits against the Disability Services Standards.
Month-by-month actions
January:
- arrange meeting process
- assess the organisation's performance against Standard 1: Service access.
- Convene an internal audit committee meeting with representation from participants/supported employees, support staff, management and the Board of your organisation. At the initial meeting you should:
- determine a regular meeting date for each month
- arrange for minutes to be taken for each meeting
- arrange for outcomes to be reported to the Board with a list of actions to be addressed.
- Assess your organisation's compliance. Use the self-assessment worksheets (in Section 2B) and the internal audit worksheet (Tool 8b.2) to assess your organisation's compliance with and continuous improvement against the Standard. Other information you could use to assess your organisation includes:
- de-identified information from your complaints register
- participant/supported employee feedback
- issues identified by other meetings/committees in your organisation (e.g. occupational health and safety (OH&S) committees, management committees)
- observations contained in the report from your certification audit or annual surveillance audit.
- Develop a priority list of actions to be completed against the Standard.
- Document actions to be taken on a 'continuous improvement register', which should include the following information:
Action to be taken |
Person responsible |
Anticipated timeframe |
Action completed?
 |
- Appoint a designated person to be responsible for updating the register at each monthly meeting.
February:
- Assess the organisation's performance against Standard 2: Individual needs.
- Follow-up actions from the previous meeting
- Convene an internal audit committee meeting.
- Assess your organisation's compliance with and continuous improvement against the Standard.
- Develop a priority list of actions to be completed against the Standard and document them on the 'continuous improvement register'
- Follow-up actions added to the register at the previous month's meeting.
- Document the results of actions.
March:
- Assess the organisation's performance against Standard 3: Decision-making and choice.
- Follow-up actions from the previous meeting.
- Convene an internal audit committee meeting.
- Assess your organisation's compliance with and continuous improvement against the Standard.
- Develop a priority list of actions to be completed against the Standard and document them on the 'continuous improvement register'.
- Follow-up actions added to the register at the previous month's meeting.
- Document the results of actions.
- Continue to use this process throughout the year, assessing one Standard for each month and documenting and tracking actions taken against each Standard.
Tool 8b.2: Internal audit worksheets
You can print out these internal audit worksheets and use them as templates to plan and document continuous improvement activities for your organisation under each KPI of the Disability Services Standards.
You may wish to distribute them among staff, management and participants/supported employees. This task could be shared out, with individuals or work groups taking on the internal audit of specific Standards.
You may wish to attach an extra page if you need more space for your response. It is important to think about documenting evidence of your actions towards each KPI. You may wish to refer to the name and/or number/date of relevant policies and procedures, or append copies of these policies and procedures to your worksheets, which could then be provided to your certification body. Evidence should be in the form of actual outcomes and achievements.
Tool 8b.3: Sample process for developing a quality network
You can use this process in your organisation to document your planning towards developing a quality network.
Developed with the assistance of The Ascent Group, NSW
Tool 8b.4: Sample exercise for engaging staff in continuous improvement
The exercise described below is called in the 'Five in five' game. It is used at NOVA Employment and Training, NSW to prompt staff to generate ideas for the continuous improvement of the organisation.
You can use it to:
- encourage staff to generate ideas for improving your service
- link ideas and suggestions to continuous improvement plans
- increase overall organisational 'ownership' of continuous improvement.
As the exercise is intended to involve all staff of a service, it should take place at an event or meeting where all staff are present (for instance, if you have a regular meeting involving all staff, you could introduce this exercise during that meeting). However, the game can also be played by smaller groups.
Step one: play the 'Five in five' game
- Everyone in the room has five minutes of think of five things that they would change to improve the organisation. The changes could relate to internal issues (facilities, ideas for staff training) or to providing quality service delivery to people with disability
- Each person must announce their list of five improvements to the room.
- Staff cannot repeat an idea that has already been mentioned, but can refine or develop ideas mentioned by others.
- Encourage and motivate staff by giving out rewards and small prizes for good ideas.
- Designate one or two people in the room to write the ideas up onto a whiteboard or butcher's paper.
Step two: review the results
- Type up the results from the game into a list, with the idea recorded next to the name of the staff member who recommended it.
- Review the results. At NOVA Employment, the results are reviewed by the CEO and regional managers. The structure of your organisation will determine who reviews the results. It needs to be someone with the capacity to implement decisions based on the review. As part of the review:
- assess the practicality of the ideas
- for ideas that are practical, designate a person from a relevant area of the organisation to be responsible for action/investigation, and a reasonable timeframe.
- for ideas that are not practical, note that the idea will not be followed-up, and the reason why not
- record all decisions made, as well as timeframes and responsible people, on the list of ideas.
- The reviewers designate a person responsible for maintaining the list.
Step three: re-circulate the list
- Re-circulate the list to all staff, so that they can see what will happen with their idea and who is responsible for it.
Step four: action and review the ideas
- As items on the list are actioned or investigated, the person responsible should notify:
- the staff member who thought of the idea originally
- the person responsible for maintaining the list.
- At the next whole-of-staff meeting, the list should be reviewed. Any ideas which have not been actioned or investigated should become priority matters.
- Start the process again for more improvement ideas!
Step five: use your records
- The list of improvement ideas linked to documented actions can be used as evidence of continuous improvement activities. You can use the list for reference in your internal audits, as well as in the evidence you present to your third-party certification body.
[Prepared with the assistance of NOVA Employment and Training, NSW, Australian Disability Enterprise and Disability Employment Services provider]
Tool 8b.5: Disability sector Standards comparison tool18
This tool was created by the Institute for Healthy Communities Australia on behalf of Disability Services Queensland. It includes reference to the Queensland Disability Service Standards, Home and Community Care National Service Standards and the Veterans Home Care Standards. You can use it to determine where there are convergences between the systems, to allow you to consider joint sources of evidence and integrated administrative systems
. Note that not all of the Disability Services Standards have a match within ISO 9001:2000.
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