Quality Reporting
What is Quality Reporting?
Quality Reporting is the Australian Government’s process for encouraging community care providers to review, refine and continuously improve the quality of their service delivery. The program applies to approved providers receiving Australian Government subsidies for the provision of:- Community Aged Care Packages (CACP);
- Extended Aged Care at Home (EACH) Packages;
- Extended Aged Care at Home Dementia (EACHD) Packages; and
- Services funded under the National Respite for Carers Program (NRCP).
Quality Reporting is based on a continuous quality improvement model aimed at ensuring service providers have systems and processes in place that result in high quality services for their clients. Many providers have been doing this for a long time; therefore Quality Reporting is an opportunity to report on these achievements using an agreed reporting format.
Under the Quality Reporting Program reviews of service outlets are carried out by quality reviewers employed in the Department of Health and Ageing State and Territory Offices.
How was it developed?
Quality Reporting was developed by the Department of Health and Ageing in consultation with providers of community care. It arose from a view put forward by the community care sector that community care needed a quality system that was flexible enough to cater to the needs of different types of providers. The Quality Reporting model was chosen because it places a strong emphasis on local needs, focusing on improvements that will work in each individual situation.How does it work?
Quality Reporting requires providers, at least once every three years, to report on their systems for delivering quality services.The quality review process is a six step process.
- Notification of the quality review - The Department notifies a service provider of the commencement of a quality review.
- Self-assessment - The service provider completes a self-assessment which is then reviewed by quality reviewers.
- On-site visit - Quality reviewers undertake an on-site visit to look at whether service provider’s practices and processes meet the required quality standards.
- Quality review report - Quality reviewers complete a report of the quality review for the service provider showing how they have performed against the quality standards.
- Improvement plan - The Department notifies the service provider of the overall outcome of the review and develops an improvement plan with the service provider to address any gaps in service or procedures.
- Annual improvement plan - Quality reviewers undertake a review of the improvement plan with the service provider on at least an annual basis.
The wider context
Community Care Quality Reporting commenced in July 2005, with the first cycle completed in 2008. In December 2007, the Department commissioned an independent internal review of the Quality Reporting Program. The review found that the Program is performing well overall and there have been significant achievements by Providers and the Department in continuous quality improvement.Common Standards for Community Care
The Community Care Common Standards have been developed jointly by the Australian Government and State and Territory Governments as part of broader community care reforms to develop common arrangements that help to simplify and streamline the way community care is delivered. The Community Care Common Standards apply from 1 March 2011.For more information please refer to Community Care Common Standards
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