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We all understand the importance of providing high-quality and safe services for the people we support. A number of providers have adopted the Active Support model as a way to increase the engagement of people with intellectual disability in meaningful activities and social interactions. However, the quality of support that individual workers are providing can, of course, vary. It can also be difficult for organisations to get a true picture of the quality of support that is being provided.
Grounded in years of research, La Trobe’s Living with a Disability Research Centre have developed a new free tool, the Observing Practice Quality tool (OPQ), to assess the quality of support provided by a worker to a person with an intellectual disability.
What is the OPQ tool?
OPQ is a mobile app frontline leaders, auditors, community visitors and quality safeguard teams can use to measure the quality of support being provided by individual workers. The tool also provides a way of giving feedback to staff to reflect on and an opportunity to improve practice.
Researchers commonly use the Active Support Measure to measure the quality of support. However, this is very complex and requires intensive training. The OPQ tool is designed to translate this complex research into a much simpler, easy-to-use format for non-researchers.
The app focuses on observation, which research has found is one of the most effective ways of understanding the quality of support someone is providing. It’s recommended that users spend 15-30 minutes using the app to observe an individual staff member providing support to someone.
The tool takes users through components of good support based on the Active Support Measure:
- Offering activities to take part in
- Offering Choice
- Providing opportunities to be engaged
- Providing the right type and amount of assistance
- Communicating clearly
- Noticing and responding to the person’s communication
- Respecting the person in all interactions
- Having friendly interactions
For each area, observers are asked a question, with 3 simple options to choose from and a section for writing comments. For example: ‘Offering Choice’ the observer can choose from:
- (3) The worker provided opportunities to make choices in most or all instances
- (2) The worker provided some opportunities to make choices, but there could have been more
- (1) The worker did not provide opportunities to make choices
Each answer has a score attached to it, and at the end of the observation, a final tally is created to show users and the worker how they have scored in each area. Observers can then provide feedback to the worker to help identify areas for improvement and also celebrate things that are going well. Importantly, the purpose of the tool is not to rate the quality of support, but to use it as an opportunity to explain and discuss the observations with workers and explore what they might have done differently.
There are extra questions related to opportunities that the workers had to teach the person something new and whether the participant’s behaviour was harmful or dangerous to themselves or others.
Why was the tool created?
The tool was created to improve the quality of support being provided to people with an intellectual disability. It also supports leaders to better understand ‘what good looks like’ and to enable them to become more confident at identifying this when observing staff practice.
Who is it designed for?
This tool is unique in that it has not just been created for frontline leaders. It can also be used by auditors, community visitors and quality and safeguarding teams as it provides more accurate feedback through direct observation rather than paper based compliance. It also enables assessing quality for people that find it difficult to engage in audit interviews.
Individuals or organisations can register with the OPQ via the mobile app.
The OPQ enables users to save and download all observations. The raw, de-identified data from the observations goes back to La Trobe for further research.
Where can it be used?
The OPQ tool can be used in any setting where a support worker provides direct support to a person with an intellectual disability, including supported accommodation services, day services, or activities in the community.
Is it something extra we have to do?
As a provider who has been implementing this tool, I can say it is very easy to use, and the mobile app is very accessible. As with introducing anything new, there is an element of work that will need to be done upfront to ensure users are trained to understand how to use the app effectively. If organisations are already practising Active Support and Practice Leadership, the tool is just an extension to those principles.
It does take a level of commitment for a provider to implement the tool properly, train staff and check that staff are using the tool effectively. Observers will also need training in how to have delicate conversations with workers around their practice.
At first, it can look like a big time commitment, but once you start, it gets easier. There are training modules available on the OPQ website that are very accessible and easy to use and the app itself has step-by-step instructions.
I think the bigger question asked is, if you aren’t using this tool to measure the quality of support, what are you using and how effective is it? Do you have a way to understand the quality of support that is being delivered and to help support workers to improve their practice? Poor quality support leads to devastating outcomes, particularly for people with intellectual disability.
So, if you ask me if it’s worth the time it takes to train and implement this properly - the answer is yes.
How much does it cost?
The OPQ app is free to download and use.
How do I find out more?
You'll find the tool and the training here: https://www.observingstaffsupport.com.au
DSC is running a webinar with Professor Christine Bigby and Dr. Lincoln Humphries to discuss the tool and how to use it. Join us on Wednesday 19th March 11am. Free for On-Demand subscribers: the OPQ: A New App to Assess the Quality of Staff Support Webinar.
For more training on using observations to support the professional development of staff, check out our training: Frontline Practice Leadership Training. And our On-Demand e-learning: Frontline Practice Leadership.
