How can Peers Evaluate the Quality of their Accommodation Services? ASID Conference 2018 The Gold Coast November 15th 2018

Who are we? Patricia O’Brien, Director of CDS Anne Bryce, CEO of Achieve Australia The Quality Checkers

What is Quality Checkers? Choice Support UK

Project Aims The Quality Checkers Project was designed to assess the efficacy and feasibility of the Quality Checkers Program in the Australian Context.

The Project so far:

Quality Checker pairs:

What does a Quality Checker do? The role of a quality checker is to talk to people in their homes where they live about their lives. We use a whole list of ways to find out if the support they are getting is good enough for them as individuals. Most importantly we use our own lived experience to check if the support people get is good and of high quality.

But what is Quality? Quality can mean different things to different people. So before trying to find out whether people with disabilities are getting quality support we need to ask ‘what is quality?’

Reach Standards Support for living an ordinary life Quality Checkers is based on a set of standards called the ‘Reach’ standards. Reach is a resource and set of standards developed in the UK to encourage people to explore what support for living an ordinary life looks like for a person. If changes are needed in a person’s life, Reach helps you agree the desired changes, plan them and take action together. Reach: Support for living an ordinary life is NOT a model. No two lives should be the same. Reach defines what support for living is through a set of 11 standards and helps to ensure people receive, or are moving towards, support for living their ordinary life. The Reach Standards are based on the UN Declaration of the Rights of People with disabilities and are focused on increasing the voice and control of people with disabilities to live the life that they want to live.

Reach Standards 1) I choose who I live with 2) I choose where I live 3) I have my own home 4) I choose how I am supported The reach standards are: I choose who I live with I choose where I live I have my own home I choose how I am supported

Reach Standards 5) I get good support 6) I choose who supports me 7) I choose how to be healthy and safe 8) I choose my friends and relationships I get good support I choose who supports me I choose how to be healthy and safe I choose my friends and relationships

Reach Standards 9) I choose how to take part in my community 10) I have the same rights and responsibilities as other citizens 11) I get help to make changes in my life I choose how to take part in my community I have the same rights and responsibilities as other citizens I get help to make changes in my life

Do you get good care and support? Do you have many friends? Example Questions: Do you get good care and support? Do you have many friends? Do you get to go out? Do you have a job? Are you safe? There are lots of questions that we ask to find out whether someone is receiving quality support and housing. Questions like: Do you get good care and support? Do you have many friends? Do you get to go out? Do you have a job? Are you safe?

What do Quality Checkers do? Watch what happens in people’s homes and how they get the support from their staff and how they make choices in their lives. Listen what people tell us about their lives and their support.

Writing the Reports

Writing the Reports This is an example of one of the questions in our report. If we thought that the support they were getting was good based on what we saw and heard we would leave the green tick. If we thought there was room for improvement or we had more questions that we wanted to ask about this question then we would leave the orange question mark. There is also space for us to write our answer to this question underneath.

Formulating Action Plans Once the report was completed we sent it back to Achieve to create an ‘action plan.’ This was made in collaboration with Achieve’s Quality Team, the house manager and support worker and the resident.

What we Found Out From the Reports 21 reports were written by our Quality Checkers pairs Each report had 56 questions Of 1176 possible questions across 21 reports 237 orange question marks were given On average each report had approximately 11 (11.3) issues the Quality Checkers thought Achieve management should look into

Feedback to the organisation

Feedback to the organisation

Feedback to the organisation Orange question marks did not necessarily indicate there was a problem that needed to be addressed. Often it indicated the Quality Checkers wanted more information Sometimes question marks came up because Quality Checkers found it difficult to understand a question or to use the report template

UK versus Australia

Being a Quality Checker: Nervous about doing their first interviews Excited about being able to give people a voice Happy to meet new people who have a shared lived experience

Being a Quality Checker: I like the whole process except I get … a bit worried about [it]beforehand. I’m excited. I think it’s very exciting to meet new people and … empowering them and being impartial and having that voice.  

Being a Quality Checker: …you can see more accurately what’s going on when you’re actually there seeing what goes on instead of relying on either what a staff or a client would see because they could change things around. I’m quite fortunate to be able to be going through this process being a quality checker … to know that I can be a voice, I can meet new people.

Further Research: CDS researchers are currently conducting interviews with members of Achieve management The Residents will have a return visit from the Quality Checkers to find out what has changed.

Anne Bryce Fiona Miller Merrill Patton Patricia O’Brien Tanya Riches Suzie Jessep Michele Foster Bruce O’Brien Kade Gordon Jack Kelly Iman Rahbani Megan Nouyeaux Mark Walters