Our consumer representatives | QEC Skip to main content

We acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as traditional owners of the lands on which we walk, live and raise our children.

We pay our respects to traditional owners past, present, future and any Aboriginal people present here today. We acknowledge the importance of children being raised with connections to culture, community and family.

View our Acknowledgement of Country

Getting Involved

If you’ve completed one of our programs and would like to share your story or join us as a consumer representative, we would love to hear from you:

Current Opportunities for Our Community

If you’ve been a part of one of our programs before, we’d love to engage with you to learn more about your experience. By working with us, you can help make a difference in how we run our programs and be a part of our culture of continuous learning and improvement.
Here are just a few ways you can get involved:

  • Share your story

We’d love to hear about your experience at QEC. We can meet virtually or over the phone. Your story makes a difference: we share your feedback with our Executive Team and Board. You can even stay anonymous if you’d prefer.

  • Facebook Online Panel

Families can join our private Facebook group and answer questions that go directly toward improving our services. Search ‘QEC Family Online Panel’ and click the ‘Join’ button for your request to be approved.

  • Joining our Family Advisory Committee

Our Advisory Committee meets virtually for about 1.5 hours, 4 times a year. All participants are given a small gift voucher as a gesture of appreciation for their time and input.

  • Joining our Belonging at QEC Group

Our new Belonging Committee is all about creating an inclusive, welcoming, and safe environment for children and families to thrive. We are keen to hear from families who are happy to share their stories: your experiences to help us strengthen our diversity, equity and inclusion strategy and make a real impact within our community.

In particular, we’d love to hear from individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, diverse family structures, and disabled individuals or those with disabled children.

We meet virtually for about 1 hour, 4 times a year, and small gift vouchers are provided so we can show our appreciation for your time and contribution.

Did you know?

Consumer representatives also:

  • Sit on interview panels.
  • Are members of committees with other staff, such as our Clinical Governance Committee.
  • Assist with projects, such as our new Client Information Management System.
  • Were involved in developing the Early Parenting Centre’s Outcomes Framework.
  • Helped us to know how to improve in the what we do to keep children safe.
  • Work with us to review how to involve parents and carers in improvements we make.

Impact of Consumers

We love working with families who have used our service in the past, to improve the quality of our programs.

Here are some recent achievements of our consumer representatives and what we’ve done with their suggestions.

Parents told us what ‘quality’ meant to them when receiving care from us...

We used their feedback and feedback from staff to develop our quality framework.

At QEC, ‘quality’ care is now defined as:

  • Safe
  • Effective
  • Collaborative
  • Connected
Families told us about the values that they think are important to them when being supported by us...

We used their suggestions and those from our staff to develop our values.

QEC's values are:

  • Strive
  • Nurture
  • Inspire
  • Listen
  • Celebrate
  • Embrace

Click here to see more about our values.

Our survey question about culture was left blank by many families as they thought it was not applicable to them. Our consumers recommended that we ask about ‘values, beliefs and culture’ instead to encourage more families to share what is important to them...

We changed our intake form and our family experience survey to include these words and encourage families to speak up.

Almost all families now answer this question, which helps us tailor care that suits each individual family.

Parents told us that our survey question asking about the outcomes of their program was too difficult to understand...

We revised the survey using the wording suggested by families and also simplified the style of the survey.

Now it's easier for families to let us know if our programs are making a difference. We can use this information to help support each family better and to know how to further help future families who come to us.

Parents on our Online Facebook Panel have provided their suggestions on several topics including signage, uniforms, our website, our branding...

We use this information to make effective changes for future families coming to us for care.

This helps us to make sure that we are improving our service in a way that benefits families.

How We Will Support You

We will do our best to assist you in your role as consumer representative. We encourage you to let us know how we can best engage with you, including any access, literacy, dietary or cultural needs.