The Standard is complete and the development of the scheme by JASANZ is just beginning. The Standard was developed with a great deal of input from people who work in Advocacy Services and people who use Advocacy Services. A Technical Committee made up of organisations involved in Advocacy, in the aged care and disability support sectors, as well as Government departments, and people with lived experience, met on 11 occasions and voted to have the Standard published in its current form. In late 2023 Standards Australia, who led the process of development, allowed a period of 9 weeks for public comment on the draft version of the Standard, and DANA and OPAN engaged Capacity Services to consult with people online and in person to get feedback which was included in the final draft of the Standard. Some of this feedback will be used in the drafting of the scheme that supports the Standard.

The Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JASANZ) has been contracted by DANA and OPAN to develop a scheme that can be used by Certification Accreditation Bodies (CABs) to scrutinise the operations of Advocacy Services and see if they are meeting the expectations of the Standard. Currently services under the National Disability Advocacy Program are periodically audited by CABs using a scheme which certifies their compliance to the National Standard for Disability Services (NSDS). The scheme being developed to certify against AS 5391:2024 will be able to be applied to any funded Advocacy Service in the aged care and disability sectors across Australia.

The scheme development process will include opportunities for those who work in Advocacy Services and those use Advocacy to provide input, and to comment on drafts of the scheme as they become available. The first of these occur on the 18 and 20 June 2024.

View the full project update here. >