LICENSING KITSFour Licensing Resource Kits (Training and Information) are now available for download from the Licensing Resource Page. CONCLUSION OF LICENSING PROJECTPeakCare Licensing Project concluded in December. A huge thank you to all the hardworking, committed and innovative organisations that Sue & Lee have had the opportunity to work with. Lee Webb will be finishing in her role at PeakCare. Sue Reade will be finishing in her role for Licensing, however will continue at PeakCare in her other role as Policy and Research Manager. A huge thank you to all the hardworking, committed and innovative organisations that Sue & Lee have had the opportunity to work with. PeakCare is committed to continuing to support organisations to meet the standards and achieve their licence. Licensing (and the standards) are currently a key issue for all out-of-home care service providers and will increasingly become a key issue for all other Department of Child Safety funded organisations. As such, PeakCare will continue its support at a more strategic level as a part of PeakCares core business. Should your organisation or region have any identified needs, issues or suggestions regarding licensing, please contract Sue Reade at sreade@peakcare.com.au or 3368 1050. As a result of this year's project, workshops were conducted across the state, a range of resources were created and "Knowledge Networks" (or similar) were formed in a number of regions. KNOWLEDGE NETWORKS * Cairns * Mackay * Brisbane South & Gold Coast RESOURCE KITS * Systems Basics: Documents, Records & Continuous Improvement * Staff & Carer: Recruitment, Induction, Training & Supervision * Stakeholder Feedback (available Jan 08) * Governance (available Jan 08) INFO SHEETS * Using the Service: Standards 1-6 * Providing the Service: Standards 7-9 * Running the Service: Standards 10-11 * Private Director Managed Organisations * Information, Data & Continuous Improvement * Documentation * Other Resources (General) The Resource Kits and information Sheets are available on our website (under Licensing Project). KNOWLEDGE NETWORK FOR BRISBANE SOUTH & GOLD COAST ZONEAt the conclusion of Licensing Workshop at the Logan Hyperdome Library there was general consensus for people to get back together to develop a knowledge network. While the network was expected to initially concentrate on sharing tips and knowledge around licensing, there was also the expressed hope that the networking may lead to some form of shared training resources. The first knowledge network meeting for the Brisbane South and Gold Coast Zone was held on Friday 14th December. All organisations who are licensed or interested in submitting their application for licensing were invited to attend. For any further information, please email Sue Reade: sreade@peakcare.com.au. KNOWLEDGE NETWORKS FOR OTHER ZONESSue Reade is happy to facilitate knowledge networks in other zones where there is not already a network or a learning circle. If you are interested, please contact Sue: sreade@peakcare.com.au or 07 3368 1050. WHAT CAN BE EXPECTED FROM PEAKCARE:PeakCare can provide training and resources to enable services to develop policies and procedures. PeakCare can help review key policies and procedures in preparation for submission of license applications, and after receipt of findings from the independent external auditor. Services who will most benefit from our support include small triennially funded services requiring developmental work (including newly funded services) and small services who have received their IEA report and require assistance with action plans.
PeakCare will use several modes to deliver these services such as:
HOT ISSUESIn consultation with the Department, we are intending to publish some generic comments provided by the external auditor as part of the licensing process. And a reminder, please remember to refer to the Department's Practice Manual and other departmental documents with regard to the following to ensure your policies and procedures dovetail as required: Standard 6 Licensing Manual Reporting of Harm - DCS Practice Manual: Matters of Concern Standard 4 Licensing Record Keeping - Department's Guide for Record Keeping for NGOs. The Department is currently reviewing their documentation around Behaviour Management so until this is available, please make sure you are up-to-date by checking the FAQ page on the Department's website. 1. Revisions to the Licensing Manual. The wording of elements within the Standards has been reviewed, and in some cases rewritten. The Licensing Manual has been amended: Licensing Manual To help you see what changes have been made to the earlier version, including track changes, the variations are posted on the Department’s website in Frequently Asked Questions: Licensing Manual : Part 2, Chapter 1 2. Carer Handbook Did you know there is new handbook for Carers? You can look at this on line, or speak with your CSSC re hard copies. Child Safety Carer Handbook TOP TIPSBy now some organisations have successfully concluded their licensing applications; others have worked their way through the process and have met with the external auditors. They are now onto the next step of responding to comments made in response to the external audit and are working on and implementing their final action plan in order to progress on to penultimate step where their completed application goes before licensing panel. Discussions with staff from the department’s quality assurance branch have highlighted to us that the CROs, auditors and organisations are providing comments around many ‘hot spot’ areas. We therefore wish to once more highlight these issues, and provide guidelines which we hope will help those who are either preparing for their independent audit or working on their post audit action plans. At any stage Sue Reade is available for consultation. Foster Carer ApprovalsIn accordance with legislation, a Foster Carer is responsible for reapplying for Foster Carer Approval before the expiry date of their current approval. It is the Department’s responsibility to process that request for approval. While the Foster Care Service is not responsible for submitting the application, etc. the auditors will be checking that there is input documentation that provides a process for checking currency of approval status, reminds and assists the Carer to submit an application, and has a follow-up process to track where the approval is at with some for of output documentation giving the service all the information needed. Tip One: Make sure you have a system in place to track Foster Care Approval Applications, for example: date application submitted --- date approval received --- if not received in x weeks assist Carer to check with department as to progress of application. In other words, the auditor expects to find that the Service knows the status of all of their Carers and is providing the assistance and support to carers that the standards require. Tip Two: Check if your procedure covers checking a Carers’ approval status. Any procedure should ensure the status of carers’ approvals are known at all times, including new carers transferred from the department.. MatchingMany comments appear to say that some of the residential services are thinking of matching as only taking place when a child is referred to them, forgetting that this is an ongoing process of ‘matching’ the child’s needs to their care environment and to the services provided, e.g. medical needs, education, etc. Tip Three: The auditors will be looking for an ongoing, holistic process – double check your processes to see if they do provide the means for this to happen, and there are records of what has been done. Record KeepingWe hear that organisations are having problems ensuring that records relating to specific procedures are sometimes insufficient, or those records do not go far enough to ‘close the loop’, or the records do not conform to departmental requirements. By ‘closing the loop’ we mean what happens to the record once it has been made, and are the written contents and/or commentary used to initiate any further action, etc.? Tip Four: When in doubt, check with your CRO or refer to the NGO Basic Record Keeping Guide: http://www.childsafety.qld.gov.au/funding/documents/ngo-recordkeeping-guide.pdf Behaviour ManagementMost residential services are meeting the standards for Behaviour Management, but there does seem to have been confusion around procedures relating to Behaviour Management and Foster Care Service Providers because the staff are not the ones providing the care to the child and managing behaviour rather it is the Foster Carer who needs to actively manage behaviours. However, service thus procedures need to reflect the actions taken by service staff to support the Carer. Tip Five: Procedures in Foster Care Services and Specialist Foster Care Services need to indicate how service staff might provide training and advice to Carers, and that all such advice reflects the principles of behaviour management. The procedures should spell out those principles. See also the new Carer Handbook: Child Safety Carer Handbook Matters of ConcernAn overall comment is that the processes of an organisation and of the department need to dovetail each other. It has been acknowledged that the process is lengthy. The service needs to be looking at what they are doing while the department conducts their investigations and makes their determination. In the meantime, the service should have in place procedures around the child and procedures around the staff member. Further more, at the end of the process an organisation should have planned for follow-up action – what next? In several cases commentary reflects that organisations do not know where the process is up to (they haven’t asked the department), nor do they know the outcome (again they have not asked if there is an outcome and what that outcome might be), nor do they have any idea of what actions they may need to take as a result of the outcome. Tip Six: Try flow-charting your process and see if it matches with your written procedures and out put documents. Check for the trail, and check that your staffs know where they fit into the process and what might happen if they themselves are involved in an incident around reporting of harm/potential harm. |
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