New Directions Standards & Ratings for Staff Teams 

Duration: 6 hours (including four fifteen-minute breaks)

Who Should Attend:
This course is ideal for organisations seeking external expertise to upskill frontline teams on their responsibilities under the New Directions Interim Standards, while also gathering vital data for the EASI tool.

Maximum number of participants: 50

Workshop Overview:

Our facilitated information session is designed to provide organisations with expert-led support, guiding your frontline staff in understanding and applying these standards within the EASI process. This session not only enhances your team’s knowledge but also collects essential ratings for input into the EASI tool, ensuring your service is aligned with national standards for quality improvement.

Bring Your Team Up to Standard:
Empower your team to lead quality improvements by aligning with the latest standards in New Directions. Register now to ensure your service remains responsive, informed, and prepared for continuous improvement!

Workshop Agenda:

• History and Context of Day Services:
  A brief look at the evolution of social care services, including the landmark 2007 HSE review, which led to the development of the New Directions policy and the interim standards, setting the stage for the EASI process.

• Standards and Themes Deep Dive:
  An in-depth exploration of each standard within the seven New Directions themes, ensuring frontline staff understand both the elements of each standard and the expectations for a fully compliant service.

• Interactive Staff Ratings Collection:
  Following each standard discussion, participants individually rate their service from both a knowledge and awareness perspective, and a monitoring and evaluation perspective, using a specially developed Concept 7 document.

• Data Collection and Custom Reporting:
  After the session, Concept 7 will process the team’s input, providing your organisation with a comprehensive mean rating for each standard based on the data collected during the session.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this 6.5-hour workshop, participants will be able to:

1.     Describe the historical and policy context that led to the development of New Directions, including the key findings of the 2007 HSE review.

2.     Identify and explain each of the seven themes and corresponding standards within the New Directions Interim Standards framework.

3.     Understand the purpose and structure of the EASI tool, and how it supports ongoing quality improvement in disability day services.

4.     Apply the standards to their own service context, recognising what full compliance looks like in practice across all seven themes.

5.     Assess their service's current level of compliance, using structured reflection tools to evaluate knowledge, awareness, monitoring, and evaluation.

6.     Contribute accurate and honest ratings that will feed into a custom report, supporting organisational planning and quality assurance efforts.

7.     Recognise their role in upholding service quality, and how frontline staff contribute to a culture of continuous improvement and accountability.

8.     Use workshop data to support strategic planning, enabling services to prioritise training, development, and investment based on evidence gathered.

9.     Increase confidence in interpreting and applying standards, empowering staff to act as informed contributors to organisational change.

10.  Identify service gaps within your location to support the creation of an action plan for improvement.

For more information, please contact Brett at 087 265 2841 or by email brett@concept7.ie