Q. When will my organisation be assessed?
A. Assessments will be conducted on a state-by-state basis. An indicative schedule of assessments is available at
Information Sessions & Assessment Schedule
Q. My organisation provides FRSP services from more than one service delivery site. Will AHA conduct an assessment at each outlet?
A. One assessment only per funded agency will occur. To check staff knowledge of policies and procedures in relation to the attributes and standards, the AHA assessors will conduct telephone interviews with staff/management at some or all of the other outlets. Please refer to Section 4.2 Determining Compliance on page 23 of this document.
Q. Does my organisation need to conduct a self assessment?
A. Funded agencies are not required to complete and submit a self assessment. Funded agencies are however, encouraged to utilise the tools provided to them – Assessment Workbook and Guide to Compliance Ratings – to ‘self assess’ prior to the assessment site visit. This will assist in determining compliance on the day of assessment.
Q. My organisation has been found partially/non-compliant. Will AHA be following up with my organisation to help me achieve full compliance?
A. AHA is contracted to conduct the Approval Requirements assessments. We will identify, in consultation with funded agencies, recommended actions for agencies to achieve full compliance. We will not, however, be assisting agencies to carry out the recommended actions. We will conduct a re-assessment via desk audit of areas that were found to be partially and/or non-compliant at the assessment, and will provide a report on our re-assessment findings.
Funded Agencies may be able to receive support and/or feedback related to their progress in addressing compliance requirements between the assessment and the reassessment from their STO.
Q. My organisation was found to be fully compliant. Can we claim to be "accredited" and publicise the fact that we achieved full compliance?
A. The FRSP Approval Requirements assessment is a compliance and quality improvement process rather than an accreditation process.
Q. Why is the lead agency of a consortium responsible for ensuring compliance with the FRSP Approval Requirements?
A. Commonwealth Government Requests for Applications for Funding clearly state that a consortium submitting an application must appoint one of the member organisations as the lead member and that the lead member must:
- be the applicant;
- act as agent for the other members;
- submit the application; and
- be the legal entity that, if successful, will enter a funding Agreement with the Commonwealth of Australia.
As the funding recipient, the lead agency is required to comply with all Funding Agreement requirements, including the FRSP Approval Requirements.
Q. Why aren’t consortium members subject to an independent assessment of compliance with the FRSP Approval Requirements?
A. The department’s business relationship is with the lead agency only. As the funding recipient, the lead agency assumes responsibility for ensuring all members of the consortium comply with the FRSP Approval Requirements. How consortium members demonstrate compliance to the lead is a matter for the consortium to decide.
Q. Why is a consortium member required to demonstrate compliance to the lead agency when it is also required to demonstrate compliance in its own right?
A. Where an organisation has entered into a Funding Agreement with the Commonwealth of Australia to deliver services, it is required to demonstrate compliance with the FRSP Approval Requirements.
When that same organisation becomes a member of a consortium and shares responsibility for service delivery with the lead agency, it becomes part of a service delivery structure that is different to and separate from its own organisational structure.
Because the lead agency in a consortium assumes responsibility for ensuring compliance by all members with the FRSP Approval Requirements, a consortium member’s responsibility within this type of service structure is to demonstrate compliance to the lead.