In this bulletin, we talk about Quality Assurance Panels.

A Quality Assurance Panel is a group of people who check behaviour support plans.

A behaviour support plan is a document that explains what support a person with disability needs.

Quality Assurance Panels decide if a restrictive practice can happen.

Quality Assurance Panels follow the rules in our policy about restrictive practices.

Quality Assurance Panels make sure that behaviour support plans include ways to:

• use less restrictive practices over time
• stop using restrictive practices over time.

Quality Assurance Panels also need to make sure that other people have a say in creating behaviour support plans.

This includes:

• people with disability
• families
• carers
• the provider who will use the behaviour support plan.

A Quality Assurance panel must always have at least 2 members.

They will decide if a restrictive practice can happen.

A Quality Assurance Panel must always have:

• a senior manager who works for the provider that will use the behaviour support plan

or

• a delegate of the senior manager.

A delegate is a person who:

• works for the provider
• the senior manager chooses to speak for them.

The senior manager or their delegate must:

• have experience supporting people with disability
• understand positive behaviour support.

A Quality Assurance Panel must always have an external behaviour support practitioner.

External behaviour support practitioners are people that:

• need to be on all Quality Assurance Panels
• help decide if a restrictive practice can happen.

They don’t:

• help create the behaviour support plan
• work for the provider who will use the behaviour support plan.

Other people can go to the Quality Assurance Panel meeting.

But these people can’t decide if a restrictive practice can happen.

Quality Assurance Panels can happen:

• in person
• online.

There might be more than one provider that uses restrictive practices in a person’s behaviour support plan.

When this happens, these providers should try to be on the same Quality Assurance Panel.

If the behaviour support plan changes, the Quality Assurance Panel will need to meet again to check the plan.

They will need to decide what restrictive practices will be in the new behaviour support plan.

Members of a Quality Assurance Panel must understand what the restrictive practice will look like before they agree it can be used.

Members of a Quality Assurance Panel must also agree that the restrictive practice will keep a person with disability and the people around them safe.

Members of a Quality Assurance Panel need to check the restrictive practices against the principles in our policy.

Principles are important ideas we should always think about.

The principles in our policy make sure that providers:

• try other ways before they use restrictive practices
• only use restrictive practices when people are at risk
• use restrictive practices for the shortest time possible.

Members of a Quality Assurance Panel also need to make sure that:

• providers don’t use the restrictive practice for more than 12 months

• they don’t have any conflicts of interests.

A conflict of interest is when someone could affect a decision so the result is better for them.

If a member thinks they might have a conflict of interest, they must tell the other Quality Assurance Panel members.

A member must also explain how they will manage the conflict of interest.

All members of a Quality Assurance Panel must agree on all of these things before a restrictive practice can happen.

Members of a Quality Assurance Panel must include all of this information in the ‘Outcome Summary Report’.

This is the report that the Quality Assurance Panel members must sign after their meeting.

It explains the reasons why the Quality Assurance Panel decided a restrictive practice can happen.