Human Services Quality Framework (HSQF)

Roll-out to Community Services and Child and Family Support Services

From 1 July 2015

Overview of the session

Part 1 - The big picture

  • Introduction and background of HSQF
  • Human Services Quality Standards

Part 2 –HSQF Roll-Out to Community Services and Child and Family Support Services

  • Methods of demonstrating compliance for new services
  • Timeframes and processes
  • Resources and supports
  • Tips on preparing for quality assessment activities

Why do we have standards and a quality framework?

  • Universally standards provide a benchmark for assessing the quality of service delivery.
  • Standards help to:
  • provide consistency and reliability in service delivery
  • improve quality practices
  • safeguard vulnerable customers and provide confidence
  • Quality framework helps to ensure that the government gets what it pays for when contracting organisations to deliver services or when delivering services itself (e.g. disability services).
  • Integral part of Queensland disability services since 2004 resulting in more than 280 organisations improving quality of service delivery

HSQF features and benefits

  • A framework for assessing and improving the quality of human services.
  • It features:
  • a set of quality standards (Human Services Quality Standards) covering core elements of human service delivery
  • an assessment process to review the performance of service providers against the standards
  • a continuous improvement framework supporting the participation of customers in quality improvement.
  • Designed to:
  • ensure the rights and individual needs of customers are respected
  • promote quality outcomes for customers
  • enable customer participation in service development, planning and evaluation
  • support and promote ownership of quality systems by service providers
  • be administratively efficient
  • support and promote innovation in service delivery.

Human Service Quality Standards

  • Set of common standards for human services
  • Standard 1: Governance and management
  • Standard 2: Service access
  • Standard 3: Responding to individual need
  • Standard 4: Safety, wellbeing and rights
  • Standard 5: Feedback, complaints and appeals
  • Standard 6: Human resources

Useful terms to clarify

  • Organisations are expected to deliver services in accordance with Human Services Quality Standards
  • There are different methods of demonstrating compliance with the standards – most common are certification and self-assessment
  • Certification is wherean independent third party (known as a certification body)assesses a service providerfor compliance against the standards. It involves an assessment (audit) of policies, procedures, systems and processes to ensure these are working and services are being delivered to a required standard and identifyingareas for further improvement.
  • Self-assessment is where a service provider rates their own performance against the standards,identifying what is working well and what improvements need to be implemented over time. It involves reviewing processesand documentation through completing a workbook and then implementing a continuous improvement plan.

Service Provider Experience

Roll-out to Community Services and Child and Family Support Services (Phase 2)

  • Commences from 1 July 2015
  • Progressive transition of Community Services and Child and Family Support Services to new quality requirements
  • Changes to quality requirements for community care services and for low-funded and low risk disability services to ensure a consistent whole-of-department approach to quality

New version of the HSQF

  • To support Phase 2 roll-out, a new version of the Quality Framework (Version 3.0), has been issued.
  • V3.0 specifies an inclusion status for all services types across all funding streams
  • The previous V2.1 did not cover Phase 2 Community Services and Child and Family Support Service types and the methods of demonstrating compliance with the standards.
  • Available on the HSQF website.

Methods of demonstrating compliance with the standards

  • 3-step process to respond to the diversity of Phase 2 service types
  • Risk assessment to determine an inclusion status for each service type:
  • In-scope for certification
  • Evidence of other accreditation or certification
  • Self-assessable
  • Not required to demonstrate compliance
  • Identified exceptions – where the inclusion status will not apply.
  • Simplified further – one method of demonstration only for each organisation and only one self-assessment required.

Inclusion Status: In-scope for certification

  • The majority of Phase 2 service types funded under the Investment Specifications listed below provide direct services to vulnerable clients and will therefore be in-scope for certification:
  • Child Protection (Support Services)
  • Families
  • Domestic and Family Violence
  • Individuals
  • Young People
  • Older People
  • A small number of service types are deferred until advised by the department:
  • Child Safety Recognised Entity
  • Secondary Intensive Family Support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Family Support Services
  • Gambling Help services
  • Majority of seniors services (until 1 January 2016)

Inclusion Status: Evidence of other accreditation or certification

  • Applies on a case-by-case basis where an organisation is accredited or certified against approved industry standards for specific services or where the HSQS are not the most appropriate standards
  • Peaks – ISO 9001:2008
  • Seniors Legal and Support Services – National Accreditation Scheme for Community Legal Services
  • Volunteering – Australian Quality Training Framework
  • Other standards may emerge through Phase 2 roll-out – applications for recognition will be considered on a case-by-case basis. If your organisation is already certified under other standards, contact your regional office to discuss.

Inclusion Status: Self-assessable

  • Applies to non-direct service delivery and/or universal or low-intensity services.
  • Four service types are self-assessable:
  • Neighbourhood Centres
  • Youth Parliament
  • Safer Schoolies
  • Child Safety Educational Support
  • These services will not be audited even in organisations that have other services that are in-scope for independent audit.

Inclusion Status: Not required to demonstrate compliance

Service types delivering one-off funding or other types of non-direct service delivery.

  • One-off grants including emergency relief, community recovery and drought support
  • Events and ‘weeks’ e.g. Child Protection Week, Foster and Kinship Care Week, Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month
  • Research and conferences
  • Multi-Tenant Service Centers
  • Pilots including Drink Safe Precincts

Exceptions

  • One-off, short-term and pilot funding - No demonstration required
  • Low funded organisations receiving less than $120,000 per annum in total funding for in-scope services - Self-assessable

Note: Organisations that receive less than $20,000 in funding for in-scope services will generally not be required to demonstrate compliance.

  • Health and hospital services under National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards - No demonstration required.

Note: Exceptions 2 and 3 do not apply where service types are subject to regulatory or other requirements specified by the department e.g. child safety placement services, Male Perpetrator Domestic and Family Violence Intervention Programs, Disability Services using restrictive practices.

Simplifying Further

  • Organisations will only need to demonstrate compliance through one method i.e. either audit, other evidence or through self-assessment.
  • Organisations with multiple self-assessable services will only need to complete one self-assessment.

How do you find out the inclusion status for your organisation?

  • Review the HSQF Quality Framework V3.0 (with your service agreement)
  • details these principles and exceptions in writing
  • companion document to service agreements
  • Contact your regional contract manager or the HSQF team
  • ring and we will advise you
  • regions will progressively meet with organisations to discuss inclusion and commencement dates

  • Review HSQF Organisation Summaries
  • a list of service outlets that are required to demonstrate compliance for each organisation
  • will be uploaded to your OASIS Organisation Details Display page from July 2015

HSQF Organisation Summaries

  • A list of service outlets that are required to demonstrate compliance for each organisation
  • Current as at June 2015
  • Will be uploaded to your OASIS Organisation Details Display page – from July 2015
  • Contact your region for a copy if you cannot locate the document on OASIS.

Timeframes and commencement

1 July 2015 to 1 July 2016

  • All services that are required to demonstrate compliance will transition in or commence.
  • Transition will be gradual to allow organisations, certification bodies and the department to prepare and to prevent a spike in audits.
  • Commencement dates will be spread over 12 months.

Your HSQF Commencement Date

  • Organisations will commence on:
  • The date they enter into a new service agreement from 1 July 2015.
  • The date service agreements that commenced prior to 1 July 2015 are varied.

From 1 July 2015, new service agreements will contain the requirement to demonstrate compliance with HSQF.

  • Note: For existing Phase 1 organisations that have Phase 2 services to transition into audit, timeframes will need to align to your audit cycle and be finalised in consultation with your regional contract manager.

Guiding principles

  • Flexibility
  • where possible, the department will be flexible
  • for many organisations it will be possible to agree to a suitable commencement date for each organisation
  • Early adopters
  • organisations can be ‘early adopters’
  • you can elect to commence earlier or have an early audit
  • Different timeframes, where necessary
  • the department can agree to a different timeframe for certification than the timeframe specified in a service agreement, where the timeframe is not appropriate or reasonably achievable given an individual organisation’s circumstances.

Commencement –What Next?

Regions will progressively set up meetings with organisations to:

  • Discuss and finalise your commencement date.
  • Discuss any service agreement notifications and/or variations that may be required. These will be sent following the meeting.

Note:

  • For organisations already under HSQF that have Phase 2 service outlets the department will negotiate transition arrangements based on scheduled audit dates.
  • Where existing Phase 1 organisations have a large number of services to transition to audit, a phased approach can be considered.

Regions, the HSQF team and QCOSS are here to provide information and answer your questions and assist you to access resources and supports.

Support

The support available is outlined in the following documents available on the HSQF website:

  • HSQF Transition Plan – Community Services and Child and Family Support Services
  • Quality Audit Financial Contributions Fact Sheet

Resources and tools

  • Human Services Quality Framework V3.0
  • Human Services Quality Standards
  • User Guide - currently being updated
  • Self-assessment resources - currently being updated
  • Standards comparison tool
  • Fact sheets and FAQs

New resources being developed:

  • Pathways to Quality – resources and workshops
  • Standards booklet for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

These resources and additional information are available online on the Community Door website

Financial Contributions

Supplementary funding will be available in 2015-16 and 2016-17 to eligible providers as a contribution towards audit costs

  • One-off payment for an audit undertaken in the financial year.
  • Payment amount will reflect the type and scope of audit undertaken and calculated using the approved HSQF audit pricing structure.
  • Payment amounts commence from $3,200 (for a maintenance audit of one service outlet).
  • Financial contributions only available towards audit costs.

Longer-term strategy

  • Build audit costs into service agreement budgets.

The Quality Audit Financial Contributions Fact Sheet provides further information – this is available on the HSQF website.

Queensland Council of Social Service Support Strategy

QCOSS will support Phase 2 roll-out through:

  • Promoting available support to new organisations.
  • Making information available on Community Door.
  • Running workshops on a range of topics responsive to organisational needs e.g. self-assessment, translating standards into practice and preparing for audit.
  • Partnering new and existing organisations.
  • One-on-one support on request from organisations or referral from regions.

HSQF –Two Key Websites

Community Door:

HSQF:

What is this thing called audit?

  • “...audits (among other things) assess the effectiveness of quality and identify improvement”
  • Audit = “a systematic, independent and documented process for obtaining evidence and evaluating it objectively to determine the extent to which criteria are fulfilled”
  • Evidence = “… statements of fact or other information which are relevant to the audit criteria and verifiable - evidence can be qualitative or quantitative”

Mr David Hamer, Managing Director, HDAA Australia Pty Ltd

Tips for preparing for self-assessment and audit

  • Become familiar with the HSQF, standards, resources and tools
  • Engage with stakeholders on what is going to happen - demystify the process for staff
  • Work together to identify roles and responsibilities for planning and preparation
  • Review the specific requirements of each standard and associated indicator
  • Identify and collect evidence that meets the requirement (such as policy and procedure documents, information about service activities, feedback from customers)
  • Make sure policies and procedures drive and reflect service delivery
  • Use the information available on the QCOSS Community Door to assist your organisation in preparing for audit

Choosing an auditing body

  • Each organisation is responsible for selecting and contracting an auditing body (known as certification body) to undertake the HSQF audit.
  • Prior to contracting:
  • shop around – ask other service providers for referrals and recommendations
  • ask for a fee structure and obtain comparative quotes - organisations may need to provide information to receive a quote including the type, location and number of service outlets, the number of staff and estimated number of service users.
  • Ask a certification body about:
  • their audit team’s experience in human services
  • what will the audit report include (the report is a valuable tool to inform ongoing continuous improvement activities)
  • their ongoing responsibilities or obligations.
  • Also consider:
  • engaging a certification body in sufficient time to plan the audit and submit relevant documents as evidence before the audit
  • joining with other organisations in the local area to engage the same certification body, sharing the travel and accommodation cost of an audit team.

Who is approved to audit under the HSQF?

  • AHA Quality Certification Services
  • BSI Group (Australia and New Zealand) Pty Ltd
  • Global-Mark Pty Ltd
  • HDAA Australia Pty Ltd
  • Institute for Healthy Communities Australia Certification Pty Ltd
  • International Standards Certification Pty Ltd
  • SAI Global Certification Services Pty Ltd

Benefits

“Last week the South East Region Disability Services had the pleasure of completing the HSQS Maintenance Audit. The auditors reported that all staff were gracious, patient and willing to participate. They advised that our systems and processes were mature and quality was well embedded in practice. They advised that families were happy with the quality of staff and the support they receive. In particular, they described the Clinical Services Guide and the Capacity Management Tool as “Gold Intellectual Property”, which could easily applied to a wider audience at a national level. In essence, they witnessed good people doing fantastic work in a very challenging environment”.

Patrick Sherry, Regional Director, South East Region, 17 February 2015

Thank you