ABS Receives Four Year Accreditation with the Council on Quality and Leadership

January 23-26th, ABS completed the process to renew our four year accreditation with the Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL).  Throughout the week, three CQL staff completed a number of activities to determine eligibility for a Person Centered Excellence Accreditation.  This included Personal Outcome interviews with people supported, focus groups with self advocates and staff,documentation review in key areas, visiting people’s homes and jobs and a day long Person Centered Excellence planning meeting with core stakeholders.  The review included specific areas that ABS had to meet set quality standards in:

Share Values:  These are values, beliefs and expectations about the way we provide services, supports and resources.  Through a variety of activities, CQL determined that 32 of the 32 indicators for Shared Values are currently present for ABS.

Basic Assurances: Basic Assurances address the provision of safety measures put into action from the person’s perspective.  Basic Assurances require policies and procedures or systems are in place, while the effectiveness of the system is determined in practice person by person.  These assurances are not statements of intent, rather they are non-negotiable requirements.  CQL determined that 46 out of the 46 indicators for Basic Assurances are  currently in place at ABS.

Person Centered Excellence Planning: This planning day focuses on our continual commitment to provide Person Centered services.  Self advocates, family members, community members and ABS staff participated in a day long discussion to identify the areas that were most import to target continual growth in. The group then create action plans for each of the priority areas.  These areas are: Person Centered Planning, Community Connections and the Workforce.

Follow Up:  The accreditation is for four years.  During this time, ABS will have follow up conversations wi th the CQL accreditation team.   These conversations are scheduled  to take place at 18 months and 36  months.  They will focus on continual monitoring of the Shared Values and Basic Assurances indicators.  As well as progress towards the goals and plans created during the Person Centered Excellence process.