How do those things come together
Milparinka had an NDIS Audit last month. If you are not familiar with that process, it does hurt. It is a painful process of deep investigation which looks at what and how we do things. It does have its place in making sure things are done to a standard but it isnt one of our favorite things, because while the NDIS will tell us it is about quality, it isnt really. It is about compliance, sticking to rules. So that means a lot of boxes get ticked as they do a deep dive into documents and practices to see if they can find fault or things that don’t comply with the NDIS’s standards. We would prefer that the audit measured more elements of quality, not just if we are sticking to rules. Things like the realtionships we have with people, how we as a service will change things so they make sense to you, rather than asking you to change to fit our model.
Now, we passed this audit with flying colours, they didn’t find one fault that needed correction, which is pretty unusual for any organisation. But to be honest, because that audit really measures compliance, we never get too excited about that, because we expect to be up to date. What we do get excited about is when the Auditors tell us something really important, and they did that twice this time. Once as part of the Audit and once as an extra comment.
What did they tell us that was actually really important to us?
- They said, Auditors have often said this over the years, that the feedback from our participants and families, that they interviewed randomly as part of the audit (thanks to those of you who took part) was the most positive they get from any agency they audit.
- More importantly, three auditors, all experienced and new people who didn’t know us, stayed on our sites for three full days. After the third day they all commented that they have not experienced or seen the level of friendliness, easy and positive relationships between participants and staff in any other services they had visited.
But this week it got better. Out of the blue we had a call from a Mini Golf Manager, where a small group of our participants go each week. The Manager called to say that he has a brother who has a disability, so he notices when groups and individuals go to his mini golf program. He explained how disappointing it was to constantly see the lack of interaction and good support by the support workers in the vast majority of groups and individuals who visit. He went on to say how excited and happy he has been to see the interactions in the Milparinka group. He spoke about how it was clear our participants and staff knew and liked each other, how staff participated fully with the participants, how he could see that staff cared and how they have supported participants to have fun and to develop relationships with others, including him. He was so impressed that he has given this group lifetime free access to the mini golf because he wants to encourage us.
We love the staff who go to this program, but they are not special here in working in that way, we have a fair few people who work in the way they do. People who provide great support, but don’t forget that being happy and personable (and not spending time looking at your phone) is a good thing. ( while the NDIS auditors tehmselves will love to see and hear stories like this, the audit itself doesnt have a way to record this as something we do, and say its a good thing, keep doing it)
It is nice to know that 4 strangers saw the one of the thing that we value most, great relationships with the people we care about.
Now, please don’t be sucked in. While it is great to get this feedback, and we do get these types of comments often, I would be dreaming if I thought that every time and every day we get relationships and other things exactly right. Things will go wrong, staff will sometimes vary in performance and we will make mistakes. When that happens we are happy to acknowledge those things and fix them because we want people we support to be happy, supported to participate in things successfully and safely, and have good positive relationships with our staff. So if that isn’t happening let us know.
What’s the point of telling you about audits , golf and relationships.
The point is it is a reminder.
If we can see past NDIS plans, Service Agreements, quotes, behaviour support plans, what feels like 20,000 therapy visits a year, audits, the need to be professionally responsible and the rest, then the real starting point of good supports is there to see. Relationships. Relationships that are positive and friendly.