Action - Develop ways for feedback on quality of services and support

The action outlined below will help achieve this outcome. This work was started under the existing Disability Action Plan.

6. Priority: Increase the capability of disability support service providers to be of service to disabled people

6 A: Develop and implement effective ways for disabled people and DPOs to provide feedback (both qualitative and quantitative) safely about the quality of services and support and to monitor, evaluate, and scrutinise and make providers accountable to funders for achieving outcomes.

Progress update to September 2018

Status: Completed in October 2016

Action Milestones:

Appointment of a Provider as a result of an open tender process [complete]

Malatest appointed as Provider as a result of open tender process.

Progress reports will be provided on the work of the provider [complete]

Malatest has:

Developed and implemented a survey based on the Schalock Quality of Life Framework which measures satisfaction with 8 domains, i.e. personal development, self-determination, interpersonal relations, social inclusion, rights, emotional well-being, physical well-being, material well-being.
Supported 17 people with disabilities to conduct 332 face to face interviews with people living in Ministry of Health funded community residential services in Wellington, Auckland and Manawatu.
Received 24 responses to the online survey.
35 responses were received from proxies (family / whānau)
Overall quality of life score was 84%
Results will be presented to the Disability Consumer. Consortium and five Disability Support Services (DSS) Provider Forums.

Final report on Community Residential Service User Feedback [complete]

Lead: Ministry of Health

Others involved: Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Development

DPOs lead: Deaf Aotearoa

Scope of action

This scope of this action was approved by the governance meeting of the Chief Executives' Group on Disability Issues and Disabled People's Organisations on 4 September 2015.

Action: Develop and implement effective ways for disabled people and DPOs to provide feedback (both qualitative and quantitative) safely about the quality of services and support and to monitor, evaluate, and scrutinise and make providers accountable to funders for achieving outcomes.

1 Lead

Ministry of Health

2 Contributors/partners with lead – who is involved in this action?

Advice on this action will be sought particularly from the Disability Action Plan working group members:

Disabled Persons’ Assembly
People First
Enrich Plus
Ministry of Education
Ministry of Social Development.

Other stakeholders that could be involved include:

IHC Advocacy
MOH Disability Consumer Consortium
MOH Maori Disability Advisory Group
MOH Faiva Ora Disability Leadership Group

3 What is the purpose of this action and how will it be implemented?

The purpose of this action is to:

create a mechanism to allow the voices of people with disabilities using government-funded services to be heard directly, regarding the quality of those services
use this information to work with providers to improve the services being delivered and improve satisfaction with the services.

4 What is included in the scope of this action?

In the initial stage, only residential services funded by the Ministry of Health are included in the scope of this action.

It is expected at a later stage that the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Development will also be involved in getting feedback directly from disabled people receiving services funded by their departments. Other Ministry of Health-funded disability support services may also be included within the scope in future.

5 What is excluded from the scope of this action?

At this stage other disability support services funded by the Ministry of Health are excluded from the action. Disabled people using residential services were selected for the initial phase as this is the group with the widest range of communication requirements and it was felt that the range of feedback mechanisms developed for this group would provide an excellent starting point for extending to other service users at a later point.

6 What are the timeframes for implementation?

The Ministry of Health is in the process of procuring a provider to develop feedback mechanisms from disabled people living in MOH-funded community residential services. A Request for Information process was completed in April 2015 and following an open tender process, it is expected that a provider will be contracted to begin this work later in 2015.

7 What resources will the lead and partners contribute?

The lead will manage the work within the Ministry of Health and seek advice from the partners.

8 What governance arrangements are in place for this project?

Governance currently sits with the Group Manager Disability Support Services.

9 Reporting – key milestones/deliverables

What are the key milestones (what activity will be achieved by when) – how will progress on the action be tracked and reported via the Office for Disability Issues to the quarterly governance group meetings?

All of the actions below will be reported by the Ministry of Health DSS representative to the group at their regular meetings:

Appointment of a Provider as a result of the open tender process – September 2015
Progress reports will be provided on the work of the provider
Final report on Community Residential Service User Feedback – 30 June 2016.

10 Impact – what are we trying to achieve?

What are indicators of the action’s intended result/outcomes desired?

Disabled people have access to an independent mechanism to express their views and perspectives in relation to Ministry funded community residential services
Evidenced based data obtained for service development, planning and improvement.
Ministry and providers have a greater awareness and understanding of the needs and preferences of disabled people using residential services.

How will these indicators be measured or evaluated?

Quantitative measures - number of service user participants, number of family/whanau member or caregiver participants, number of residential services involved and participate, % response rate

Qualitative measures – feedback, commentary and views captured from disabled people, family/whanau and caregivers in regards to service provision.

11 Evidence base

Is there any research or information (whether qualitative or quantitative) informing this action?

Putting People First Report 2013

Is there any research or information which represents the lived experience of disability?

Enabling Good Lives Report 2011

12 Related work

Is there any other work in the Disability Action Plan 2014-2018 that this action relates to or which contributes to this action?

No.

Is there any other work (outside of the Disability Action Plan) that this action connects with or which contributes to this action?

This work contributes to meeting the recommendations of the Putting People First Report 2013, which included recommendations relating to the necessity of directly hearing the voice of disabled people using Ministry of Health-funded disability support services, and acting on this to improve the quality and outcomes of these services.

This work is also fundamental to the Ministry of Health’s implementation of Results-Based Accountability. Feedback from disabled people will allow Disability Support Services to know the extent to which the services it funds are contributing to disabled people leading good lives.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Ministry of Health DSS Strategic Plan 2014-2018.

Page last updated: 2.03.2019