Ensuring program quality

Red Cross invests in a Program Quality and Development team of seven people who provide national leadership, technical expertise and state and territory support in program management, practice development, quality accreditation and continuous quality improvement.

This investment in program management resources gives support in ensuring that all services embody our principles and ways of working. We have seen significant changes in how programs are being designed, measured and improved, including the development of new monitoring, review and evaluation plans. These have resulted in holistic and independent evaluations of program outputs and outcomes and a move towards greater engagement of clients, communities and stakeholders in monitoring program quality and effectiveness. These improvements have meant that across the organisation, we are increasingly asking not just ‘how much have we done?’, but ‘how well did we do it?’ and ‘did it make a difference?’. The support of the specialist Program Quality and Development team means that this work is being cascaded down from national levels into the operations of state, territory, regional and local programs.

This year we commissioned an external review of our telephone outreach programs, helping us to keep providing effective services for people llike Milton. Photo: Australian Red Cross/Sarah Landro

Quality systems

2013/2014 saw the establishment of a whole-of-organisation quality reference group – a separate body from the Program Quality and Development team, with representatives from across our organisation.

Further accreditation

We gained accreditation under the Australian Service Excellence Standards for our South Australian services, Common Community Care Standards for our home and community care services, and began preparations for accreditation under ISO for our migration support programs.

Valuing feedback

We have instituted a range of consultative activities to ensure that community voice informs more of what we do.