What is the project going to achieve?
In the wake of the report from the Aged Care Royal Commission, the role of advocacy for older people became more prominent, and this was reinforced during the COVID pandemic and its devastating impact on older people.
The Disability Royal Commission also highlighted the vulnerability of people with disability in their communities and in some specialist service settings, focusing on the need for strong independent Advocacy.
The two peak bodies representing advocacy, OPAN and the Disability Advocacy Network Australia (DANA) agreed to work together to create a new Australian Standard specific to Advocacy for Aged Care and Disability, which could be used to strengthen and continuously improve advocacy, and enable agencies to demonstrate to government departments that they are achieving outcomes for the funding they receive. The Standard, AS 5391:2024 Advocacy in Ageing and Disability was published by Standards Australia in 2024.
Following the publication of AS 5391:2024 OPAN and DANA have been working with the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JASANZ) to develop a scheme to enable advocacy services to be certified against the requirements of the Standard.
A technical committee was established to inform the development of the scheme. The committee included representatives from advocacy service providers, individuals who use advocacy services, government department officials, and representatives of certification bodies that conduct audits to certify advocacy services against established standards.
In June 2024 a number of online information sessions were held with advocacy service providers and people who use advocacy services, after which the first drafts of the scheme were written by JASANZ in consultation with OPAN and DANA.
In November 2024, OPAN and DANA sought feedback on the initial scheme draft in consultation sessions with advocacy service providers and people with lived experience as advocacy service users. Feedback from the consultations was considered by the technical committee. This scheme was endorsed by the technical committee in September 2025.
The next phase of the project will involve pilot testing the scheme within a selection of advocacy services. This phase of the project is expected to commence in 2026
