Using the OPQ
Observation is the best way of knowing the quality of staff support. The OPQ focusses on the most important aspects of good support.
Good support enables a person with intellectual disabilities to participate in purposeful activities and social interactions. Such as household, leisure, work, personal care or social activities. Good support can enhance a person's quality of life.
Using the OPQ
The OPQ can be used in any setting where a support worker provides direct support to a person with an intellectual disability. Such as supported accommodation services, day services, or activities in the community.
You complete the OPQ about one support worker and one person they are supporting:
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If there is one worker and one person being supported, you should spend 15 – 30 minutes observing how the worker provides support and the person receives it, then complete the OPQ
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If there is one worker and two (or more) people being supported (A and B), you could spend 15 minutes focusing on the support provided to person A, then spend 15 minutes focusing on the support provided to person B. In this case, you would complete the OPQ twice: once in relation to the support provided by the worker to person A and once in relation to the support provided to person B
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If there are two workers, you could spend 15 minutes focusing on one worker then spend another 15 minutes focusing on the second worker. In this case, you would complete the OPQ for each worker you observe and person supported
When you become skilled in conducting observations you should be able to simultaneously observe all the workers and people being supported during an observation (provided the setting is not too big). You could do this by focusing on one worker and the person they are supporting for a period, while also noticing what other people and workers are doing. Then you shift your focus to another worker or person and again noticing what happens elsewhere. You would complete the OPQ for each worker in relation to each person they were supporting during the observation.
Observing support
Before you start observing, introduce yourself to everyone present and explain that you are going to observe what is happening.
Stand or sit where you can see and hear the worker and person they are supporting, but where you are not interfering in what they are doing. You may have to move around during the observation if the worker moves. Try to limit your interactions with the people you are observing to avoid influencing what is happening.
Completing the OPQ
There are 11 items in total:
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Items 1 to 4 are about the way the worker supports the person to engage in activities
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Items 5 to 8 are about the way the worker interacts with the person
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Items A1 and A2 are optional. Only rate them if you have seen opportunities for teaching and/or the person exhibiting behaviour that is a danger to themselves or others
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Item 9 is about how much of the time the person was engaged during the observation
Rate each item based on what you observed during the entire observation.
Rating items
Each item is rated on a 3-point scale:
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3 is a high score
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1 is a low score
This table shows you how to rate each item.
RATING
The worker provided good support
3
RATING
The worker sometimes provided good support, but it could have been better
2
RATING
The worker did not provide good support
1
If during the observation the worker does not provide any support, then rate the item a 1. For example, if the worker does not provide the person with any activities (item 1) or does not provide the person with any assistance (item 4), then rate the item a 1.
When rating an item, think about what you observed overall:
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What did you see happen?
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Did the worker provide good consistent support tailored to the person?
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Were there missed opportunities?
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Were there ways to provide better support?
You can write and save comments in the app and refer to these later when you rate the items. For instance, you could record information about the activity or activities the worker supported the person to participate in, descriptions of when the worker provided good support, the words that the worker said to the person, and your ideas about how the support could be better.
Total Score
A total score is calculated by adding up the ratings for items 1 to 8. The maximum score is 24. A higher score indicates better quality support.
The following table provides information about how to interpret total scores.
SCORE
20 - 24
High quality support
SCORE
14 - 19
Medium quality support
SCORE
8 - 13
Low quality support
The two optional items – A1 and A2 – and item 9 are not included in the total score. They are interpreted separately.
This is because teaching (A1) and responding to behaviour that is a danger to themselves or others (A2) may not happen during every observation, whereas the support reflected in items 1 to 8 should happen during every observation, therefore total scores can be compared across all observations.
Item 9 is interpreted separately because the amount of time a person is engaged is influenced by both the quality of support they receive and their support needs – people with higher support needs are typically engaged for less time than those with lower support needs.
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The observation is about the support a worker provides to each person they support
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Each worker or person observed is scored separately in the OPQ