Principles of the system
Four principles have guided the development of the Disability Sector Quality System and the supports delivered during implementation.
Using these principles, the quality system is being implemented with a developmental approach that focuses on building the capacity and increasing the capability of key stakeholders affected by the system, including service providers, service users and their families and carers.
1. Ownership
It is recognised that supports need to be designed to promote ownership by service providers and service users of their internal systems and the system as a whole. Outcomes can be achieved through the effective implementation and maintenance of those systems.
The quality system is owned by the sector and is fundamentally about the best possible outcomes for people with a disability. Service providers determine for themselves what their quality system will look like and how it will be implemented in a way that suits their business.
2. Diversity
Diversity recognises that service providers and service users have varying levels of experience with this type of system and that varying levels of organisational maturity exists across the sector.
The support strategies being implemented by the quality system project team provide the sector with options and choice. The Queensland Disability Service Standards and the Queensland Disability Advocacy Standards operate at a systems level to enable service providers to develop processes that suit their business and their service delivery setting, and provide the best outcomes for their service users.
3. Flexibility
Flexibility is important both in system design and in the supports provided to effectively implement a quality management system. Service providers should have access to appropriate support at relevant times during their implementation process and where possible, at a time and location that suits their needs.
Flexibility helps reinforce the message of ownership as service providers decide for themselves when, how and what supports they access.
Disability Services Queensland is implementing the quality system in flexible ways so that service providers can progress at different rates through the implementation cycle, to suit their specific needs and capacity.
4. Partnerships
Partnerships recognise that effective networks and mentoring with key stakeholders are critical to the implementation and sustainability of the quality system, including promoting partnerships between service providers and service users, their families and carers.
Visit the Partnerships section to find out more information about some of the key partnerships within the sector in relation to the quality system.
Last updated May 2008