Frequently Asked Questions NGO Benchmarking Model

Transcription

1 Frequently Asked Questions NGO Benchmarking Model What is the NGO Benchmarking Model? The NGO Benchmarking Model is a capability development tool designed to help your organisation embed robust, customer-centred principles into your operations to deliver efficient, high quality and innovative programs and services. The Model is designed to help your organisation identify your strengths and areas for improvement, and includes a library or resources to support further development. Your organisation can complete an online self-assessment process where you will be classified as either emerging, mature or excelling against ten focus capabilities. This information can be used to guide strategic planning, business operations and staff capability development programs. My organisation is already accredited. How is this different? Accreditation systems often focus on organisational capacity to ensure quality service delivery. In contrast, the NSW Benchmarking model helps you measure how customer centric your services are as a key indicator of successful service provision. Ten focus capabilities have been mapped to seven existing accreditation schemes applicable to the human services sector. This is because many accreditation schemes incorporate quality assurance metrics. Questions in the self-assessment that relate to capabilities already demonstrated by these existing accreditations will be pre-filled (provided that the organisation uploads proof of its accreditation). The Model will incorporate additional accreditation schemes in future. Do I have to participate? Participation in stage one implementation of the Benchmarking Model is voluntary. What organisations should participate in benchmarking? All NGOs delivering services on behalf of the NSW Government are encouraged to complete the selfassessment using the Benchmarking Model. The feedback provided in during stage one will inform how the NSW Government will use the Model from 2018 onwards. We recognised that the NGO sector is diverse and that the Benchmarking Model may provide more value to some organisations than others. The purpose of stage one implementation is to work out what organisations want from the Benchmarking Model in future, so that it we can maximise the benefit it will deliver to you. 1

2 What do I do if my organisation isn t excelling? Will there be negative consequences? Information your organisation provides during the self-assessment process will not be reviewed by NSW Government agencies. There will be no consequences if stage one reveals that your organisation isn t in the excelling level. It is important to remember that all organisations are on their own development journey; not every organisation needs to be excelling. Your results from stage one can be used to guide strategic planning, business operations and staff capability development programs if your organisation decides that it wants to move towards the excelling level. Who is responsible for the Benchmarking Model? The Model was developed by the Social Innovation Council (SIC). The SIC is a strategic partnership between the NSW Government and the Forum of Non-Government Agencies (FONGA) established to foster innovation in the way human services are developed. If you would like further information on the Social Innovation Council, please visit the Innovation NSW website: Who developed the NGO Benchmarking Model? The Model was co-designed by representatives from FONGA, Department of Family & Community Services, NSW Health, Department of Justice, Advocate for Children and Young People, Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Department of Education. The Model has been built with NGOs from the ground up and reflects the shared priorities of the not-for-profit human services sector and NSW Government. Importantly, the Model has been tested with a broad cross section of NGOs in pilots conducted in November 2015 and May A public consultation process also ran from November 2016 to February Feedback from over 200 NGOs has been incorporated to date. Why has the Benchmarking Model been developed? The NSW Government is committed to working with NGOs to continually improve the services delivered to NSW s most vulnerable people. The Benchmarking Model has been developed to improve the capability of organisations delivering human services on behalf of NSW Government, and to help organisations transition to new funding models that are driven by customer needs. It sets out a clear pathway that has been designed to establish best practice as common practice, and provides your organisation with a clear understanding of the NSW Government s expectations on service delivery. The Model includes accountability and assessment measures to give customers and funding bodies greater assurance that the human services being provided are high quality, value for money and outcomes-focussed. It also supports those organisations who do not have existing accreditations by providing them with a means to assess and demonstrate their capability. 2

3 How do I access the Benchmarking Model? You can access the Benchmarking Model via the one platform: Click Register in the Login section and fill in the information as required. Once inside the platform, press Begin-self assessment then select the first level Emerging Use the Enrol button at the top of the Emerging page to enrol then select Launch to begin the self-assessment process. What are the benefits of my organisation completing the Benchmarking Model? The Benchmarking Model is a capability development tool that can support you to develop and/or refine your organisation s strategic direction and customer centric service delivery model. The benefits from participating in stage one are: assessing your organisation s understanding of its customers and government s service priorities using your results to develop a roadmap to improving service outcomes for customers by implementing initiatives to improve benchmarking scores accessing the free online platform with resources and guidance designed to help organisations further develop their performance capabilities opportunity to attend customer-centric service delivery training (funded by NSW Government) comparing organisational capability against the broader not-for-profit human services sector building capability to support transition to commissioning and outcomes-based contracting models. The possible benefits that will flow from the Benchmarking Model if it is rolled out more broadly in 2018 (in addition to many of the above) include: increased transparency of your organisation s capability to customers, funding bodies, key stakeholders and the community attracting more diverse funding sources by demonstrating organisational capability for funding opportunities outside of the NSW Government. How does the Benchmarking Model benefit NSW Government and the community? The NSW Government spent $2.5 billion (excluding disability services) on contracts with NGOs to deliver essential human services in It is paramount that this funding is delivered to organisations that are committed to continuous improvement and providing the best possible outcomes for their customers. Improving the customer-centric capabilities of NGOs will: increase the capacity of service providers to deliver services that better meet the needs of customers create more effective services with improved customer outcomes 3

4 increase the scope and accessibility of human services drive innovative service delivery improve data collection and sharing to inform planning, design and delivery processes for NGOs and agencies. How does the online self-assessment work? The platform is a simple and user-friendly tool that allows your organisation to gauge your performance against the Benchmarking Model by answering a series of questions about your service delivery, existing policies and business practices. At the start of the self-assessment, you are required to select which (if any) existing human services accreditations your organisation holds. If your organisation holds one of the accreditations listed, then the platform will pre-fill the questions that align with capabilities demonstrated by the relevant accreditation(s). You are then guided through the questionaries for the three levels emerging, mature and excelling. You are required to upload evidence that supports your responses to each of the questions. For example, this could include scans of accreditation certificates, annual reports, policy documents, links to social media pages and websites etc. The Model does not prescribe certain types of evidence, but instead you have the flexibility to upload evidence that captures how your organisation demonstrates that capability. Examples of the types of evidence that can be used are provided underneath each set of questions. The online platform also includes embedded links to the tools and guidance that provide further information about the benchmarking process, evidence requirements, defined terms and focus capabilities. What supporting evidence do I need to provide? A list of possible documents that can be provided to support your organisation s responses is outlined below each set of questions. Remember, the evidence requirement is outcomes-based, so your organisation has the choice to upload whatever evidence you believe demonstrates the relevant capabilities. Some examples of supporting evidence that can be uploaded to the online platform include: governance reports and other documents strategic and operational plans, policies and processes information supplied to customers, such as health information documentation of meetings with internal and external stakeholders reports from internal reviews, assessments, audits and evaluations customer feedback. Organisations do not need to upload evidence for questions that have been automatically pre-filled as a result of an existing accreditation; only evidence of the relevant certification (e.g. certificate) is required. Check out the Evidence Guidelines for further information on the evidentiary requirements. 4

5 Does my organisation need to complete all three levels? Your organisation is free to complete as little or as many of the levels as you like. You will start the self-assessment with the emerging level and can progress to further levels when you are ready. How long does the online self-assessment take? This will be different for each organisation due to a number of factors: the number of levels completed (i.e. emerging, mature, excelling) the size of the organisation if your organisation completes the self-assessment on behalf of the whole organisation, or by service type (see question below) the availability of, and access to, the evidence to support responses familiarity with the NGO Benchmarking Model (due to participation in previous pilots or the public consultation process). During our May 2016 pilot (which tested the online platform), 70 per cent of organisations completed the self-assessment in less than three hours. My organisation delivers a number of services and/or in a number of locations. Should I complete one self-assessment, or should I split it up? This is for your organisation to decide. Some organisations that deliver multiple services and/or in multiple locations have indicated that they will complete the self-assessment for individual services/business units/locations to ensure the benchmarking results are relevant and to enable internal comparison of the results between services/business units/locations. I am an out-of-home care provider accredited under NSW Child Safe Standards for Permanent Care Does the NGO Benchmarking Model apply to my organisation? Participation in stage one implementation of the NGO Benchmarking Model is voluntary for NGOs. We encourage all NGOs to participate as the feedback provided in during stage one will inform how the NSW Government will use the Model from 2018 onward. The Department of Finance, Services and Innovation (DFSI) has attempted to map the NSW Child Safe Standards for Permanent Care 2015 to the NGO Benchmarking Model. After discussions with the Office of Children s Guardian, it has been agreed that the NSW Child Safe Standards for Permanent Care 2015 will not be included on the online platform for stage one implementation. This is because there is a complex accreditation framework (including ongoing monitoring) unpinning the NSW Child Safe Standards for Permanent Care 2015 that cannot be adequately represented on the online platform at this point in time. DFSI and the Office of Children s Guardian will use the feedback provided by out-of-home care providers participating in stage one to make an assessment on whether the NGO Benchmarking Model is fit-for-purpose for these providers. 5

6 I am a community housing provider accredited under National Community Housing Standards. Does the NGO Benchmarking Model apply to my organisation? Participation in Stage one implementation of the NGO Benchmarking Model is voluntary for NGOs. We encourage all NGOs to participate as the feedback provided in during stage one will inform how the NSW Government will use the Model from 2018 onward. The Department of Finance, Services and Innovation (DFSI) has attempted to map the National Community Housing Standards to the NGO Benchmarking Model. After discussions with the NSW Department of Family & Community Services (FACS) and NSW Federation of Housing Associations Inc, it has been decided that National Community Housing Standards will not be included on the online platform for stage one implementation. This is because there is a complex accreditation framework (including ongoing monitoring) unpinning the National Community Housing Standards that cannot be adequately represented on the online platform at this point in time. DFSI will work with FACS, NSW Community Housing Registrar and NSW Federation of Housing Associations Inc to analyse the feedback provided by community housing providers participating in stage one. We will use your feedback to make an assessment on whether the NGO Benchmarking Model is fit-for-purpose for community housing providers, and if appropriate, look to map the National Regulatory System for Community Housing to the NGO Benchmarking Model in future. When will benchmarking be implemented? Will it be mandatory? The purpose of stage one implementation is to determine the value of the NGO Benchmarking Model to NGOs and agencies. The stage one outcomes will inform how the NGO Benchmarking Model is used from 2018 onwards. Staged implementation provides us with the opportunity to: better understand the intersections with existing regulatory and accreditation regimes test demand, usefulness and applicability of the model measure if the model delivers the outcomes we expect explore the need for verification and different verification options gather evidence to determine the best mode of delivery in the long term. A formal evaluation of stage one will conducted by ARTD Consulting. These results will guide further implementation. Are intellectual property rights and confidentiality protected in the evidence provided? Yes. The evidence provided during the self-assessment process will only be used for the purpose of assessing the capability of an organisation. An independent third party will review a sample of the benchmarking results and evidence uploaded for the purpose of informing the formal evaluation that is being conducted by ARTD Consulting. 6

7 How will my organisation s benchmarking results and evidence be used? Information your organisation provides during the self-assessment process will not be reviewed by NSW Government agencies. Individual benchmarking results will only be provided to the relevant organisation through the scorecard on the online platform. In October 2017, your organisation will be able to see how it compared to average across all participating NGOs. An independent third party will review a sample of the benchmarking results and evidence uploaded for the purpose of informing the formal evaluation that is being conducted by ARTD Consulting. It is recommended that benchmarking results be circulated amongst your staff to spark discussion on what changes could be implemented to help improve your organisation s capabilities. How are you involving customers in stage one? We will be piloting the NSW Advocate for Children & Young People s Youth Inspectors Program. Young people will meet with a sample of service providers and provide their feedback on suitability of services for children and young people. This feedback be incorporated into the evaluation of stage one. Impacted service providers will be contacted to see if they agreed to participate (voluntary basis). This process will take place in October and November Are there costs involved? The online platform is free to use and includes additional resources that will benefit your organisation. DFSI will fund a training opportunity on customer-centric service delivery for all NGOs that participate in the process. You must complete at least the emerging level to be eligible. Where can I get more information? For further information: Online platform Evidence Guidelines Forum of Non-Government Agencies For technical guidance on the platform contact the Janison support team at helpdesk@janison.com Department of Finance, Services and Innovation contact Zoe Zeller, Senior Policy Officer, at zoe.zeller@finance.nsw.gov.au 7