Introduction
Quality Assurance system
The 2007–08 Australian Government budget provided funding for the introduction of an independent third-party Quality Assurance (QA) system for advocacy agencies funded under the National Disability Advocacy Program (NDAP). This will replace the current system of departmental audits against the 101 supporting standards which currently apply to non-employment services.
A key feature of the new system is the development of a set of Disability Advocacy Standards and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which agencies will need to be certified against as a future condition of funding.
The purpose of these Standards is to introduce a minimum set of performance requirements for NDAP funded agencies. The Standards aim to establish what is expected of funded advocacy agencies by Government and the Department. The KPIs represent an outcome that needs to be demonstrated or measured in order to meet each Standard. The Standards will have as their basis the 1993 National Disability Services Standards which were developed in the context of the Commonwealth State Territory Disability Agreement (CSTDA). The National Disability Services Standards are a core set of Standards applicable to all CSTDA funded disability services, including advocacy.
In 2006, two consultative bodies were created to develop the draft set of Disability Advocacy Standards and KPIs. These groups identified a draft set of 11 Standards and 24 KPIs as the basis for consultation with the sector.
Consultations
During 2007 and early 2008, FaHCSIA undertook two rounds of consultations with funded advocacy agencies to get their views on the appropriateness of the:
- Broad definition of advocacy and current descriptions of the six models of advocacy funded under the NDAP (Refer Working Towards a Common Understanding of Advocacy presentation paper)
- draft Disability Advocacy Standards and KPIs to the work of advocacy agencies (Refer Disability Advocacy Standards and Key Performance Indicators consultation paper)
- approach to introducing specifically tailored evidence guidelines for each of the different models of advocacy (and examples of the types of evidence appropriate to different models of advocacy
- Objectives and Principles for the change process (Refer Objectives and Principles consultation paper).
Agencies were also asked to consider how FaHCSIA can work with agencies to ensure that the Disability Advocacy Standards and KPIs are accessible to people with disability.
Advocacy agencies were invited to make written submissions in response to the consultation papers prepared by FaHCSIA. In total, 64 submissions were received from 39 advocacy agencies and one individual. The submissions varied significantly in depth and detail, as well as the nature of the comments.
ARTD Consultants were engaged by FaHCSIA to prepare a summary report of the written submissions and to independently prepare recommendations for a revised set of Disability Advocacy Standards, Key Performance Indicators, Evidence Guidelines, advocacy definitions and Objectives and Principles that incorporated the feedback from the sector. These recommendations are included as part of an overall Quality Assurance framework.
Consultation report
This report summarises the consultation submissions from advocacy agencies and makes recommendations for incorporating their feedback into the new quality assurance system (Section 2). Detailed findings are presented in two parts. Part 1 of the report (Section 3) presents ARTD’s proposal for the revised Quality Assurance framework, and Part 2 (Section 4, 5 and 6) presents a detailed summary of the consultation submissions.
It is intended that the consultation report be made publically available to ensure the feedback from the sector is widely disseminated to all key stakeholders. The report will be used as the basis for:
- Practically using the Standards and KPIs during the trial of the National Disability Advocacy Program Quality Assurance system
- Feeding into the development of the third party certification system for the NDAP
- Developing a Quality Assurance system handbook that can be used by advocacy agencies in preparing for and participating in the quality system.
- Disseminating feedback on the QA Consultations to the NDAP sector