With the Victorian Social Services Standards coming in on 1 July, the Victorian Social Services Regulator has published guidance materials to help providers understand and comply with their new obligations. These apply to all community or disability services funded by the Victorian government.  

Replacing the Human Services Standards, the new standards for safe service delivery will apply to all social service providers registered with the new Social Services Regulator. Although broadly in line with the existing standards and NDIS practice standards, they contain specific requirements that Victorian providers will need to put in place.  

This is the first batch of guides and more detailed and specific guidance will be developed and released over time. The material includes actions documents and success indicators to show how a provider is meeting each service requirement. The self-assessment tool has also been updated to include links to relevant guidance material. The guides in Word format cover six practice areas:  

NDS recognises the potential for duplication of compliance for NDIS-registered providers that also receive Victorian government funding. In our representation on the Social Services Regulation Taskforce and in our submission responding to the draft regulations, we highlighted the need for information-sharing between the government authorities to reduce red tape and the compliance burden for providers.   

Taking a graduated approach to regulating the new standards, the regulator will initially concentrate on informing and educating organisations about their obligations. 

The regulator accepts that some organisations may take time and effort to get things right and may not have completed implementation by 1 July. 

Eventually, however, the regulator will expect organisations to comply with the new standards.  

You can download the guides from the Social Service regulator’s webpage.