Accreditation

The Victorian Government has allocated $2.1 million over three years to lift the standard of homeless support services. A key component of this approach is the implementation of an accreditation system.

A formal accreditation system for Office of Housing funded housing support and case managed housing services acknowledges and promotes good practice and encourages ongoing business and service quality improvement.

What is Accreditation?

Formal accreditation is a standards based recognition system with a clear focus on continuous quality improvement. It involves assessment against a pre-determined set of standards and formal acknowledgement of performance against those standards through a review process.

If your organisation is funded by the Office of Housing for the following programs, you will need to be accredited by December 2009:

• Homelessness assistance services including crisis and transitional support services
• Crisis accommodation services including family violence and youth refuges
• Office of Housing funded Integrated Family Violence services
• Housing information and referral services
• Social housing advocacy and support providers
• Peak organisations and other state wide advocacy programs
• Homelessness network services and children’s resource program providers
• Other state wide advocacy services

Homelessness Assistance Service Standards

The Homelessness Assistance Service Standards (HASS) were developed through extensive consultations with service providers, consumers and sector experts. In 2005 a formal trial of the standards was conducted with four organisations. As an outcome of that trial, the standards were revised to incorporate feedback from trial sites and to better reflect current Office of Housing directions and initiatives.

Five sections of HASS relating to client service delivery standards have been retained and the sections covering organisational management standards were deleted. 

Section 1: Upholding and promoting rights (Word Size 116KB, Pages 12)

 Section 2: Access to support for people experiencing homelessness (Word Size 117KB, Pages 13)

 Section 3: Direct service delivery and case management (Word Size 160KB, Pages 19)

 Section 4: Direct service delivery to specific groups (Word Size 216KB, Pages 31)

 Section 5: Working with the community (Word Size 60KB, Pages 6)

HASS form an integral component of the accreditation model as described below:

The model is based on two key components:

• Client service delivery standards – sections one to five of the Homelessness Assistance Service Standards (revised 2006)
• Organisational management standards – covering business, governance and organisational management

Formal assessment and accreditation against these two components equals accreditation.

Two further elements support the model:

• Accreditation external to government

Following a formal selection process, QICSA (Quality Improvement and Community Services Accreditation, Australian Institute for Primary Care, La Trobe University) has been appointed as the single provider of accreditation services for Office of Housing funded housing support and case managed housing support services.

If your organisation cannot claim recognition, you will need to use the nominated QICSA organisational management standards for accreditation.

• Recognition

A process has been implemented that recognises achievement against other organisational management standards; for instance registration through housing registration or Children, Youth & Families registration, or other accreditation systems such as QICSA or EquIP.

Fees

The Office of Housing provides organisations with funding to cover the fees charged by QICSA to undertake accreditation.

Tools and Resources

Access to the most comprehensive and up to date range of tools and resources is available through the Council to Homeless Persons.  Additional family violence specific accreditation resources are available from Domestic Violence Victoria.

Further information

For further information please email hassaccreditation@dhs.vic.gov.au