Empowering older people and people with disability to participate effectively in decisions affecting the quality of their lives is a keystone of a civil society.
The recent Royal Commissions on ageing and disability highlighted the importance of government-funded advocacy services in the empowerment of older people and people with disability when they need to access government-funded services.
Knowlegdeable and well-resourced advocacy organisations can promote, protect and support a person’s rights by helping them to understand and access the appropriate services. An advocate can perform a range of support functions including informing them of their options; assisting them to access the right services; and helping them solve problems that arise during service delivery.
In 2022, the two peak bodies representing advocacy services: the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) and the Disability Advocacy Network Australia (DANA) proposed the development a new Australian Standard for advocacy provided by Aged Care and Disability services. The aim was to strengthen and continuously improve these services and enable the agencies to demonstrate to government departments that they are achieving outcomes for the funding they receive.
Standards Australia convened MB-031 Advocacy in aged care and disability committee. The committee was comprised of members drawn from a broad range of stakeholders including Consumers Federation of Australia (CFA). Consumers with lived experience were consulted through a series of workshops throughout the development.
AS 5391:2024 Advocacy in Ageing and Disability was published in in June this year. OPAN and DANA are now working to ensure the standard is applied. They have contracted Joint Accreditation Systems of Australia and New Zealand (JASANZ) to develop a system of procedures to inform conformity assessment against the standard.
Standards are the foundation tools for consumer protection, and an integral part of the way we protect consumers globally. Standards are voluntary documents that set out specifications, procedures and guidelines that aim to ensure products, services, and systems are safe, consistent, and reliable, and should meet a range of consumer expectations. Find out more about the CFA Standards Project which plays an important role in ensuring consumer interests are represented in the development of standards. Find out how to get FREE limited access to Australian standards
The above article was written by Standards Project Coordinator Regina Godfredson.