AHA has been engaged by the Victorian Department of Human Services to conduct both the first and second round quality assessments of HACC service providers in Victoria, against the HACC National Service Standards. These standards have been developed to assist in ensuring high quality service delivery to consumers of community care.
The first round of assessments involved the assessment of 481 providers and was conducted from June 2003 to June 2004. It included the following five key elements:
- Development of additional assessment tools to assist in the assessment of agencies against the HACC national service standards.
- Training of approximately 800 agency staff from 500 organisations in relation to the standards
- Piloting the assessment process with a cross-section of providers
- Desk based assessment followed by site visit and assessment. The service visits involved working closely with the agency, reviewing evidence sources, and consulting with staff
- Consultation with clients via a survey (available in 11 languages) or focus group regarding their satisfaction with service delivery, and client outcomes
- Ongoing assistance, guidance and encouragement for service providers in embracing continuous quality improvement.
Based upon surveys completed by participants, both the staff training and assessment program were considered highly successful. Over 92% of training participants' regarded the training as either excellent or good. The majority (88%) of agencies viewed the assessment program overall as either excellent (38%) or good (50%). Similarly, 86% believed that they obtained excellent or good benefits from their assessment. T his is regarded as an outstanding outcome for a project of this nature.
AHA is currently conducting the second round of assessments in Victoria. This project, which is ongoing until mid 2008, involves the assessment of 375 HACC service providers against the National Service Standards. Having built upon and improved our approach to the first round of assessments, AHA is once again delivering high quality outcomes and are on schedule to complete the project within time and budget.
At present, 93% of the agencies that completed a post-audit survey viewed the assessment program overall as either excellent (41%) or good (52%). Also, 94% believed that they had an appropriate and adequate number of opportunities to comment on, and provide input to, the final report and their action plan.
For provider resources and further information regarding this Assessment Program, please click on the following link:
HACC Project Resources - Victoria