Standards for Disability Information and Advice Provision in Scotland

Self-Assessment: Checklist One - Governing to Ensure Accessibility

1.1 Defining Your Services

Do you have a clear statement of the values that underpin your service and the role that your organisation hopes to undertake?

Does this include:

• why you are providing a service?
• who your service is for?
• the type of service you are providing?
• what you hope to achieve?

Are all staff, volunteers and managers aware of these objectives?

1.2  Equal Opportunities

Do you have a clear statement of intent with regard to achieving equal opportunities in your employment practice, governing structures and in your service strategy?

Does this include a commitment to meeting the needs of all parts of the community including disadvantaged groups and those experiencing discrimination (except where your service is clearly defined as for a particular sector of the community)?

Does your policy explain how you intend to implement it and how
you intend to measure your effectiveness in implementing this policy?

Are all of the other policies and practices within your agency consistent with your equal opportunities policy?

Are all staff, volunteers and managers aware of this policy?

1.3  Service Planning

Do you have a clear service plan for using your current resources?

Does this include an outline of the service to be provided:

• is it office based, do you have a telephone helpline and do you provide an outreach service and/or home visits?
• when your service is available, what are the opening hours?
• the levels of information or advice you offer?
• the number of cases each advice worker can take on?
• the areas of information or advice which you cover?
• how you co-operate with other agencies?
• any wider targets which you have and how these will be achieved?

1.4  Service Review

Do you regularly review your work against the targets and indicators set in the service plan?

Are the results of such reviews made available in a publicly accessible form at least once a year?

1.5  Forward Planning

Do you have an outline strategy to provide a background against which your agency can both review its performance and take decisions
about its future?

Is this sufficient to inform decisions about staffing levels, office locations, computer purchases etc?

1.6  Independent Information and Advice

Does your service comply with requirements for independent advice set down by an appropriate national agency? (e.g. Citizens Advice Scotland, UPDATE, Advice UK and the Telephones Helpline Association)

Do your users know of any limitations in the advice you provide?

Go to the next page: Checklist Two

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