Home / The Plan / History of the Plan 2015-2020 / Quality and Safety
Consumers have the right to receive services from a skilled, integrated team. Kaiāwhina are competent, adaptable and work to the required standards. They reflect on their and the wider team’s practice. This workforce is trained to enhance personal and consumer safety. Management and organisational infrastructure support this.
Of the eight actions in this domain, Actions 2.1, 3.1 and 3.3 have been completed while the remaining five are ‘in progress’ as at 30 June 2020.
During the national response to COVID-19 the overt inclusion of Kaiāwhina as an integral part of the essential workforce has reaffirmed the importance of the role and contribution Kaiāwhina fulfil in the sector. The Ministry of Health also continues to signal the importance of the Kaiāwhina workforce in the guidance and expectations they provide to planners and policy makers in that the Kaiāwhina workforce needs to be included in both service design and workforce planning. This encompasses the development and implementation of emerging models of care, policy frameworks and strategies, integrated service delivery approaches and in workforce modelling across all health and disability settings.
In response to Action 1.3 a range of resources and tools are now available to support Kaiāwhina and their employers in quality improvement activity and to assist with developing a culture of consumer safety. For example, the Health Quality and Safety Commission (HQSC) publication ‘Partners in Care’ encourages patient-centredness and focuses on a co-design approach that highlights quality issues. Another publication ‘Knowledge to Action’ (2016) articulates the knowledge and understanding that the health care workforce needs to have, and actions they need to take, to achieve better quality and safety. It advocates fostering a team culture that supports consumer safety and service quality and includes Kaiāwhina as a professional group within the integrated team.
The underpinning philosophy of the Health and Wellbeing qualifications on the NZQA Framework is to develop a person-centred, thinking workforce. Every Kaiāwhina, in whatever setting they work, is required to show mastery of core safety competencies. The levels 2 to 5 qualifications support the learning of Kaiāwhina across the many different roles they hold. These qualifications include a focus on consumer safety and service quality. Employers are required to support staff to attain the level 2 – 4 qualifications as part of the Pay Equity Settlement (2017). Resources published by the HQSC – ‘Improving Together’, and Te Pou – ‘Let’s Get Real in Organisations’, provide tools to support Kaiāwhina with their ongoing professional development. These enhance quality improvement and consumer safety knowledge and competencies.
The New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing (Levels 2 to 4) require programmes to adhere to and be consistent with relevant legislation, codes, policies, procedures and standards. Ethical, legislative, practice standards and contractual requirements that Kaiāwhina need to meet, are also covered in them. Employers have an obligation to cover relevant regulatory and safety information within the employee induction process and ongoing.
Measuring outcomes and effective feedback mechanisms will be critical for progressing quality improvement over the coming five years.
This aligns with the Kaiāwhina Taskforce 2020-2025 Priority 4: Creating workforce knowledge and data
A remaining challenge is for the uptake of available knowledge and tools to support Kaiāwhina in their roles to occur more widely and consistently across the sector. In the coming Plan it will be important for Kaiāwhina to be given appropriate support and learning to enable them to be more involved in workplace service quality improvement as part of the interprofessional team. A range of resources exist currently to assist with this, but work is still needed on how to make these more readily available and relevant for Kaiāwhina in their workplace.
The development of a code of practice unique to, and appropriate for, Kaiāwhina across their diverse roles and settings is increasingly being called for and is included as a priority in the 2020/2021 work programme.
This aligns with the Kaiāwhina Taskforce 2020-2025 Priority 3: Accelerating new ways of working and eco-system thinking; Priority 2: Connecting Kaiāwhina
Wider recognition is needed of the skills, knowledge, experience and competencies that Kaiāwhina have as members of a multidisciplinary team in providing holistic quality service delivery. In addition, the development of systems to support Kaiāwhina maintain currency of their competencies continues to be important for the future.
This aligns with the Kaiāwhina Taskforce 2020-2025 Priority 1: Building cultural competency; Priority 5: Supplying and developing the workforce.
The HQSC and Careerforce have agreed to collaborate in the development of an interactive webpage with clickable links to the code of rights, service standards, legislation and regulation that apply to Kaiāwhina. Once developed, employers will be encouraged to include a link to their core documents such as Kaiāwhina job descriptions and staff induction material. Webinars and PowerPoint presentations could also be made available for keeping knowledge of the standards and codes that apply in their work setting current.
This aligns with the Kaiāwhina Taskforce 2020-2025 2025 Priority 3: Accelerating new ways of working and eco-system thinking; Priority 2: Connecting Kaiāwhina
