This puts the individual Client at the centre of what we do, because it is
only by working in partnership with our service users that we are able to
understand whether we are meeting our aim of improving lives.
We have also found that by giving our Clients the opportunity to really
comment on what we do, we are able to improve our service and make it more
meaningful to the people we help.
In order to get the right information back, we carry out a series of things,
such as surveys and individual interviews, but one of the best ways seems to be
our Client Services Advisory Committee. This is a group of Clients who get
together with our Operations Manager and who are free to comment on any aspect
at all of what the organisation does, all issues that are of concern can be
brought up here and clients who are not on the Committee are advised who the
members are and that they can ask them to bring up any issue on their behalf.
This can be done anonymously if they wish, because although at Seeing Eye
Dogs we think we are doing a good job, the people who really decide if this is
so are the Clients that make use of our service, and every Client who has any
dealings with us, should be given the opportunity to comment whether it is
positive or negative. Indeed, although it is nice to receive positive feedback,
giving people the opportunity to be critical of us is more important because it
is a way of helping us get better.
Seeing Eye Dogs Australia isn’t made up of the staff that work there, or the
Board of Directors, it’s much bigger than that. Seeing Eye Dogs is a family
network that encompasses everyone that is involved in it, which includes all the
Clients and Volunteers, often the families of both these groups, it involves
people who contribute to enable us to carry on and other professionals who work
with us.
Everybody in the Seeing Eye Dog family is encouraged to have a voice to
comment on the important work we do. The Client Services Advisory Committee is
just one way we try and make sure that this voice is heard by the right people.