Nomination Guide 2017 - Quality · PDF fileNomination Guide 2017 ... the same nomination form...

Nomination guide – Better Practice Awards HDB-OPS-0026 v1.4 of 17

Nomination Guide 2017 Our Better Practice Awards are presented each year for projects, initiatives or programs that act as exemplars for other aged care service providers to assist and to encourage improvement to care and services. The Better Practice Awards recognise and disseminate better practice and innovation across the broad spectrum of aged care services including: Residential aged care homes

Home care services

Home and Community Care

National Respite for Carers

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flexible care

The Quality Agency recognises and showcases those that succeed in moving beyond minimum levels of compliance to demonstrate innovative and inspirational aged care practice.

Our Awards program will continue to recognise better practice through its “Better Practice Commendation Awards” (exemplars). These awards will retain a clear focus on quality and safety for consumers, as in previous years.

However, in addition to these Commendation Awards, we are introducing a new higher tier to the Better Practice Awards Program – the “National Innovation and Excellence in Aged Care” awards. This new tier recognises a smaller number of providers, nationally, demonstrating leading edge, innovative practices in aged care that represent ‘excellence’.

There is not a separate nominations form for this tier of awards. All applicants will complete the same nomination form and all will need to address the criteria for the Commendation Awards. It will be the role of our expert panel to apply the additional selection criteria for the higher tier of awards and determine the inaugural award winners for this new awards category. The nomination form has been amended to provide applicants with the opportunity to also address the criteria for this new tier of ‘excellence and innovation’ awards as part of their nomination application.

Up to five awards for this new tier will be offered nationally.

The first winners of our National Innovation and Excellence in Aged Care awards will be formally presented with their awards at a Better Practice Awards Reception event to be held at the close of Day 1 of our Better Practice Sydney Conference event on 17 August 2017 at the Sofitel Sydney on Wentworth. Our Commendation Award winners will be acknowledged, as a group, at this event.

Nomination guide – Better Practice Awards 2017 HDB-OPS-0026 v1.0 of 17

The benefits for the service provider are:

gain recognition for your service through acknowledgement as an ‘exemplar of better practice’ or as ‘a leader in innovation and excellence of international note’.

share this acknowledgement and celebrate success with your consumers, managers, staff, visiting health professionals and others involved.

contribute to sector improvement by sharing better practices that can be adopted.

use the award to promote your service innovation across the sector and to consumers.

All nominations are assessed by an expert independent panel against selection criteria including a focus on quality of care and quality of life outcomes for consumers. The selection criteria for both the Commendation awards and the National Innovation and Excellence awards are outlined below.

Award winners will be invited to present at Better Practice conferences in the following year and will be promoted on our website, www.aacqa.gov.au, in our industry journal, the Quality Standard, and through presentation ceremonies.

Better Practice Award descriptors

You can nominate for an award for up to three projects, initiatives or programs each year.

You can select up to three (3) of the descriptors below that you consider best describes your better practice nomination. We believe the descriptors better capture the overlap between dimensions of better practice rather than treating the award nominations as discrete ‘categories’. All nominations are assessed by an expert independent panel against selection criteria including a focus on quality of care and quality of life outcomes for consumers.

1. Leadership and culture 2. Workforce development 3. Health and wellbeing 4. Dementia care 5. Clinical care / Medication management 6. Safety 7. Enablement and / or transition care 8. Consumer engagement and / or co-design 9. Social participation and lifestyle 10. Technology and / or social media 11. Diversity 1 12. Living environment and / or sustainability

1 This area may include programs and services tailored for diversity groups as defined under ‘special needs’ in the Aged Care Act

1997.There are eight groups of people with special needs mentioned in aged care legislation.

These are:

1. people from Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities

2. people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds

3. people from lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans/transgender and intersex (LGBTI) communities.

4. people who are financially or socially disadvantaged

5. people who are veterans of the Australian Defence Force or an allied defence force including the spouse, widow or widower of a veteran

6. people who are homeless, or at risk of becoming homeless

7. people who are care leavers (which includes Forgotten Australians, Former Child Migrants and Stolen Generations)

8. people who live in rural or remote areas

http://www.aacqa.gov.au/


Better Practice Awards –selection criteria – all nominations

All nominations will be evaluated against the following criteria:

1. Exemplar of better practice

The project, initiative or program represents innovative practice that acts as an exemplar for other home care services or aged care homes, including a focus on quality, consumer choice and safety. This may include building on identified examples of good practice and innovating to meet the needs of your consumers and service context.

2. Evidence-informed design

The project, initiative or program has a sound evidence-informed approach to design, development and implementation. This may include reference to stakeholder needs assessment, best practice models or research that has informed your nomination.

3. Consumer focus

The project, initiative or program delivers quality of care / quality of life results for consumers, and is responsive to their needs and rights. This may include, for example, enabling consumers to have greater choice, control and decision making while maintaining a positive approach to risk and safety. You might also address diversity factors relevant to the nomination context and mechanisms for consumer engagement/ co-design and feedback and how these were addressed.

NOTE: We recognise that some nominations may describe an initiative that demonstrates above and beyond service but may not necessarily focus strongly on a system or process improvement. If your nomination focuses on a single case of how an individual’s needs and preferences were met, you will also need to describe how the initiative has contributed to (or is leading to) sustainable change in the consumer focus of the service.

NOTE – if your nomination has a clear workforce development focus we note that it is sometimes difficult to identify fully the benefits to consumers within the same timeframes as other nomination descriptors. This will be taken into account when applying this selection criterion for workforce development nominations.

4. Evaluation

The project, initiative or program demonstrates measurable outcomes. This should include:

How the initiative has been evaluated,

The outcomes/ benefits achieved for consumers and key stakeholders

Evidence of measurement might be qualitative and/or quantitative (for example audit results / survey results; benchmark data; stakeholder feedback, testimonials).

5. Continuous improvement

The project, initiative or program supports continuous improvement. This should include:

Evidence of the link to continuous improvement.

It is important to be able to demonstrate outcomes and improvement so initial benchmark data is also recommended where possible.


National Innovation & Excellence in Aged Care Award – Description and Selection criteria

This new higher tier of Better Practice Awards– the “National Innovation and Excellence in Aged Care” awards recognises providers, nationally, demonstrating leading edge, innovative practices in aged care that represent ‘excellence’. These awards are designed to celebrate those providers who are industry leaders in aged care and who are worthy of both national and international recognition in aged care practice. This is the first time these awards have been offered and up to five of these awards will be offered nationally, in addition to our Commendation (exemplar) awards.

The ‘National Innovation and Excellence in Aged care’ award selection criteria will be

applied following application of the general criteria and includes:

1. Is innovative and demonstrates an original approach

This goes beyond ‘innovative’ exemplar practice and looks for evidence of leading edge thinking and design in aged care service delivery. Initiatives that go beyond existing or competing initiatives or that have not been done before will be highly regarded.

2. Achieves outcomes in people’s lives, not just in service delivery

‘Excellence’ delivers real results for consumers, for staff, and for the aged care sector as a whole. This criteria seeks to identify initiatives or programs that have clearly identified benefits for consumers and, where possible, for other key stakeholders.

3. Involves partnerships in development and / or implementation

Innovation and excellence doesn’t happen in isolation. Partnerships with others can strengthen the design, delivery and outcomes of an initiative or program. Partnerships may include research partners, service design and delivery partners, industry body partnerships and /or consumer /consumer advocate partnerships.

4. Capable of generating international interest

This tier of awards is intended not simply to recognise excellence and innovation in aged care practice but to contribute more broadly to international benchmarks of excellence in aged care. This criteria serves to identify nominations capable of contributing to international leadership models and better practice in aged care.

Features of Initiatives and Programs for this award category:

The following factors would be typical of such programmes or initiatives at this level of award:

Innovation or excellence beyond existing or competing initiatives

Evidence of partnerships in design/ development and/or implementation

Clear benefits for the aged care sector, not just the organisation

A nomination capable of generating international interest

An organisational culture that achieves outcomes in people’s lives, not just in service delivery

Continuous improvement approach that demonstrates line-of-sight from senior leadership to the frontline staff and services

Evidence of creative individual centred design, flexibility and consumer engagement

Service delivery model or initiative that supports the ‘total wellbeing’ of aged care consumers - including physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs


Selection Process – National Innovation & Excellence in Aged Care awards

It will be the role of our independent expert panel to apply and determine both the Commendation awards and the smaller numbers of inaugural winners for the National Innovation and Excellence in Aged care awards.

All applicants will complete the same nominations form irrespective of whether their nomination is ultimately determined by the Panel to be awarded one of the five National Innovation and Excellence in Aged Care awards.

The nomination form and information has been amended to provide sufficient evidence to apply both sets of selection criteria.

When assessing each nomination, our independent expert Panel will apply the higher tier selection criteria following the initial review process against the Commendation (general) Criteria .The Panel will then review these shortlisted proposals as a separate group of nominations in order to determine which ones will be recommended for our inaugural National innovation and Excellence in Aged Care award winners.

As part of this process the Panel will also determine a descriptor that best describes the nature of this national award, for example:

National Innovation and Excellence in Aged care - Dementia care

National Innovation and Excellence in Aged care - Consumer engagement / co-design

National Innovation and Excellence in Aged care - Workforce development

National Innovation and Excellence in Aged care - Leadership and / or Culture Change

National Innovation and Excellence in Aged care - Quality Improvement

Note the above are indicative areas only and the Panel will make the final determination of the descriptor. More than one of these final award winners could be awarded the same descriptor eg. National Innovation and Excellence in Aged care - Dementia care.

Nominating for a Better Practice Award

Nominations open - 1 April 2017

Nominations close - 30 April 2017 (AEST)

Photographs

A minimum of 3 photographs as electronic attachments (high resolution jpeg) to your application for use in published case studies, please do not submit photos as a PDF / Word collage.

NOTE - that your consumers / staff should include privacy consent as per Attachment A - consent form at the end of this guide.

Online submission via our website:

You can enter your nomination through an on-line submission portal on our website. (Refer to completing nominations). You can complete your nomination via https://betterpracticeawards.submittable.com/submit. SEE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW.

https://betterpracticeawards.submittable.com/submit


The judging panel does not have information identifying the provider home or service They will see only broad descriptor information such as service type (home care, residential care), description of service and state in which the service is based. This is designed to support the judging panel to understand the context in which the initiative has been implemented.

Please do not provide information identifying the service/home or the approved provider in the core content or attachments / photographs to your submission. Your identifying information will be recorded in the administrative section of the form so we have contact information for administrative purposes.

There is no nomination fee.

In addition to an individual service provider or home’s nomination, you can also nominate corporate-wide projects, initiatives or programs that have been implemented across a number of services or homes. Submit one nomination form listing all the services or homes involved.

Maximum nominations per service/ home

Each service or home can nominate for an award for up to three projects, initiatives or programs each year.

Eligibility

To be eligible, applicants must be an Australian Government-funded home / service who are subject to accreditation or quality audits by the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency:

Home care service

Home and Community Care service provider

Residential aged care home

National Respite for Carers provider

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flexible care service provider

In addition the service must have no cases of failures to meet the applicable Standards in the 24 months prior to 1 April 2017.

The project, initiative or program nominated must have been in place for a sufficiently long enough period to demonstrate outcomes for clients and have qualitative and/or quantitative data. A period of more than 12 months is suggested.

Applicants will be asked to agree that we can publish case study information about their Award-winning program including up to three photos.

We do not undertake to provide reasons or any form of explanation where a nomination is not granted an Award. Award decisions are final and there is no entitlement to review.


What to include in your nomination

Apart from administrative details, you will be required to complete information under the following headings in your nomination. This information will be used by the Quality Agency as a case study to promote award winners.

1. Title (max 5 words)

2. Synopsis

Relevant All nominations criteria: 1 Relevant Innovation and Excellence criteria: 1 In 500 words or less, provide a brief introductory summary/synopsis about your project, initiative or program. Include reference to how the project, initiative or program represents innovative and/or original, leading edge concept / practice.

3. Why we did it

Relevant All nominations criteria: 2, 3 Relevant Innovation and Excellence criteria: 1, 3, 4 In 400 words or less, explain the reason for implementing the project, initiative or program and what informed your approach.

For example:

What was the need you identified?

What were the improvements to consumers/ service delivery that you hoped to achieve?

In what ways did you hope to demonstrate leading edge thinking in aged care?

response to requests from residents or consumers

response to continuous improvement undertaken by the service

response to a review of current published research or

response to an innovative idea (independent of source).

What role did stakeholder needs assessment; models / research; consumer co-design, strategic partnerships play in informing your approach?

4. What we did

Relevant All nominations criteria: 1, 2, 3 Relevant Innovation and Excellence criteria: 1, 3, 4 In 800 words or less, describe what you did

Has this been done before? What about this is unique and innovative?

What aspects do you consider may be of broader interest to the aged care community, in Australia and internationally?

Methodology

Evidence informed design

Clearly defined and measurable objectives/ outcomes


Encouragement of innovation

Planning and implementation methodology

Monitoring and evaluation methodology

Utilisation of a range of approaches and techniques.

Ways in which individual needs and diversity factors were addressed, where relevant

Stakeholder role in design and methodology

Consumer focus - consumer engagement, decision making and/ or co-design

Stakeholder engagement

Strategic partnerships in design / implementation

5. Who worked with us

Relevant All nominations criteria: 2, 3, 4 Relevant Innovation and Excellence criteria: 1, 3

In 500 words or less, describe any partnerships or collaborations, where appropriate, you have made in the development, implementation and operation of this project, initiative or program.

For example, this could include academic collaborations, other Medicare Local/Primary Health Care initiatives, residential aged care homes, regional community networks, external services and/or professional groups. It can also include carers, family and consumer advocates. Consider how partnerships strengthened or added value to your approach and outcomes.

6. What we learned

Relevant All nominations criteria: 1, 4, 5 Relevant Innovation and Excellence criteria: 2, 4

In 1000 words or less, clearly describe results achieved from implementing this project, initiative or program and how it supports continuous improvement and transferability. This information should clearly demonstrate the factors that lead to improved outcomes for residents/clients or improved operational performance of the service, and may include survey/feedback from key stakeholders (including consumers), benchmark data with data demonstrating improvements.

Areas may include:

Evaluation of your initiative and continuous improvement approach

What were the real results and benefits achieved for consumers and key stakeholders – including, where possible, evidence that describes initial benchmarks and improvements resulting from your initiative

Lessons for continuous improvement for your service/ for others

How your project, initiative or program could be transferred into other aged care initiatives

How you have ensured the sustainability of this project, initiative or program.

Contribution to international leadership models and better practice in aged care

Clearly describe how you will continue to monitor and evaluate the ongoing effectiveness of this project, initiative or program.


Attachments

A file attachment can be uploaded as part of your submission and may include:

Charts

Tables

Graphs

Spreadsheets

Survey and audit results

Testimonials

The attachment should contain no more than three (3) A4 sized pages.

All applications are to include min 3 photos (e.g. jpeg) along with the privacy consent form (Attachment A), please do not submit photos as a PDF / Word collage.

NOTE – the 3 pages of attachments does not include the privacy consent forms

Completing nominations

You can complete your nomination via https://betterpracticeawards.submittable.com/submit.

You will be required to set up an account before completing the nomination. This only requires a name and an email address.

The nomination form is online and all mandatory fields must be completed. There are two sections to complete: administrative details and nomination content.

Regarding the nomination content:

All details identifying the home / service and its location should not be referenced in the completion of the questions.

The use of acronyms and abbreviations should be avoided, unless they are well known.

Any tables, graphs or supporting material should be clearly labelled and cross-referenced to the relevant headings above. This can be uploaded as a separate PDF file.

Do not include audio-visual content or links within your content or attachment.

Each nomination must be submitted separately. Refer to the appendix below for detailed instructions for submissions.

Ensure that you reference your research.

Do include evaluation data (qualitative/quantitate) include consumer feedback.

Ensure that any photos included in the nomination have privacy consent (Attachment A).

Helpful hint: because the view of the fields is quite small in the online form, it is advisable that you draft your answers offline (for example, in a word processing document). Once proof read, you can simply copy and paste the relevant text into the applicable fields.



Instructions for submissions

Select the following link OR open your browser and type in:




Select the Submit button. You will then be invited to either log in or create a user account. You can use your login details from last year if you made a submission in 2016.

To create a new account, enter your first name, last name, email and create a password of your choice. Remember this information as you will use these as login details to revisit your nomination in the future.

Once you have entered the above details, select the blue Create Account and Continue button. The nomination form will appear, and you can commence filling in the details of your nomination.

Because the view of the fields is quite small in the online form, it is advisable that you draft your answers offline (for example, in a word processing document). Once proof read, you can simply copy and paste the relevant text into the applicable fields.

NOTE: The project / initiative / program name has a 5 word limit


You can select up to three (3) areas that best describe your nomination.

Select your service type from the drop down list

And select the location of your home / service and the size of your home / service.

Complete each section of the nomination form under the following headings:

Title (max 5 words)

Synopsis (500 word limit)


Why we did it (400 word limit)

What we did (800 word limit)

Who worked with us (500 word limit)

What we learned (1000 word limit)

Please do not provide information identifying the service/home or the approved provider in the core content of your submission. Your identifying information will be recorded in the administrative section of the form so we have contact information for administrative purposes.

A file attachment can be uploaded as part of your submission and may include charts, tables, graphs, spreadsheets, survey and audit results and testimonials. The attachment should contain no more than three (3) A4 sized pages.

All applications are to include min 3 photos (e.g. jpeg) along with the privacy consent form (Attachment A), please do not submit photos as a PDF / Word collage.

You are able to save the nomination as draft by scrolling to the bottom of the form and selecting the Save Draft button. Your draft is saved and is accessible for up to 21 days from when you first began filling it out.

When you are ready, you can select the blue Submit button at the bottom of the form to complete your submission. Once you have submitted the nomination, you will receive a confirmation email in your email account.

When you have finished, you can sign out of your account by selecting the Dashboard + button on the top right of your screen. A list of options will appear.

http://help.submittable.com/knowledgebase/articles/274447-how-do-i-return-to-a-saved-draft


To log back into the application, you can either select the link that is in your email, or go to https://betterpracticeawards.submittable.com/login.

Once you have successfully entered your email address and password, you will be able to access the list of nominations you have submitted or have been saved as drafts. You may then check on the status of your submissions or continue writing in your draft.

Further information and support

Want to talk to someone about your nomination? We’d love to help. Call us on 1800 288 025 and ask to speak to your local State Manager who will be able to talk to you about your submission and how to nominate.

If you’re having technical difficulties with our online application, contact either Rhonda Hansen on 02 8831 1022 or Ben Lau on 02 8831 1041.

https://betterpracticeawards.submittable.com/login


Nomination completion checklist

Have you:

Included a clear, concise title and summary of your project

Addressed all areas of selection criteria

Ensured that repetition of content across your nomination is minimised

Demonstrated your nomination is evidence informed in both methodology and in terms of your supporting evaluation and continuous improvement evidence

Ensured that data has been attached to support your consumer benefits and outcomes claims

Ensured that details under each heading DOES NOT contain any identifiers i.e. name of home or service provider

Included a MINIMUM of 3 high resolution jpeg photographs and completed the relevant privacy consent/s (as per Attachment A), you have not submitted your photos as a PDF / Word collage.


ATTACHMENT A

Consent Form

I, ……………………………………………………………..…………………………………………….. (Name)

of ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… (Address)

give the following consents and confirmations in relation to my image/s being used as part of the

Nomination …………………………………………………………………………………………. (Title of program) submitted for the Australian Aged Care Quality Agency’s (Quality Agency) Better Practice Awards 2017.

1. I consent to and authorise the Quality Agency (and any third party authorised by the Quality Agency) to:

a. use any image/s included in the nomination (including audio, video and digital recordings of my image, voice or material I provide, photographs and transcripts) and use my name in reference to any such recording; and

b. use (including copy, publish, distribute, modify and disclose) any recording made of me for the purpose of information, education, promotion and marketing. I grant the Quality Agency a licence for any intellectual property rights required for these purposes and will not make any claim against the Quality Agency for any infringement (or alleged infringement) of my moral rights.

2. I confirm that no third party’s intellectual property rights will be infringed, and that I will not breach any obligation of confidentiality to any third party, if the Quality Agency makes and uses any recording for the purposes described above.

3. I accept that I am not entitled to any royalty, fee or other compensation for, or in relation to, my participation in the conference or the use of any recording made of me.

Executed as a deed poll by me

(signature)

in the presence of

(witness name)

(witness signature)

(date)

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