The Quality Review Cycle

The review cycle has four stages within a three-year period.  These stages are:

Internal Review a 12-18 months self assessment period where the organisation self-assesses against the Quality Standards, using an agreed process say through team meetings every week or fortnight. The outcomes of the discussions are recorded in a workbook called a Quality Journal provided by Te Wana.

This period is like a “stock take” of the organisational systems, policies and processes. It also provides an opportunity for identifying gaps and developing ideas for improvement and making some of those improvements.

Planning and time are crucial. The organisation needs to prepare for the internal assessment, allow people time to participate and plan in advance which standards will be assessed, how and when.  Designated people are also by Te Wana in organising the internal assessment and review cycle process.

External Review a team of 2 to 4 trained peer reviewers the organisation to undertakes an onsite assessment over 2 to 5 days against the standards. This includes reading the self-assessment workbook, policies and other documents, and conducting group interviews of a range of people involved with your organisation, including community networks.

 Feedback a written review report by the review team provides an overview of organisational context, strengths, areas for improvement and gives recommendations and commendations. The report is independently audited, sent to the organisation for comment or feedback and then finalised.

 Taking Action Quality Workplan the Quality Workplan is an action plan for working through the recommendations of the Review Report. Recommendations identify what needs to be done to meet the Quality Standards and to help an organisation make further improvements. Often many of the review recommendations simply affirm self identified actions from the Internal Review. The Quality Workplan phase is usually about 12 – 18 months, with progress reports made every six months to Te Wana.  Demonstrated progress on the Quality Workplan is necessary for proceeding to an Accreditation Review if this option is elected.

Accreditation Review the Accreditation Review is also undertaken by a team of trained peer reviewers and uses similar processes as the Development Review including interviews, document assessment, facility visits. In addition it looks at progress in meeting the recommendations of the Development Review and the integration of a culture of continuous improvement.

The self-assessment is updated for any significant changes and specific audit tools are completed for example on client records and consumer, community consultation. The review team provides a full written report on the achievement of the quality standards.

If all requirements are met, then the review team will make a recommendation for accreditation that needs to be endorsed by the Quality Improvement Council. A Quality Workplan is again developed to act on recommendations from the review team after the accreditation review.

In some cases, an organisation may achieve the requirements for Accreditation at the time of the Development Review and can make an application for Accreditation status. This may be the case for well-established groups with comprehensive quality systems in place.