How to make sure Quality Assurance Panels are fair

A Quality Assurance Panel icon and a behaviour support plan document with a tick.

A Quality Assurance Panel is a group of people who must:

check a behaviour support plan
decide if the restrictive practice can happen
follow the rules in our policy about restrictive practices.

A person with disability pointing to themselves. Next to them is a behaviour support plan document.

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

A good quality icon.

Quality is about providing good services that meet the needs of people with disability.

2 people holding documents and a clipboard.

A Quality Assurance Panel includes:

at least one provider

and

an Independent External Behaviour Support Practitioner.

3 people behind a bench next to a restrictive practices icon.

An Independent External Behaviour Support Practitioner:

needs to be on all Quality Assurance Panels
helps decide if a restrictive practice can happen.

In this bulletin, we just call them external practitioners.

An external practitioner and a person pointing to themself and raising their other hand. There is a cross above them.

External practitioners must not:

make or help make the behaviour support plan they are checking
work for providers who will use the behaviour support plan they are checking.

An icon of scales to show rights.

External practitioners must be fair and always put the rights of the person first.

Conflict of interest

A person reading a document. There is a thought bubble above them with an icon of them pointing to themself.

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

2 arrows pointing toward each other and colliding. There is a panel of people under the arrows with a cross next to it.

External practitioners should not have any conflicts of interest when they check a behaviour support plan.

An external practitioner and a person next to a behaviour support plan.

For example, it might be a conflict of interest if an external practitioner has met the person the behaviour support plan is about.

A speech bubble with 2 arrows pointing toward each other and colliding inside of it. There is a panel of people under the speech bubble.

An external practitioner must tell the other Quality Assurance Panel members if they think there might be a conflict of interest.

A speech bubble with 2 arrows pointing toward each other and colliding inside of it. There is a calendar next to it with a cross on one day of the month.

They must do this before the Quality Assurance Panel meeting.

Two arrows pointing toward each other and colliding inside of a thought bubble. There is a panel of people under the arrows with a cross next to it.

The external practitioner must not be a member of the Quality Assurance Panel if they can’t deal with the conflict of interest.

A person writing on a report document.

The provider who ran the Quality Assurance Panel meeting must write a report after the meeting.

A report document next to a speech bubble with 2 arrows pointing toward each other and colliding inside of it.

The provider who ran the meeting must:

include any conflicts of interest in the report

and

explain what the external practitioner did to deal with the conflict of interest.