The development of a culturally appropriate Quality Framework for services funded under the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program (the Program) was one of a group of Australian Government measures which aim to support access to quality aged care services for people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Australian Healthcare Associates (AHA) in partnership with Yaran Business Services (Yaran) was engaged by the Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) to develop the Quality Framework.
The project to develop the Quality Framework was completed in June 2011. The Quality Framework provides a baseline set of culturally appropriate quality standards for the provision of care related services to aged care recipients. It forms the basis of DoHA’s quality assurance monitoring for the Program and supports the Program’s service providers to continually improve their services.
AHA and Yaran acknowledge the assistance and participation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service providers, their Elders and Communities, as well as representatives from DoHA, in the development of the Quality Framework.
Project activity included:
- Initial consultation forums with 28 service providers and representatives from DoHA Central Office and State and Territory Offices (STOs)
- Completion of a literature scan
- Review and mapping of Quality Programs common to flexible aged care services.
- Design and delivery of five workshops across Australia for stakeholders, to introduce the draft Quality Framework and accompanying resources
- Support for service providers to complete a self assessment against the draft Standards
- Undertaking a trial of the Framework which entailed 21 site visits in order to conduct quality assessments based on the draft Framework consultation with DoHA State and Territory Officers on pilot planning and their participation in the pilot
- Using stakeholder feedback from the trial to develop the final Quality Framework.
Further details are available at the
Minister for Ageing’s website