Over the last 5 years the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) and Disability Advocacy Network Australia (DANA) have worked collectively to develop the world’s first Aged Care and Disability Advocacy Standard, OPAN and DANA agreed there was a need to develop a set of recognised and endorsed standards that specifically: 

1. Are framed from a human rights lens and demonstrate rights are upheld through advocacy.
   
   
2. Uniquely identify and demonstrate how an organisation is delivering high-quality client-directed advocacy
    
3. Have a contemporary but tailored approach to accreditation, recognising the variety and size of organisation delivering advocacy
   
   
4. Allow for an equivalence approach for those accredited under other standards 

Following the publication of AS 5391:2024, OPAN and DANA have been working with the Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JASANZ) to develop a scheme to enable advocacy services to be certified against the requirements of the Standard. 

The Scheme has now been drafted and is ready to be pilot-tested. In April 2026 OPAN and DANA agreed to enter a legal agreement to solidify and detail our approach as joint scheme owners of AS 5391. A joint Scheme management committee is being established to oversee the pilot-testing and any future use of the Standards and Scheme. This does not mean OPAN and DANA will be undertaking the accreditation assessments themselves, as these remain the remit of accreditation bodies who will be certified to be able to conduct assessments against the standards utilising the scheme. 

Three Advocacy Services, from South Australia, the ACT and Victoria, have volunteered to trial the Scheme over the course of the next six months. The services are: 

• Aged Rights Advocacy Service (ARAS) – aged care advocacy in Adelaide and regional South Australia
   
• ACT Disability and Aged Care Advocacy Service (ADACAS) – aged care advocacy in the ACT and disability advocacy in the ACT and regional NSW
  
  
• Rights Information and Advocacy Centre (RIAC) – disability advocacy in Regional Victoria 

The Institute for Healthy Community Australia (IHCA) will undertake three separate Stage 1 and Stage 2 audits of the volunteer Advocacy Services to make sure the Scheme is fit for purpose. IHCA is undertaking the certification process and has many years of experience working in this sector with the National Standards for Disability Services (NSDS) amongst other standards. The audits will involve looking at the three Advocacy Services’ existing certifications against different standards and making sure that any gaps between the requirements of these standards and of AS 5391:2024 are met and complied with. The trials will be conducted remotely wherever possible and will include conversations with individuals who have received Advocacy in the previous three months. 

Capacity Services has been contracted to coordinate the various parties involved in the trial and to evaluate the effectiveness of the new Scheme. Michael Bleasdale will provide a point of contact for all those involved and interested in the Scheme between now and November 2026, while Murray Coates of Capacity Services will be the Independent Chair of the Scheme management committee as it establishes the processes and protocols necessary to undertake its role as a scheme owner.  

For more information on this phase of the Scheme development project please contact Michael Bleasdale on michael@capacityservices.com.au.