Indicators of Service Quality

In assessing practice against each area, organisations should identify and record evidence across all aspects of the service practice including:

• Documentation – policies and procedures
• Systems and processes
• Executive Leadership Group
• Staff knowledge
• What people using services say about the complaints system
• What staff say about the complaints system
• Observable practice.

In assessing your organisation’s approach to service improvements as a result of complaints handling, areas for improvement should be identified and action plans developed. It is important to recognise that quality services are continually changing as they identify new and better ways of providing a service.

For example, if your organisation has specified that a particular element of your complaints system is partially addressed (rating 2 or 3), the details should be recorded.  Actions plans should then be formulated to ensure the service addresses the areas requiring improvement, allocates a responsible officer and has reporting requirements and timeframes in place. A sample response is provided as an example of how the self audit may be used.

How to use this framework

Remember, an organisational self assessment is designed to provide your organisation with information on how to improve its service. It is important as part of this process to be able to identify existing good practice and successes so that these can be built upon. As improvement is always possible, even where a service assesses itself as meeting the indicator, further improvement measures may be considered.

One approach to these tasks is through a continuous improvement process involving the steps of 'Plan, Do; Study; Act'. The Department's Quality and Safety Framework also has information about continuous improvement.

Assessment indicator - rating the extent to which you meet the indicator

Once you have identified and cited evidence to support your response to an indicator you need to decide the level of quality using the four level rating scale outlined in the Rating scale for self-audit below.

Where the rating for any indicator in the matrix is 1 or 2, the service meets the indicator. If the rating is 3 or 4, then the service should be assessed as not currently meeting that indicator.

If there is insufficient information to provide a rating then the (i) symbol can be used provisionally to denote the need to obtain further information to be able to finalise the assessment and give a rating. Make sure you confirm all such ratings before you finalise the self assessment and if you are unable to cite evidence then the rating should be a 3 or 4.

Rating scale for self audit

• Rating 1 – Practice is consistent and meets the indicator
• Rating 2 – Practice meets the indicator but is not  always consistent
• Rating 3 – Practice is consistent but does not meet the indicator
• Rating 4 – Practice does not meet the indicator and is not  consistent

Requirement

It is important to get different perspectives on your complaints system and how well it is working. Make sure you get the perspectives of people with disability, families and staff as this will provide a comprehensive picture of the strengths of the current system and areas requiring further development/improvement.