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The self-assessment and quality improvement planning process
The purpose of this the document is to help services complete the Quality Improvement Plan
after:
Evaluating their current practices through self-assessment against the National Quality
Standard, then
Identifying the practices they can or should improve.
An editable QIP template is available at
http://acecqa.gov.au/quality-improvement-plan_1.
Self-assessment drives reflection on quality education and care
It is important for professionals in any field to have a way of regularly assessing their practice,
recognising their strengths and identifying areas that can be improved.
A consistent process of reflection and evaluation enables services to gain an informed picture of:
Current practice
The quality of education and care experienced by children and families.
This ‘picture’ of current practice highlights and confirms the service’s particular strengths and
is the starting point for planning to improve quality.
Reflection determines quality improvements
The most effective improvements to service delivery are initiated from within the service,
rather than being imposed from the outside. Therefore, once the quality of current practice
in the service is assessed, the next step is to determine where quality improvements can
be made and plan how to implement changes.
Because the focus is on quality improvement at the service, it is important to be open, honest
and critically reflective when undertaking the self-assessment and quality improvement
planning processes.
Services may already have in place a comprehensive process of reflection, self-assessment and
evaluation. If this is the case, it is recommended that the National Quality Standard and related
regulatory requirements be incorporated into these processes to ensure that all standards and
elements outlined in the National Quality Standard are considered in the self-assessment process.
While it is important to reflect on practice, policies and procedures against the seven quality areas
of the National Quality Standard and related regulatory requirements, there is no expectation that
all 18 standards and 58 elements will be addressed in the Quality Improvement Plan.
It is intended that services will prioritise areas for improvement against the seven quality areas
of the National Quality Standard and the related regulatory requirements. For example, in the
event that during the self-assessment process it is identified that the service is not meeting a
regulatory requirement, then this should be either addressed immediately or identified as a
priority for attention in the Quality Improvement Plan.
www.acecqa.gov.au
Last updated June 2014 FOUR – Guide to Developing a Quality Improvement Plan 5
It is likely that services have a range of documents that assist and record the planning process.
The Quality Improvement Plan is a summary of the key areas prioritised for improvement.
Tools for reflection on quality of practices
As a first step, it is important that educators and management have the opportunity to become
familiar with the National Quality Standard, the related regulatory requirements and the Guide
to the National Quality Standard.
Within the Guide to the National Quality Standard there are:
Introductory statements for each quality area, standard and element that describe the intent and
explain the way in which the practices described contribute to quality outcomes for all children
References to related regulatory requirements, which will help services reflect on the quality
of their practices.
Questioning how and why certain practices occur is the most effective way to begin critically
examining service practice. The Guide to the National Quality Standard includes a set of
reflective questions that serve as prompts to explore actual practice at the service. While the
questions are not exhaustive they can assist the service to think about how and why things
are done that way while reflecting on specific practices to determine the:
Effectiveness of practice for all children and families
Relevance of the practice to the service and its stakeholders
Equity and fairness of the practice for all children, families and educators.
Turning reflection into quality improvement strategies
The Quality Improvement Plan must include strategies to address those quality areas noted
during the self-assessment or assessment process as not meeting the National Quality
Standard or any regulatory requirement.
A service meeting or exceeding the National Quality Standard in all quality areas should
demonstrate its commitment to continuous improvement by documenting how the service
will maintain its current quality practices and progress them to the next level.
Self-assessment informs the Quality Improvement Plan and assessment
and rating process
All services must complete the self-assessment and quality improvement planning process
as part of the assessment against the National Quality Standard.
The self-assessment documentation should be available at the service to inform discussion
of the assessment and rating process and it can be summarised in the relevant section of the
Quality Improvement Plan template.
Submission of self-assessment documentation to the regulatory authority is not required; however,
there needs to be evidence that the Quality Improvement Plan is informed by the self-assessment
process. Completing the relevant section of the Quality Improvement Plan template (‘Key
improvements sought’) will provide the link between the areas identified for improvement through
the self-assessment process and the quality improvement strategies developed to address them.
Source
http://files.acecqa.gov.au/files/Nation ... op_QIP.pdf