Consumer rights & service quality

Ngā Paerewa uses a person- and whānau-centred, outcome-focused approach. The Ministry says providers are audited against the sections and criteria relevant to the services they provide. Its separate sector guidance helps providers interpret those criteria, but the guidance itself is not mandatory and is not what providers are audited against.

What should a manager have in place?

Consumer rights and service quality need to be visible in everyday systems and practice — not only in policies. Managers should be able to show how people receiving support are informed, respected, heard and involved in decisions that affect them.

Manager check

• Can people receiving support understand their rights and how to raise a concern or complaint?
• Do our procedures and everyday practices support dignity, respect, communication, choice and consent?
• Do workers know how to respond when a person expresses a concern, refuses support or wants something done differently?
• Can managers see whether complaints, feedback and quality actions have been followed through?
• Can we show how feedback, incidents or concerns have led to learning or improvement when appropriate?

Connect this to your workforce

Use this topic to decide what workers need to understand for their actual role. NZQC learning supports awareness and knowledge; it does not replace provider-specific procedures, supervision or practical competency checks where those are needed.

Keep the evidence useful

Record the learning or practical check that is relevant to the role, and make the next action visible to the person managing the workforce.