Disability Advocacy Program

Home » Our Services » JASANZ Endorsed Programs » Disability Advocacy Program

This standard applies to organisations that receive Commonwealth funding for programs administered by the Department of Social Services for disability advocacy.

Certification against the National Standards for Disability Services – National Disability Advocacy Program (NDAP) is a three-year cycle involving an initial two-stage certification process and two annual surveillance audits.

NDAP has six service models: Individual Advocacy (IA), Self-Advocacy (SA), Family Advocacy (FA), Citizen Advocacy (CA), Legal Advocacy (LA), and Systemic Advocacy (SA). There are 11 Disability Advocacy standards and 24 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

IA supports people with disability to exercise their rights, through either one-to-one support, or by supporting people to advocate for themselves individually, through a third party or on a group basis.
SA supports people with disability to advocate on their own behalf, to the extent possible, or on a one-to-one or group basis.

FA works with parents and family members to enable them to act as advocates with and on behalf of a family member with disability, either on a short-term or an issue-specific basis and within the fundamental principle that the rights and interests of the person with disability are upheld at all times.

CA seeks to support people with disability by matching them with suitable individuals from the community who enter together into a freely given, independent and unpaid relationship of support through advocacy.

LA seeks to uphold the rights and interests of people with all types of disabilities by addressing legal aspects of instances of discrimination, abuse and neglect.

SA Seeks to introduce and influence longer term changes to ensure the rights of people with disability are attained and upheld to positively affect the quality of their lives.

Stage 1 audit

The initial certification is conducted as a two-stage process. The Stage 1 audit involves a review of documentation to determine your organisation’s readiness to proceed to the Stage 2 certification audit. Your organisation will be provided with advice on areas of potential nonconformity with the standards. These should be addressed prior to the Stage 2 audit. The process may be conducted on or off-site, IHCA Certification will discuss this with you.

Stage 2 audit

The on-site certification audit will be conducted according to a documented audit plan, which will be developed in consultation with your organisation.

The audit team will involve a lead auditor and a consumer technical expert and they will assess your organisational work practices by reviewing your policies, procedures and records; conducting interviews with board, management, staff, service users and other stakeholders as appropriate; review service user files; and observe the conduct of activities onsite.

Corrective action planning

Where a nonconformity is identified, your organisation will need to develop a corrective action plan before being eligible for certification. The lead auditor will advise your organisation on the timeframes for corrective action remediation at the closing meeting.

Formal certification decision and registration

IHCA Certification will provide a written report to your organisation, which will be formally certified against the Standard if there are no nonconformities or where corrective action requirements have been met. Upon certification, your organisation will be issued with a certificate confirming your organisation’s conformance to the standards and the right to use IHCA Certification’s distinctive symbol in promotional activities. Your report will be uploaded to the Department of Social Services online funding management system.

IHCA Certification will also add your organisation’s name to the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ) register of certified organisations, which is publicly accessible on the JAS-ANZ website: www.jas-anz.com.au.

Surveillance audits

Surveillance audits will be undertaken every 12 months to ensure that your organisation’s work practices are being maintained and that they are being periodically monitored and reviewed to ensure continuous improvement. A report will be provided to you with feedback regarding the results of these audits.

Talk to our friendly team today about your NDIS certification or verification