Rainbow Tick
A world first quality framework to help health and human services organisations become safe and inclusive for the LGBTIQ community.
What is it?
The Rainbow Tick is a quality framework that helps health and human services organisations show that they are safe, inclusive and affirming services and employers for the LGBTIQ community.
The Rainbow Tick standards, owned and developed by Rainbow Health Australia, are designed to build lasting LGBTIQ inclusion.
Accreditation is provided through independent assessment, provided by Quality Innovation Performance and Australian Council on Healthcare Standards.
Services can include the six standards as part of their cycle of service accreditation or can apply to do the Rainbow Tick as a stand-alone assessment subject to ongoing reassessment and quality improvement.
Who is it for?
The Rainbow Tick is for health and human services organisations seeking to provide a safe and inclusive workplace and services for the LGBTIQ community. The six standards it incorporates are designed to be used by the whole organisation, but can also be applied to specific services or sites within an organisation.
Rainbow Tick FAQs
Is my organisation eligible for the Rainbow Tick?
Your organisation is eligible to be accredited for Rainbow Tick if you provide health and/or community services to individuals. This includes services such as aged care, mental health, family violence, community legal centres, housing, alcohol and other drug support services, and local government, etc. For organisations where service provision is not their main aim, but they do contain some subsects of service provision, those subsects of the organisation are the parts that are in scope to be accredited with the Rainbow Tick. Peak bodies that operate within the health, human services and community services sector are also eligible to be accredited for Rainbow Tick (i.e. Primary Health Networks or PHNs).
Organisations that are not eligible for Rainbow Tick accreditation include schools and other educational institutions, and businesses that are not directly providing health and community services (such as banks, mechanics, hairdressers etc). Furthermore, if you are a sole trader or organisation that is too small to embed a governance structure of some kind, then Rainbow Tick accreditation is not applicable to you.
Who conducts the assessment for Rainbow Tick accreditation?
Rainbow Health Australia are the authors of the Rainbow Tick and as such do not accredit organisations for the Rainbow Tick. You can achieve Rainbow Tick accreditation by going through assessment with one of the two available accrediting bodies: Quality Innovation Performance (QIP) and The Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS). Both accreditation providers are highly experienced providers in community service accreditation and primary and secondary health care accreditation for organisations across Australia.
How much does Rainbow Tick cost?
The cost of accreditation varies greatly between organisations and only the accrediting bodies Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) and Quality Innovation Performance (QIP) are able to give organisations an estimated quote for their circumstance. Costs for each organisation are based on the number of staff, the number of sites, location of and travel time between sites as well as the number of and varieties of service areas covered by an organisation. You can contact QIP or ACHS for a free quote at any time. If you have standards that you already accredit through either QIP or ACHS, you can speak to them about bundling those accreditations together for a discount.
Once we get Rainbow Tick, how long does accreditation last?
Once you achieve Rainbow Tick accreditation it will last for 3 years. As you approach the 3-year mark, your organisation will need to apply to re-accredit and undergo assessment again to maintain your Rainbow Tick accreditation.
What do we need to achieve Rainbow Tick?
FTE: Any organisation that is working towards Rainbow Tick accreditation will need to dedicate staff hours to scope, plan and implement an LGBTIQ+ strategy. Some organisations have specific Rainbow Tick Officer positions or allocate Rainbow Tick work as part of several staff members’ role descriptions in order to push this work forward. Other organisations have the work sit with a cross-org Change Team or Working Group, HR, DEI or a Quality, Risk and Compliance team.
Financial resourcing: In addition to the cost of accreditation, organisations may require specific financial resourcing to put towards staff training and ongoing learning/development, engaging LGBTIQ+ community and consumers in consultation and feedback processes, potential updates to or overhaul of existing systems (i.e. data collection), as well as any external consultants organisations may engage to assist with LGBTIQ+ strategy planning and implementation.
Time: Working through a strategy and implementation plan for LGBTIQ-inclusive processes and practices can take most organisations at least two years to properly bed down. Cultural change is possibly the longest piece of work and will depend on your organisational culture, staff and leadership on Rainbow Tick work.
Commitment from leadership: One of the strongest indicators of success for Rainbow Tick work is strong leadership and support in this work from management, executive and governance bodies.
Where do we begin?
Check out the three main Rainbow Tick guiding documents:
- Rainbow Tick Standards - A Framework for LGBTIQ Cultural Safety
- Rainbow Tick Accreditation and Evidence Guide
- Rainbow Tick Initial Assessment Tool
With a few colleagues or your Change Team/Working Group, have a go at working through the Rainbow Tick Initial Assessment Tool. This will give you a rough sense of where your organisation is and the amount of work that may be ahead for your team.
For further support you can enroll in the How2 Program, which will get you started with tools, templates and strategies to creating and implementing an LGBTIQ+ strategy for your organisation.
How long does it take to be ready for assessment for the Rainbow Tick?
The short answer is: it depends. There are many factors that will contribute to how long it will take your organisation to be ready to be assessed for Rainbow Tick accreditation. These include; leadership commitment, organisational readiness and culture, resources and the size and complexity of your organisation. It’s not uncommon for it to take up to 2 years to be ready for accreditation.
We’re a smaller organisation (10-30 staff). Is Rainbow Tick achievable for us?
Yes definitely, many small organisations have already achieved the Rainbow Tick. Smaller organisations with less than 30 staff may not always have some of the systems infrastructure of larger organisations (i.e. a Quality or HR team, a systematic consumer feedback process, etc). However smaller organisations with less staff can generally be more agile and successfully embed cultural and systems changes much quicker than larger multi-site organisations. There are many ways for smaller organisations to leverage their strengths within the change management process in order to achieve Rainbow Tick.
We’re a large multi-disciplinary organisation. Can we accredit a part of our service?
Yes. Organisations can choose to accredit a part of their service as opposed to the whole organisation. This can be beneficial for that organisation if it might be easier for that section of the organisation to achieve accreditation first as part of a whole-organisation accreditation strategy, or if only that portion of the organisation is eligible for Rainbow Tick accreditation.
Examples of how partial accreditation can be applied include:
- An aged care services team within a local council
- A governmental department within the state public service
- A youth services program within a large community organisation
- One site within a multi-site regional health service
If an organisation does choose the partial accreditation route, they must explicitly communicate to LGBTIQ+ communities and the wider community which sections of their organisation do and do not have accreditation. This must also be made clear when using Rainbow Tick branding.
We’re a peak body in the health/community sector. How does Rainbow Tick work for us?
Peak bodies that operate within the health, human services and community services sector are eligible to be accredited for Rainbow Tick. To align their work with the Rainbow Tick framework, peak body organisations will need to do some thinking around who their consumers are. Depending on the context and the Rainbow Tick Standard you’re looking at, consumers could be the member organisations of that peak body, the staff within those member organisations, the service users of those member organisations, the broader public who are affected by the issues pertaining to that peak body, and sometimes a combination of these groups. Considering who consumers are in the context of each Standard will allow peak bodies to align with the Rainbow Tick framework.
Accredited Organisations
Thorne Harbour Health
“As a LGBTIQ community-controlled organisation and one of the largest LGBTIQ health service providers in Australia, the Rainbow Tick has helped us demonstrate our commitment to ensuring our accredited services and programs are safe, inclusive and affirming for our clients, volunteers, and staff.”
— Simon Ruth, CEO, Thorne Harbour Health
VincentCare
“With the Rainbow tick, whoever you are, whatever your gender, whatever your sexual orientation, there is a place here for you in this organisation, and you can be proud of that place, and proud of who you are.”
— Quinn Pawson,
CEO, VincentCare
Star Health
“Starting at a workplace that asked me my pronouns and facilitated the use of my preferred name was incredibly encouraging and has helped me to feel comfortable, included and accepted at work.”
— Staff member,
Star Health
How can my organisation become accredited?
How2
Core Program
The How2 Training is an interactive program where participating organisations gain the knowledge, skills and tools to develop a whole-of-organisation LGBTIQ+ strategy. Participants explore what needs to change, and how they can make lasting change happen with their organisations.
The Six Standards
Organisational Capability
An organisation must be able to demonstrate that it has embedded LGBTIQ inclusive practices across all of its systems and continuously seeks out opportunities for improvements.
Workforce Development
All staff and volunteers understand their responsibilities to LGBTIQ consumers and are trained and able to deliver LGBTIQ inclusive services.
Consumer participation
LGBTIQ consumers are consulted and participate in the planning, development, and review of the organisation’s services.
A welcoming and accessible organisation
LGBTIQ consumers can easily and confidently access services as the physical and virtual environments including information, structures, resources and processes, are welcoming.
Disclosure and documentation
LGBTIQ consumers, staff and volunteers feel safe providing personal information, including their sexual orientation, gender identity and/or intersex status, because they know information will be treated respectfully and that there are systems in place to ensure their privacy.
Culturally safe and acceptable services
Services and programs identify, assess, and manage risks to ensure the cultural safety of LGBTIQ consumers.
Resources
We have designed these resources to help services on their journey to becoming safe, welcoming and inclusive for LGBTIQ consumers and staff. If you’d like to understand how they are put into practice, please get in touch with us via the details below.