What is the Core Module?

The Health & Community Services Core Module (Core Module) is a set of standards that can be used by organisations based in the public, commercial, health or community sectors. The module can be used either for self-assessment or
as the basis for external review in QIC’s Standards and Accreditation Program.

The standards are written in outcome form, reflect continuous quality improvement principles and embody the values of the QIC program. This module adopts the use of evidence questions to guide organisations in describing their systems
around each standard. The module is designed to be used in conjunction with the QIC service-specific modules that match the service delivery contexts of organisations. There are evidence guides for all modules.

How is the module structured?

Features of a Quality Organisation

These features underpin the program and are QIC’s core concepts. A quality organisation is efficient, legal, accountable, sustainable, participatory, reflective and integrated organisation, with services and programs that are effective, competent, safe, accessible, fair, responsive, co-ordinated, inclusive and culturally sensitive.

Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI)

The module helps organisations to implement and embed CQI in all aspects of operations.

Standards: The Core Module comprises 17 standards

Section 1: Building quality organisations

These standards address the internal and operational features of a quality organisation: leadership and management, human resources, material resources, finances, legislative compliance, knowledge and risk.

Section 2: Providing quality services and programs

These standards address consumer and community needs, outcomes, diversity, rights, empowerment and service co-ordination. Service specific modules explore this section in more depth.

Section 3: Sustaining quality external relationships

These standards address the ways organisations connect their services to the broader environment: service agreements, strategic integration, accepted good practice and community capacity building.

Workbooks

The self-assessment workbooks are called quality journals and are organised into sections following the standards. There are evidence questions for each standard to help guide organisations in the collection of relevant information.

What evidence?

To determine whether or not it meets a standard, an organisation must collect evidence about its systems and quality activities. Evidence must be relevant, current, reliable and corroborated.

Why systems?

Quality improvement is concerned with systems rather than the presence of isolated things or actions. Although it is difficult to prevent individual lapses in safety and quality, well-designed and implemented systems will maximise
the chances of sustaining quality performance. Whilst the QIC program reflects a systems focus, it recognises that organisations have their own ways of developing systems, which are at different stages of refinement.

QIC accreditation

Under its Standards and Accreditation Program, QIC awards accreditation to organisations that have fulfilled the following program requirements:

Components of the Review Cycle