Effective from August 2023

Approved by: Chief Executive Officer

All Five Good Friends Members, workers and stakeholders have the opportunity to provide feedback about their service and experience. Complaints and feedback are encouraged and managed in a timely, fair and transparent manner and serve to guide improvements across the organisation and better outcomes for individuals.

Scope

This policy relates to all Five Good Friends Members, their key supports, and all Five Good Friends workers. Any person may provide feedback or make a complaint to the organisation and all workers are empowered to support our Members to provide feedback.

Objective

The purpose of this policy is to provide our clear position on the management of feedback, including complaints, within Five Good Friends.

Definitions

• Complaint – is an expression of dissatisfaction with a support or service provided by Five Good Friends.
• Feedback – any information provided to us related to any aspect of our organisation. We identify complaints, comments, compliments, and opportunities for improvements as types of feedback that can be provided.
• Natural Justice – is the right of all people to a fair and unbiased hearing.
• Open Disclosure – means having open discussion with our stakeholders and includes:
  • identifying when things go wrong
  • acknowledging and expressing regret
  • providing support to those affected
  • finding out and explaining what happened, and
  • learning from the experience.
• Procedural Fairness – in Five Good Friends this means we undertake a fair and unbiased approach to managing feedback.
• Worker – employees, contractors, Helpers and volunteers.

Policy Statement

• We are committed to an effective feedback management system that supports improved outcomes and experience for individuals and learning for the organisation.
• We adhere to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission – Effective Complaints Handling Guidelines for NDIS Providers and the Open Disclosure Framework and Guidance – Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
• We adhere to the NDIS Practice Standards and Aged Care Quality Standards.
• We will make it easy for any person to provide feedback and base our approach on the principle, ‘nothing about us without us’.
• We believe in open disclosure, procedural fairness and natural justice.
• We will ensure that any feedback provided will not impact the care and support an individual receives from us.
• We initially aim to resolve all complaints quickly at the point of service and escalate using our Feedback Management Workflow. We will do this when it cannot be resolved quickly or at the request of the complainant.
• We support individuals to have a support person or advocate to assist with their feedback.
• We respect the privacy of feedback provided through our feedback management system and manage this by limiting access to review submissions for formal complaints.
• We review our complaints system for effectiveness through regular reviews.

References and Related Documents

Five Good Friends

• Feedback Management Workflow

External

• NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission – Effective Complaints Handling Guidelines for NDIS Providers
• Open Disclosure Framework and Guidance – Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission