The disability advocacy quarterly data collection
The main source of data for the Disability Advocacy by the Numbers report comes from the Victorian Disability Advocacy Program’s Quarterly Data Collection (QDC) process.
QDC forms are given to funded agencies quarterly to complete and return to the Office for Disability for data collection purposes.
The QDC form contains 26 questions, in addition to providing basic organisational details and contact information.
Some fields in the form are set by the Victorian Government and used for official reporting within government on the disability advocacy program, including to the Department of Treasury and Finance for budget purposes, and to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. These core data components are mandatory and likely to be very difficult to alter at program level.
Other fields have been designed by the Office for Disability in consultation with the disability advocacy sector with the intention to produce more detailed data, trends and case studies, which can be used by the sector to get a greater understanding of the sector, and as an evidence base for systemic advocacy.
Of the 26 questions, 22 questions request specific data items, while 4 allow for written, qualitative responses on diagnostic groups, systemic advocacy, case studies, and further comments.
If completed in full, the form requests up to 202 different pieces of information, collected four times a year.
The form requests up to 142 separate numerical data points. This includes up to:
- 79 separate data points for the number of people receiving service in each local government area in Victoria.
- 14 numerical data points separately enumerating the number of referrals and complaints to six different agencies, plus those to ‘other’ agencies
- 14 different advocacy topics categories
- 12 different disability types.
In addition, there are 29 category data points, requiring organisations to answer yes/no or tick a category box.
There are also:
- 19 different fields for detailed written information, presuming an organisation details 3 different systemic advocacy topics, as is provided for on the form.
- 7 fields for specifying the nature of ‘other’ categories
- 5 fields for listing agency contact information.
Of the 26 questions in the QDC form, responses to 8 of the 26 questions have been provided to DARU to produce the Disability Advocacy by the Numbers report. This included 26 numerical data points and qualitative data from case studies. Data was aggregated and de-identified before being given to DARU.
A full list of fields in the QDC form can be found at Appendix 1.