What is Good Governance?

The dictionary would describe governance as “an act or process of governing or overseeing the control and direction of something”

But what does this mean for a not for profit organisation providing health services?

It means that we are required review, monitor and evaluate the services we provide. This is so we make sure we are providing safe and quality services to our clients.

To do this well we have a robust set of structures, processes and rules (polices) which guide staff to practice in accordance with evidenced based best practice. In addition to this we have a Board and governance committees who job it is to oversee these functions and ensure that the service is providing (and can continue to provide) the services we have been entrusted to provide.

The driving force of good governance is data or information. Good data provides us with the ability measure our successes and outcomes and look for ways to do things better as part of a continuous improvement cycle.   We look at the feedback we get from our customers, clinical outcome information, services delivery statistics and many other aspects of our business to develop plans to make the experience better and safer for our clients and staff.

This continuous improvement cycle allows us to identify where improvements are needed, make the necessary changes, monitor the effect of these changes and identify if more changes are required. We do this across all our services and it’s all these small ongoing improvements that result in better services for our customers.

South Coastal Health & Community Services has recently undergone re-certification for accreditation against the National Standards for Mental Health Services and with the Alcohol and other Drug and Human Services Standards and was fully accredited with all criteria met which is a vote of confidence that we have good governance systems and quality improvement systems in place.