Inclusive governance

• Our new inclusive governance model is designed to ensure the voices of each of our clients are heard at every level of the organisation, from the Board through to senior management, through to middle management and the frontline.
• We have established a Client Rights and Safeguarding Committee, which has responsibility for incorporating client voice and client rights into practice and decision making. This advisory committee currently comprises Board members and family members.
• Our Board members, CEO and senior leadership team visit our services to meet with our clients, their families and our staff. These visits provide opportunities for feedback on what we’re doing well and how we can improve.

Client Safeguarding, Complaint Handling and Quality assurance

• Sunnyfield created a new role of General Manager Quality, Risk and Compliance. Work completed to date includes improvements to complaints, incident management and client safeguarding practices and reporting.
• We implemented changes to our incident management system, implemented a new Complaints Management system, and improved our complaints procedures.
• There are multiple options for clients, families, staff and external parties to raise concerns, anonymously if required including an external whistleblowing service.
• Sunnyfield has a dedicated Client Safeguarding Team, independent from service delivery, which is responsible for investigating allegations of abuse, assault, neglect or exploitation, conducting reportable incident training, NDIS incident reporting and restrictive practices.
• The Client Safeguarding Manager and the Response Team investigators are experienced investigators, and both Response Team investigators are former police officers with investigations experience.
• Sunnyfield has a dedicated quality assurance team that performs regular service audits and works with service managers to identify improvements to processes.
• Our new systems ensure there is line of sight of complaints from frontline supervision to the Board.

Workforce

• Sunnyfield promotes a learning and development culture that includes studying best practice to identify further improvements.
• We have comprehensive recruitment practices and controls to ensure the people who support our clients have the right values, skills and qualifications to support decision making, dignity of risk and keep clients safe.
• Training for our Board and Senior Leadership Team includes an external Client Rights and Safeguarding course and trauma informed training.
• We have expanded and enhanced our training for frontline staff and managers including human rights and trauma-informed training, and enhanced our monitoring to increase our capability to prevent and respond to any form of abuse, assault, neglect, exploitation, or discrimination.

Service Agreements

• We have made some important improvements to ensure your choice and control over the support services you receive from Sunnyfield.
• Specifically, these improvements relate to the service agreement between you and Sunnyfield.
• We are committed to ensuring your service agreement clearly reflects your right to exercise choice and control. You can talk to us about what you want to include in your service agreement, and we promise to listen to you and work with you to understand your needs.
• We are reviewing our service agreements to simplify them and make them easier to follow. The new service agreements will be made available on our website by 21 April 2023.
• We are committed to working with each of you to put in place the service agreement which best suits your needs, desired outcomes, and future plans.
• If you have an existing service agreement with Sunnyfield, you have the option to move to the new service agreement or retain your existing service agreement. Sunnyfield will discuss these options with you at a convenient time for you.
• If you have any other suggestions or ideas for how we can improve our service at Sunnyfield please complete our Feedback Form.

Hear from our CEO

Andrew discusses the changes that Sunnyfield has made to service agreements, giving you greater choice and control.

To learn more how we implement the NDIS Quality and Safeguarding Framework policies see https://www.sunnyfield.org.au/about/quality-management/sunnyfield-policies/