The IASSIDD Comparative Policy and Practice SIRG is holding a series of webinars to explore the research on measuring, improving and regulating the quality of disability services. The series underpins a program of work on quality and regulation and is a precursor to an anticipated SIRG Roundtable to be held in conjunction with the IASSIDD 2026 European Conference in Munich. To facilitate participation of Australian, European and American colleagues we are holding each event twice. Sessions will also be recorded for later viewing.
Webinar Information
Webinar 1: How Do Service Providers Measure and Improve the Quality of the Services – Jan Siska and Julie Beadle-Brown
In this webinar, Jan Siska and Julie Beadle-Brown will briefly present a framework for conceptualizing and measuring the quality of services that had been developed through literature review, country template analysis and consultation with key stakeholders. They will then share the findings from a follow-up study which explored directly how service providers in different countries measured and improved quality, with a particular focus on how the methods and approaches they used mapped onto the previously developed framework. Implications and recommendations for how quality monitoring can be embedded into the day-to-day practice of organizations with a focus on the outcomes experienced by individual’s support.
Julie Beadle-Brown, PhD, is currently the PAVE Service Outcomes Project Manager with the California Community Living Network, Professor Emerita at the Tizard Centre University of Kent and Director of Beadle-Brown Consulting Ltd. For 30 years her research, consultancy and teaching has focused on supporting the development of high quality community-based person-centred services that provide the best possible quality of life outcomes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Jan Siska, PhD, is a professor at Charles University, Faculty of Education, and Centre on Community Integration, University of Minnesota. His European and international research, consultancy and lecturing focus on policies and practice in community-based services, and transition for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Webinar 2: Improving Quality of Service Delivery – The Role of Regulation – Jan Siska, Julie Beadle-Brown and Alan Hough
The second webinar in the series will focus on the role of regulation in improving the quality of service delivery. Julie Beadle-Brown/Jan Siska will present 1) an overview of systems for quality regulation at country level in Europe and 2) how service providers in Europe monitor and improve the quality of their services with a particular focus on whether these approaches are mandated or regulated in any way.
Alan Hough will present on choices in regulatory design identified in the general literature on regulation. These choices include about scope, rationale, rule-based or principle-based regulation, required or aspirational standards, external regulation or self-regulation, auditing and inspection mechanisms and compliance and enforcement mechanisms. Using a case study approach, Alan will briefly talk about strengths and weaknesses of Australia’s approach, which has arguably the most rigorous disability service regulation in the world.
Alan Hough, PhD, holds the honorary position of Adjunct Professor with the Living with Disability Research Centre at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. His research interests include quality and safety in disability service delivery, and regulation.
Webinar 3: Rights Don’t Just Happen – Holding Systems of Care Accountable – Valerie Bradley
This webinar will highlight the importance of ensuring human rights such as those embodied in the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) are realized in practice. A mere exhortation that rights of people with disabilities should be respected does not guarantee that rights will be protected. Countries need to create a quality monitoring infrastructure that oversees service providers and that elicits the experiences of people with disabilities and their families. The presentation will point to examples of monitoring schemes such as those laid out in the WHO Quality Rights Toolkit and the National Core Indicators. Further, the importance of involving people with disabilities and their families in all aspects of the process will be stressed. Results from National Core Indicators that speak directly to the CRPD and ADA rights will be highlighted. Finally, the presentation will include the ways in which quality monitoring systems can be translated in improvements in policy and practice.
Valerie Bradley is the President Emerita and one of the founders of the Human Services Research Institute. Ms. Bradley has directed numerous state and federal policy projects that have contributed to the expansion, enhancement and responsiveness of services and supports to people with disabilities and their families. She is a past President of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. She is an editor of books on quality assurance and improvement, individual supports, and de-institutionalization and has contributed chapters to other edited books. Ms. Bradley has written numerous peer reviewed articles over her career on issues including use of data for quality improvement, workforce, and self-direction. She is currently a senior advisor to National Core Indicators (a performance measurement system that includes data on the experiences of people receiving services and supports).
Webinar 4: Tools for Measuring Quality of Support for People with Intellectual Disabilities – Christine Bigby and Lincoln Humphreys
This webinar will present recently developed tools for measuring the quality of support and quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities who use services. The ‘Talking about Quality of Life Tool’ has two parts, the first part collects qualitative information about a person’s QoL through a guided conversation. The qualitative information collected is translated into quantitative scores for each domain and an overall score using a detailed scoring guide. The second part of the tool uses observation to collect quantitative data about the quality of the person’s support, which is a causal indicator of QoL, using the Observing Practice Quality (OPQ) tool. The OPQ is a recently developed and promising tool for measuring support quality in terms of ease of administration, scoring and rigour in its development. Using both parts of the tool will lead to a comprehensive snapshot of the person’s QoL and quality of support. The OPQ is available as an APP and can also be used as a stand-alone tool for observing and measuring quality of staff support.
Webinar Details
The series comprises four webinars. You can choose to attend one, two or up to four of the webinars when booking.
- Webinar 1 – How Do Service Providers Measure and Improve the Quality of the Services
Fri, Oct 3, 2025: 10:00am (Australian Eastern Daylight Time, UTC+11:00); 5:00pm (Pacific Daylight Time, US)
Wed, Oct 8, 2025: 7:00am (Pacific Daylight Time, US); 4:00pm (Central European Time, Europe)
- Webinar 2- Improving Quality of Service Delivery – The Role of Regulation
Tue, Nov 4, 2025: 7:00am (Pacific Daylight Time, US); 4:00pm (Central European Time, Europe)
Wed, Nov 19, 2025: 10:00am (Australian Eastern Daylight Time, UTC+11:00); 5:00pm (Pacific Daylight Time, US)
- Webinar 3 – Rights Don’t Just Happen – Holding Systems of Care Accountable
Wed, Feb 4, 2026: 10:00am (Australian Eastern Daylight Time, UTC+11:00); 5:00pm (Pacific Daylight Time, US)
Wed, Feb 11, 2026: 7:00am (Pacific Daylight Time, US); 4:00pm (Central European Time, Europe)
- Webinar 4 – Tools for Measuring Quality of Support for People with Intellectual Disabilities
Wed, Mar 4, 2026: 10:00am (Australian Eastern Daylight Time, UTC+11:00); 5:00pm (Pacific Daylight Time, US)
Wed, Mar 11, 2026: 7:00am (Pacific Daylight Time, US); 4:00pm (Central European Time, Europe)
You can book to attend one or more webinar.
Registration for Non-member and Group Bookings – USD$20
Click here to register as a non-members or a group. The cost is $20 to attend all sessions with access to the recordings if you cannot attend in person.
Registration for IASSIDD Members
Individual members and center nominated members can log in and register for free by using this form. We will also send members a link to register in a separate email – please email the office if you need this resent.