Rights and Responsibilities

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Why do I need this document?

The NDIS wants to know:

• you understand participants’ human and legal rights and you incorporate these into your everyday practice
• you respond accordingly to participants’ needs and communicate in a way they are most likely to understand
• you support participants to engage with their family, friends and chosen community.

Developing a Service Delivery Model for your business is a great way to start describing how you do these things. This will likely require more of your attention than many of the other documents but is really important because it:

• reflects your practice values and how you operate
• shows you understand person-centred support
• is an important induction document for new team members
• can become a key marketing document

Consider including the following:

• defining what you mean by person-centred support
• describing how you:
  • meet the needs of participants and their families (if practical and if directed by the participant to do so)
  • respect participants’ cultures, beliefs and value
  • work with trusted/appointed decision makers
  • communicate with participants in a way they understand and that encourages their involvement
  • manage dignity of risk
• demonstrating a culture of continuous improvement in your organisation and the importance of feedback
• the professional model or framework you use to direct your intervention. The sample Service Delivery Model uses the Occupational Performance Model by Chris Chapparo and Judy Ranka. Only use this if it really suits your practice. There are many other models available for different professions.

Why the auditors like it

• They can get a feel for your practice
• They can see you understand and provide person-centred supports
• They can see that your Service Delivery Model links back to your Annual Training Plan e.g. you say you respect the cultures, beliefs and values of your clients and you have annual training on this.

Next steps

• LOOK at the Sample Service Delivery Model and use it as a guide to write your own – keep it to one page.
• GET FEEDBACK from some of your participants
• INCLUDE exactly what you do and only what you currently do.  If you say you understand and respect the culture, beliefs and values of your participants make sure you have evidence of this e.g. does your initial assessment or intake form include questions on this? Add new processes and actions as you implement them, not before.
• ADD the Service Delivery Model to your induction package for new team members.

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Why do I need this document?

The purpose of the NDIS Service Agreement is to ensure you and your participants have an agreed set of expectations as to how services will be delivered.

The Service Agreement sits alongside the Support Plan. The Service Agreement informs the participant of the general cost of services e.g. the hourly rate for service, the travel rate and the cancellation policy. Their Support Plan details the number of services and the associated cost. This approach means that you don’t have to issue a full new Service Agreement when you review your Support Plan. If you already have a system that works for you, you may not need to change it.

You need to demonstrate that you inform your participants:

• of the cost of services
• the period of the service agreement
• of their rights
• of your responsibilities as the provider and theirs as the participant
• how you endeavour to maintain their privacy
• how to make a complaint
• of the cancellation policy
• how to end the services agreement
• how to access an advocate and their right to have an advocate present

Obtaining consent is critical. The NDIS Service Agreement summarises six different consents; two of these are about participating in quality improvement activities. It is much easier to obtain this consent at the commencement of services.

Why the auditors like it

They can see that you have:

• informed participants appropriately before commencing services
• obtained appropriate consents

Next steps

• OPEN the NDIS Service Agreement
• READ the NDIS Service Agreement and ensure it reflects your practices
• CUSTOMISE the NDIS Service Agreement if required
• ADOPT the form
• EDUCATE your team, if applicable, on the purpose and use of the form
• OPEN and REVIEW the Consent Policy – update the references to reflect your state or territory’s requirements
• OPEN and REVIEW the Dignity of Risk Policy
• OPEN and REVIEW the Substitute Decision Makers and Duty of Care for Participants with Reduced Decision-Making Capacity Policy

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Why do I need this document?

New team members joining your business need to understand how you provide services to NDIS participants and the underlying principles of your service delivery.

An Induction Checklist will ensure you have a comprehensive program for new staff.
The sample Induction Checklist addresses NDIS requirements but you will need to add your internal procedures and specific clinical topics.

Fair Work Australia has a large number of HR resources including induction templates. This may be a useful starting point if you don’t currently have a documented induction process.

Why the auditors like it

• They can see new members on your team are provided with the necessary NDIS training
• They don’t have to have long conversations with you to find out what training is provided for new team members
• They like to see you have a system in place and things are done as planned, not ad hoc.

Next steps

• OPEN the Induction Checklist
• CUSTOMISE the Induction Checklist to suit your business
• COMPLETE the induction requirements
• RECORD date of completion of induction on the HR Register

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Why do I need this document?

The NDIS Terms of Business for Registered Providers, Practice Standards and Code of Conduct require providers and workers to understand and comply with various policies and apply various principles in their practice. One way of ensuring this occurs is to carry out regular training on key issues. This training is in addition to your continuing professional development (CPD) requirements for professional registration and membership, although you may be able to use some of the training for CPD points.

The Annual Training Plan provides a clear list of what new or refresher training is required. It includes training on policies such as Privacy, Incident Management and Risk Management but also on topics such as the NDIS Code of Conduct and Dignity of Risk. You may also need to add topics to the plan if you are providing some specific supports to NDIS participants.

The Annual Training Plan sets out what you intend to do and what you have completed. A sample Training Attendance Record has been provided. The NDIS is a relatively new scheme and changes will occur. You need to make sure you stay up to date with the requirements of the scheme.

• For sole practitioners a lot of this training will be informal e.g. reviewing the NDIS Code of Conduct and reflecting on how you apply the code to your delivery of services. Arranging to meet up with colleagues to discuss training topics could make this process more productive and interactive.
• Small practices could covering one topic per month as part of a team meeting.
• Larger organisations will need to keep records of who attended training sessions and how training was provided to staff that missed sessions.

Auditors will question individual staff members about training they have received so having ‘key points’ for each topic is useful evidence to have and can be used as a refresher for staff prior to audit.

Why the auditors like it

• They can see you understand what training needs to be completed each year and have a system in place to meet this.
• They don’t have to have long conversations with you to find out what training you are doing.
• They have specific training topics they can ask you and your team about.

Next steps

• OPEN the Annual Training Plan
• CUSTOMISE the list of training to suit your business
• FILL IN the completed date once training is undertaken
• ENSURE you follow up with training for any staff who missed group training sessions
• UPDATE your professional CPD record to show the auditor you are maintaining your relevant professional development

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Why do I need this document?

Sometimes NDIS participants don’t achieve their goals, despite receiving services and supports. Understanding why some goals are not achieved will help you to improve your practice. The Goal Attainment Quality Improvement Activity also helps demonstrate your ‘competence’ as per the NDIS Code of Conduct.

The activity form below will help you to determine:

• how many of your ‘intervention goals’ have been achieved
• the reasons why any were not achieved
• how many of your intervention goals are in line with participants’ participation goal/s. Showing your intervention goals are in line with the participants’ participation goals demonstrates you are providing person-centred intervention.

The activity form is an Excel document with formula inserted into the fields to help you quickly undertake a quality improvement activity. There is sample data inserted into the spreadsheet to show you how it works.

This form is designed to be used with the Quality Improvement Activity Report (QIAR) form. Complete the initial part of the QIAR and then collect your data. Once you have completed the audit, summarise the results and complete the rest of the QIAR, including any actions required.

The source document for the data you will need to collect is on your participants’ NDIS Support Plan. Unless you have been collecting your goal attainment outcomes in a way that can be readily accessed, you may find it easier to wait until you have used the NDIS Support Plan provided before completing this audit.

It is very difficult for small services to get statistically significant sample sizes.

• For a small practice (2-3 allied health professionals), we suggest using information from 10 randomly selected participants. This will be enough to indicate how effective your services are and alert you to any trends. Do this once a year and take note of any changes in outcomes.
• Larger services should consider sampling 10% of current participants.

Why the auditors like it

They can see:

• you are undertaking quality improvement activities to improve the services you provide to NDIS participants
• the services you are providing are helping NDIS participants achieve their goals

Next steps

• OPEN the Goal Attainment Quality Improvement Activity Form – look at the Sample Data inserted
• CONSIDER when you will be able to complete the audit and how many participant files you will need to include
• INSERT your own data collected from the NDIS Support Plans you have completed and also complete the Quality Improvement Activity Report (QIAR) form (in Quality Management section). Enter the audit in the Quality Improvement Projects Register (also in Quality Management section)
• DETERMINE follow-up action required then monitor progress and document it has been completed on the Register
• SET date for future Goal Attainment Audit.

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Why do I need this document?

By conducting annual Participant Surveys, you will collect most of the evidence you need to demonstrate you are actually doing what you say you are doing and your participants are satisfied with the service they are receiving.

This can be a little confronting, especially the first time. What if you get some feedback that you are disappointed with?

In that case is it better that you have asked questions first and it gives you a chance to improve. It is also an opportunity to strengthen your business by ensuring you are delivering what your participants and the NDIS really want.

• If you are a sole trader or small practice (2-3 allied health professionals), we suggest you survey 10 current participants.
• If you have a larger business (6 allied health professionals), we suggest you do 30 surveys.
• If you are a larger organisation, consider surveying 10% of your current participants.

Tips to strengthen your Participant Survey results:

• Interview participants across your team to identify if a particular practitioner gets better results than another.
• Use a third person, who is not connected to your practice, to undertake the survey. Consider asking a colleague and offering to undertake their survey in return for them doing yours.
• Use the Participant Survey Interviewer Instructions for consistency of results and scoring across interviewers.

Make sure you check participants’ consent on their Service Agreement. Did they consent to participating in a satisfaction survey with an understanding they may be contacted by a third party?

An alternative to a satisfaction survey is a generic feedback form that you can provide  and encourage participants to complete.

Why the auditors like it

They can see your participants:

• felt they were treated with dignity and respect
• felt their privacy and confidentiality was respected
• were involved in setting their goals
• were involved in planning their services
• felt the services you provided helped them achieve their goals
• knew how to voice a concern or make a complaint and felt comfortable to do so

Next steps

• OPEN the Participant Survey and the Participant Survey – Interviewer Instructions
• CONSIDER when you will be able to complete the surveys, how many participants you will interview and who will conduct the surveys
• CONSOLIDATE and RECORD your survey results using the Participant Survey Summary of Results Form
• CELEBRATE good results and/or BRAINSTORM with your team on how to improve
• DETERMINE follow-up action required and document it once completed
• SET date for the next Participant Survey

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Why do I need this document?

The HR Register keeps all your personal and professional information in the one place. Even if you are a sole trader it’s great to have a HR Register for yourself.

• It is a single document that makes it easy to find information when required.
• It is useful if you get a locum to fill in for you when you go on leave.
• It reminds you what you need to check when employing or contracting someone to work in your business. It ensures your due diligence and if something untoward happens, your insurer will want to know you have done these pre-employment checks.
• It is a great place to record specific communication skills of those working with you so you can match them with the communication needs of your participants e.g. second languages, assistive technology skills, Auslan, Makaton.
• It can record the different services your team members are able to provide. This will allow admin team members to check the registration groups of different practitioners on your team before allocating a participant to them.

Auditors may want proof you have viewed original documents (e.g. qualifications) and have stored copies on your system. Make sure these copies can be accessed on request. You may find it useful to add what documents you used as proof of ID (e.g. passport).

Why the auditors like it

They can:

• see at a glance that you and anyone working for you have the right to work in Australia and has met the appropriate qualifications, experience and checks to provide services to NDIS participants.
• see that requirements are current
• easily do the checks they need to do, e.g. look up your AHPRA registration or worker screening details
• see you consider the communication needs of your participants by recording the communication skills of your team members
• check that only those qualified / experienced to do so are delivering supports in the various RG
• see you have systems in place to ensure your compliance with the NDIS Practice Standard if and when you employ someone to help you in your business.

Next steps

• OPEN the Human Resource Register – Fill it in for yourself and anyone you have working for you.
• GET CONSENT from any employees or contractors to share this information with the auditor for the purpose of completing NDIS registration.
• VIEW original documents and store copies for auditors to access on request.

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Why do I need this document?

When receiving referrals for new NDIS participants there is some minimal data you need to collect to meet your requirements under the NDIS Code of Conduct and the Practice Standards.

This Intake Checklist provides you with prompts to ensure:

• information pertinent to NDIS participants is gathered prior to the initial appointment/assessment
• required documentation such as signed service agreement and consents have been obtained and saved to the participants file.

The information referred to on this checklist should be incorporated into your referral form for new NDIS participants, whether this is paper-based or electronic.

There will be other business-related and clinical information you will be collecting at the time of a new referral. This checklist is not intended to capture all that information.

You could combine this checklist with the Participant Transition-Discharge Checklist (in Access to Supports under Provision of Supports [Service Delivery]) to create a tool that will see a participant from the beginning to end of their time with your service. It may also suit your organisation to produce this as an electronic flow chart.

Why the auditors like it

They can see:

• you are aware of what information is important to have prior to your initial assessment with NDIS participants.

Next steps

• OPEN the New Participant Intake Checklist
• DETERMINE how you will capture this information at the time of taking a new referral
• MODIFY your own referral form, if necessary, to include this information
• EDUCATE your team members taking referrals about the importance of collecting this information
• ADD training dates to your Annual Training Plan

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Why do I need this document?

This vital document provides evidence you are actually doing what you say you are doing in your Service Delivery Model and Policies. Every field on the NDIS Support Plan is there for a reason.

Make sure you enter information in every field when completing the NDIS Support Plan, as any blanks will create the impression they have been left out. For example, if there are no cultural considerations or risks state “nil identified”. Completing the form fully will help with the completion of any future quality audits, including the Goal Attainment Quality Improvement Activity.

Important points to note on the NDIS Support Plan include:

• if the participant has limited consent document
• if there is a potential conflict of interest between you/your organisation and the participant, and how this risk is managed.

A participant’s NDIS Service Agreement refers to their Support Plan for a breakdown of costs. You can think of this as a ‘quote’. The Support Plan is not intended to summarise a participant’s clinical assessment. It is to keep you and the participant focused on the goals they want to achieve and how you will allocate their resources to support that.

Some providers choose to have the full breakdown of costs in the Service Agreement. That’s fine but it means you will need to issue a full new Service Agreement every time you update a participant’s Support Plan. We suggest you refer to the current Support Plan as the detailed ‘quote’.

Why the auditors like it

They can see:

• who has contributed to developing the plan
• you are aware of the participant’s goals and your intervention is designed to achieve these
• you have considered the participant’s cultural needs
• you have identified and focused on the participant’s strengths
• you have communicated clearly to your participant about the services you will provide in order for them to meet their goals
• you have identified any risks related to implementing the plan
• the plan has been accepted by the participant and/or their decision maker
• you review the plan and identify the reason for any goals not being achieved

Next steps

• OPEN the Support Plan – read it carefully and adjust to suit your business
• CUSTOMISE the document to reflect your practice
• ADOPT the document

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Why do I need this document?

By conducting annual audits of your NDIS Support Plans you will demonstrate that you are collecting the information required to comply with the NDIS Practice Standards. It is one thing to say you consider the cultural needs of your participants, but you need to be able to show the auditors you are actually doing it.

• If you are a sole trader or small practice (2-3 allied health professionals), we suggest you audit 10 current Support Plans.
• If you have a larger business, say 6 practitioners, we suggest you audit 30 Support Plans.
• If you are a larger organisation we suggest you audit 10% of your current Support Plans.

Make sure you audit Support Plans from across your team to identify if a particular practitioner gets better results than another.

Audits can be time consuming to complete and depending on when your third-party audit is, you may or may not have time to complete this before your audit date. If you don’t have time, don’t panic. You could:

1. Put it in your Quality Management Plan and advise the auditors you intend to undertake an NDIS Support Plan Audit to determine compliance across your team in terms of collecting information.
2. Do a small sample audit (e.g. 6 files) which you can improve on next time around. This will show the auditors you have tested the process of conducting an NDIS Support Plan Audit and have considered the information it will provide you.

Don’t worry if your audit reveals poor compliance in some areas. The main thing is to demonstrate you have addressed the issues and put in place processes for improvement. But it will be important to show improvement in in the results of your next audit, otherwise it indicates that your management strategies didn’t work. Whatever you do, don’t fudge the results.

An NDIS Support Plan Audit Form is provided for you to collect information on. The fields on this form correlate to those on the NDIS Support Plan. If you change the NDIS Support Plan you will need to change the audit form to mirror the fields on your revised Support Plan.

Once you have completed the audit you will need to spend some time analysing your results using the Quality Improvement Activity Report (QIAR) form (see the Quality Management Section). You could consider analysing:

• individual practitioners’ strengths and weaknesses
• team trends
• best compliances
• worst compliances
• actions to complete to achieve improvement – individual actions, team actions
• review date

Why the auditors like it

They can see you:

• are asking participants about their cultural needs, recording these needs and consider them in your provision of service
• they can see you put in place strategies to improve your services
• are doing what you say you are doing

Next steps

• OPEN the NDIS Support Plan Audit Form
• CUSTOMISE it to reflect the fields in your NDIS Support Plan
• PLAN an audit date and insert it on your Quality Management Plan. Note: this will be covered in Risk Management under the Governance and Operational Management Standard.
• CONDUCT the NDIS Support Plan Audit
• CONSIDER the results and DOCUMENT using the Quality Improvement Activity Report
• CELEBRATE good results and/or BRAINSTORM with your team on how to improve
• DETERMINE a plan to improve performance
• FOLLOW UP on plan and DOCUMENT
• SET date for next NDIS Support Plan Audit and insert it on your Quality Management Plan

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Why do I need this document?

You must comply with the Information Privacy Principles of the Privacy Act 1988 and its subsequent amendments when dealing with NDIS participants’ personal information. Some states (NSW, VIC) and territories (ACT) have additional legislative requirements. Anyone providing services to NDIS participants is also obliged to “respect the privacy of people with disability”,  in accordance with the NDIS Code of Conduct.

This policy outlines your understanding of your responsibilities and how you go about maintaining privacy, not only of your NDIS participants but also other clients and staff.

Cyber security is an important consideration for both small and larger organisations. Recommended reading is Essential 8 Cyber Mitigation Strategies – one really easy recommendation to implement is multi-factor authentication.

If you have students doing clinical placements at your practice, make sure you adapt the Privacy and Information Management Policy and Procedures template to include them.

Why the auditors like it

They can see:

• you have an understanding of the legislative requirements associated with privacy
• you have recognised there are different consents required for different purposes
• you have a policy that is accessible to your participants
• you have systems in place to keep participants’ information safe
• you are aware of risks associated with maintaining privacy of information and are implementing appropriate mitigation strategies.

Next steps

• OPEN the Privacy and Information Management Policy – read it carefully
• ADAPT the policy as needed – aspects that may need to be reviewed are highlighted in yellow.
• DETERMINE if your state or territory has additional legislative requirements and include these in your policy
• REVIEW the section on Managing Privacy of Client Information Storage in this Policy – make sure you customise this to reflect what you do
• DOCUMENT any staff training you have conducted on this policy including who attended – this is your evidence.
• ADD upcoming training dates on Privacy and Information Management to your Annual Training Calendar.

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Why do I need this document?

By conducting annual audits of your NDIS Participant’s Service Agreements you will be able to:

• demonstrate what percentage of your NDIS participants have signed and received a copy of their Service Agreement
• determine if your NDIS Participants are completing the consent section of the Service Agreement correctly and you are able to retrieve the information efficiently.

If you are a sole trader or small practice (2-3 allied health professionals (AHPs)), we suggest you audit 10 current Service Agreements. If you have a larger business, say 6 AHPs, we suggest you do 30. If you are a larger organisation we suggest you audit 10% of your current Service Agreements.

Make sure you audit files from across your team to identify if a particular practitioner gets better results than another.

Audits can be time consuming to complete and depending on when your third-party audit is, you may or may not have time to complete this before your audit date. If you don’t have time, don’t panic. You could:

1. Put it in your Quality Management Plan and advise the auditors you intend to undertake an NDIS Support Plan Audit to determine compliance across your team in terms of collecting information.
2. Do a small sample audit (e.g. 6 files) which you can improve on next time around. This will show the auditors you have tested the process of conducting an NDIS Support Plan Audit and have considered the information it will provide you.

Don’t worry if your audit reveals poor compliance in some areas. The main thing is to demonstrate you have addressed the issues and put in place processes for improvement. But it will be important to show improvement in in the results of your next audit, otherwise it indicates that your management strategies didn’t work. Whatever you do, don’t fudge the results.

A NDIS Participant Service Agreement Audit Form is provided for you to collect information on.

This form is designed to be used in conjunction with the Quality Improvement Activity Report (QIAR) form (see Quality Management Section). Complete the initial part of the QIAR and then collect your data. Once you have completed the audit, summarise the results and complete the rest of the QIAR, including any actions required.

Once you have completed the audit you will need to spend some time analysing your results. Here are some things to consider:

• Has the Service Agreement been signed by the appropriate person?
• Was the participant provided with a copy of their Service Agreement?
• Is the consent section filled out and are the agreed consents easy to find on the participant’s file?
• Are some team members better than others at obtaining and documenting consent in the participant’s records?
• How will you improve any unsatisfactory results?

Why the auditors like it

They can see you:

• are providing choice to participants regarding their consents
• have put in place strategies to improve your services
• are doing what you say you are doing.

Next Steps

• OPEN the NDIS Participant Service Agreement Audit Form
• PLAN an audit date and insert it on your Quality Improvement Plan
• COMPLETE the initial part of the Quality Improvement Activity Report (QIAR) form. Enter the audit in the Quality Improvement Projects Register (see Quality Management section for these documents)
• CONDUCT the NDIS Service Agreement Audit
• DOCUMENT and CONSIDER the results
• CELEBRATE good results and/or BRAINSTORM with your team on how to improve
• DETERMINE a plan to improve performance
• FOLLOW UP on your plan. FINALISE the QIAR and DOCUMENT its completion on the Register
• SET date for next NDIS Participant Service Agreement Audit and insert it on your Quality Management Plan

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Protecting participants from violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination is a critical part of the NDIS Practice Standards. To ensure you are meeting this standard you must have appropriate policies and procedures in place and meet all the relevant compliance requirements. Completing and maintaining the following documents will be essential:

• Human Resources Register (see Person-centred Supports)
• NDIS Induction Checklist (see Person-centre Supports)
• Annual Training Plan (see Person-centred Supports)
• NDIS Employment Checklist
• Compliance Calendar
• Quality Plan and Quality Improvement Projects Register (see Quality Management)
• Incidents and Complaints Management Register (see Feedback and Complaints Management)

It is also critical that the participants are:

• aware of their right to be free from violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination (via the NDIS Service Agreement)
• asked if these rights are respected and put into practice in your service (Participant Survey).

You may wish to develop a brochure for participants regarding complaints management that outlines more details than the Service Agreement.

Note: If you provide services to children you will need to develop additional policies and procedures. This may include children’s rights policies particularly referencing your state’s requirements. Information in the sections on Feedback and Complaints and Incident Management helpful for this.

Why do we have to do this?

NDIS want to know:

• participants are informed of their right to be free from violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination
• participants understand they can complain if this is breached (through the Service Agreement and any other materials you may use)
• your human resource practices minimise risks to participants – this includes initial employment checks and training, plus ongoing checks, training and supervision
• any allegations or incidents of violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation or discrimination are identified, recorded and acted upon appropriately. This includes:
  • ensuring participants can use an advocate
  • reporting and investigating as required is conducted
  • outcomes are recorded and actions taken to prevent any re-occurrence.
• you monitor compliance with and outcomes of the above through use of management tools – monitoring registers, compliance checklists, meetings, plans, quality activities (particularly Participant Survey).

What auditors are looking for

They want to be able to see:

• your NDIS participants feel supported to report any breach of their rights and where such incidents occur they are appropriately managed
• your HR practices minimise risks to participants – this includes initial employment practices / checks / training, on-going checks / supervision / training
• you monitor compliance with your stated systems

Next Steps

• WATCH the Webinar
• READ and UNDERSTAND the Spiel
• CUSTOMISE each document to reflect your practice
• ADOPT the documents

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Why do I need this document?

In today’s world we have a multitude of registrations, reviews, subscriptions, plans, memberships, insurances and things to do in running a business. These are aimed at keeping our workers and our participants safe and meeting participant goals. We also need to ensure we meet our legislative / statutory requirements and our business contractual & operational needs.

The Compliance Calendar is an invaluable tool to manage all your ‘must dos’. Once set up it shows what you have to do each month to maintain currency for legal and business obligations such as:

• tax and financial requirements
• insurances & registrations
• governance
• review of NDIS business and registration requirements
• HR processes
• health & safety
• reviews of documents
• review and updates of plans and registers to ensure they are up to date and relevant

There are some great options to explore if you want to use something more tech-based for your Compliance Calendar. But you need to think about how you might demonstrate this to an auditor as part of a desk-top audit.

Whatever tool you choose, the most important thing is that the calendar used.

• Someone in your organisation must have responsibility for monitoring and completing actions (or delegating these tasks).
• Your governing body and management need to check that the calendar is up to date and that required actions have been completed.

Why the auditors like it

They can:

• look at one document and feel confident you have everything under control
• see you have a system in place to manage your ‘must does’, reducing your risk of being non-compliant with statutory requirements or having out of date insurance
• easily do the checks they need to do e.g. ask you to show them a specific certificate of currency.

They will also want to see evidence that the calendar is reviewed at meetings (refer to provided Meeting Agenda/Minute Templates) and action is taken if planned actions are incomplete or not done.

Next steps

• OPEN the Compliance Calendar and customise the list of issues to suit your business e.g. if you do not have rooms that you operate out of you will not need some of the Fire Safety things; if you don’t have equipment that needs calibration delete that one
• Once you have decided on what you need / want to track, put the due dates in the corresponding boxes e.g. if your Professional Indemnity Insurance is due on the 06/03/2020 put “6” in the March 2020 column alongside “Professional Indemnity”.
• Once you are using the Compliance Calendar you will turn those things you have done GREEN to show it is “completed”, AMBER to show it is “behind schedule” or RED to show it is “not delivered”. If you right click over the corresponding square you can insert a comment explaining why you are behind schedule or ceasing to do something
• Review the Compliance Calendar Sample for an idea of how it works
• Allocate responsibility for monitoring and completing / delegating actions
• Ensure presented at your governing body and management meetings for monitoring that the calendar is up-to-date / required actions have been completed or action is then taken to complete them. Minutes must reflect this review process.

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