Managing Client Goals and Goal Strategies
Client Goals usually align with the immediate and long term goals determined in a Client's NDIS Plan. How your organisation will be assisting the Client toward their Goals usually forms the Goal Strategies and information pertaining to these Strategies is entered and managed in the overarching Goal record.
It is important to preserve an audit trail of evidence to help meet your organisation's NDIS compliance requirements. Journal evidence may be added to a Goal record or Goal Strategy, and similarly, Goals and Goal Strategies may be linked to Journal records created elsewhere, to track Goal progress over time.
This article provides information about how Client Goals and Goal Strategies may be managed to ensure their currency and relevance during the ongoing process of supporting Clients.
Information is outlined on how to create, edit and delete a Goal and Goal Strategy, linking Journal Evidence and monitoring the Goal Progress Status, along with ways in which outdated Client Goals and Goal Strategies may be managed. Several Reports are available for reviewing Client Goals and information on each of these is covered also.
Audience: Operations Management, Support Staff, Team Leaders
Summary
The following list summarises the content of this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:
- Creating a new Client Goal and/or Goal Strategy
- Managing Client Goals
- Managing Goal Strategies
- Adding or Linking Journals to a Goal record
- Deleting Client Goals & Goal Strategies
- Reporting on Client Goals and Goal Strategies
Creating a New Client Goal and/or Goal Strategy
New Client Goals can be created on the Goals tab of a Client record by selecting the '+ Add a new personal goal' button:
Once this button has been selected, a new Goal record is created and the Staff Member is navigated directly to the open record, where the relevant information may be entered.
A Client Goal record is comprised of three sections:
- Goal Details
- Standards (applicable to this Goal)
- Goal Strategies
The fields within each section that require completion are best determined by an organisation according to its processes and reporting requirements.
More Information on each of these sections is outlined below.
Goal Details
The Goal Details section of a Goal record contains the following information:
- Client - the Client name is auto-populated here from the Client record and includes a link to the Client Goals tab
- Goal - this is a free-text field where the Client's Goal can be articulated. This field expands as required when a lot of text is entered.
- Start Date - the Start Date generally refers to the Date your organisation commences service delivery with the Client to specifically assist them with meeting their Goal
- Target End Date - this is a target date only, a point in time when it is planned the Client will have either fully or partially achieved their Goal. It may align with the Client's NDIS Plan End Date but not necessarily, and this Date can be extended if the Goal is not met at this time.
- Not On Track - this checkbox can be used to flag Goals that are not on track. When checked, a Warning will appear in the 'Strategies and Responsibilities Summary' column for that Goal, in the Personal Goals summary list on the Client Goal tab
- Actual End Date - this is the Actual End Date when the Goal is no longer being supported by service delivery or is no longer relevant. It may or may not have been achieved at this time.
- End Result - this is a pre-configured list where the End Result can be noted at the Actual End Date time. The default options include 'Fully Achieved', 'Partially Achieved' and 'Not Achieved'; however, the Client Goal: End Result List can be configured in System Preferences as required.
- Document - one of the Client Documents which have already been uploaded to the Client record may be linked to the Goal record. Once linked, the name and date of the document will display along with buttons to download or view the Document
- Strategic Plan Summary
- Responsibilities Summary
- What Success Will Look Like Summary
- Add Journal - multiple Journals may be added to the Goal record to track progress over time. If a Goal Progress Assessment Score was added to the Journal record this will display here also
Standards
There are several in-built Standards available in SupportAbility, including:
- NDIS Practice Standards which are prefaced with 'QSF'
- National Disability Standards
- DMI Codes (Disability Maintenance Instrument), specific to providers of Supported Employment.
One or more Standards may be linked to a Goal record.
Select the 'Link Standards' button to open the Search function, then enter a keyword, number, or part of the Standard's name to display the available options that match the information entered e.g. Core:
The relevant Standard/s may be linked by selecting the corresponding Link button. These will display in the Standards section of the Goal record as follows:
Goal Strategies
Goal Strategies outline how your organisation will be assisting the Client toward their Goals.
Multiple Goal Strategies may be added to a Goal record and each Strategy includes the following information:
- Period
- Start Date
- Target End Date
- Not On Track
- Actual End Date
- End Result
N.B. the Goal Strategy Dates may or may not align with the Goal Dates. Often multiple Strategies are required to support a Client to reach their Goals and may therefore have different time frames for completion, or applicability.
- Goal Strategy Details
- Goal Strategy
- Strategic Plan
- Responsibilities
- What Success Will Look Like
- Applicable Services - multiple Services may be involved in supporting the Client to meet their Goal, and these can be added here
- Tasks to help meet this goal strategy
- Progress Evidence and Assessments
(Journals and Progress Assessment Scores)
For an overview of how to add Client Goals and Goal Strategies please watch the C lients: Goals Tab video accessible via the Client Management tab in the Learning Centre. While this is a comprehensive resource on this topic, you will notice some differences in the video which we will be updating in due course to align with the current content and layout in all SupportAbility installations.
Once all information has been entered in the Goal record, remember to select 'Save Goal' to save the information.
Managing Client Goals
'Target End Date' has expired
When a Client Goal is created, a Start and Target End Date may be entered. This often reflects the period of a Client's NDIS Plan, though it may also reflect a different period i.e. the timeframe in which your organisation is supporting the Client to reach their Goals.
Once the 'Target End Date' has expired, a warning message will appear within the Goal Details:
The 'Target End Date' can be extended for a further period as required:
Remember to select the 'Save Goal' button after updating the Date:
Entering an 'Actual End Date' and 'End Result'
When a Client Goal has been achieved, or it is no longer relevant, your organisation may choose to apply an 'Actual End Date'.
Actual End Date
To add an Actual End Date to a Client Goal, select the relevant date in the 'Actual End Date' field:
End Result
The relevant 'End Result' status can then be selected:
The available options in the 'End Result' list may be customised as appropriate for your organisation, by following the instructions in the Configuring Lists article, linked below for reference.
Journal Evidence
Evidence may be required to support the 'End Result' entered and a Journal can be added to a Goal record in the 'Goal Details' section by selecting the ' +' icon in the 'Add Journal' field:
Remember to select the 'Save Goal' button to save all updates:
Completed Goals
Once an 'Actual End Date' has been applied to a Client Goal and the Goal record saved, it is deemed 'Complete' and will therefore no longer be visible amongst the current Goals in the 'Personal Goals' section on the Goals tab.
To view completed Goals select the 'Show Completed Goals' button at the bottom of the Personal Goals list:
Completed Goals display as greyed out:
Reinstating a 'Completed' Client Goal
If at any time there is a need to reinstate a 'Completed' Client Goal, simply open the Goal record by selecting the target icon, then remove the 'Actual End Date' by selecting the cross in this field:
If reinstating a Client Goal is required, the 'End Result' will also need to be removed given it is no longer relevant.
Remember to select 'Save Goal' to save the update. This will return the Goal to the list of current Goals in the 'Personal Goals' section.
A new Target End Date may be set and the associated Goal Strategies revised or new ones added, as applicable. Journals may continue to be added to track ongoing progress.
Managing Goal Strategies
Entering an 'Actual End Date' and 'End Result'
As Goal Strategies are achieved, or if they are no longer effective and new ones are required to help the Client reach their Goal, the relevant Strategies may be ended.
To end a Goal Strategy, enter the relevant date in the 'Actual End Date' field and select an 'End Result':
As mentioned above, the Client Goal: End Result list may be customised to include choices appropriate for your organisation, by following the instructions in the Configuring Lists article, linked below for reference.
When the 'Actual End Date' entered is a later date than the 'Target End Date' entered a red exclamation mark icon will display to indicate this:
Remember to select the 'Save Goal' button once all updates have been completed.
Journal Evidence
Journal evidence may also be required to support the 'End Result' selected, or explain why the Actual End Date exceeded the Target End Date.
A Journal is added to a Goal Strategy in the 'Progress Evidence and Assessments' column of the Strategy by selecting the ' +' icon in the 'Add Journal' field:
Completed Goal Strategies
Once an 'Actual End Date' has been added and the Goal record saved, the Goal Strategy will display as greyed out.
When a Goal Strategy has ended and is no longer relevant, it may be moved to the bottom of the Goal Strategies section by selecting the orange double arrow and dragging it into position:
Adding or Linking Journals to a Goal record
Journal evidence may be added to a Goal record or Goal Strategy to track Goal progress over time or justify the 'End Result' attributed to a 'Completed' or 'Ended' Goal or Goal Strategy.
Similarly, Goals and Goal Strategies may be linked to Journal records that have been created from other locations in SupportAbility such as the Client Journal tab, or an Activity record to further provide evidence of how a Client is tracking with their Goal progress and linking service delivery.
Goal Status and Journal Evidence Count
The 'Status' displayed in the Personal Goals section on the Client Goals tab is determined by the presence or absence of Journal Evidence linked to the Goal record.
When a Goal record is first created, it will display on the Client Goals tab with a red status of 'Awaiting Progress' until a Journal has either been added from the Goal record or linked to this Goal:
Goals with added or linked Journal evidence will display a green Status of 'Progress', as shown in the screenshot above.
Journal Evidence Count
The number of Journals that have been linked to a Goal is displayed in the 'Journal Evidence' column along with the date the last Journal was created:
The colours of the Journal Evidence 'Numbers' displayed on the Client Goals tab are determined by how the 'Days Since Last Journal Evidence For Amber/Red Warnings’ settings have been configured on the Dashboard tab in System Preferences.
The different colours represent the following:
- Blue - no Journals have been linked, e.g. '0', or Journals have been linked and the latest one is dated within the threshold for 'Days Since Last Journal Evidence For Amber Warnings', e.g. 30 days
- Amber - Journals have been linked; however, the latest one is dated beyond the threshold for 'Days Since Last Journal Evidence For Amber Warnings', e.g. 30 days, and is still within the threshold for 'Days Since Last Journal Evidence For Red Warnings', e.g. 60 days
- Red - Journals have been linked; however, the latest one is dated beyond the threshold for 'Days Since Last Journal Evidence For Red Warnings', e.g. 60 days
Deleting Client Goals & Goal Strategies
Goal records are an important area of Client information outlining the key Goals (i.e. Client Goals) which Clients would like to achieve via service participation and strategies for how your organisation will assist Clients in meeting these Goals (i.e. Goal Strategies).
Therefore, it is not recommended to ever delete a Goal record to preserve a historical record of the focus and ways in which your organisation has been supporting a Client, including retaining these for audit purposes where required.
Adding an 'Actual End Date' to Goals and/or Goal Strategies that are no longer relevant is our recommended approach for managing Goals, in preference to deleting these records. Information on applying an 'Actual End Date' is outlined in the relevant earlier sections of this article.
We understand, however, that there may be times when an organisation wishes to delete a Goal record or Goal Strategy in the case of a mistake occurring.
Please note that only Staff with the 'Delete Records' Staff Account Privilege can delete a Client Goal or Goal Strategy, and Goals/Goal Strategies with linked Journal evidence cannot be deleted.
The process for deleting a Goal record or Goal Strategy, where appropriate, has been outlined below.
Deleting a Client Goal
To delete a Goal record, navigate to the Goals tab of the relevant Client record and select the target icon of the relevant Goal to be deleted:
Once the Goal record has opened, select the 'Actions' menu from within the Goal record, located top right, then select 'Delete Goal':
A warning message will display checking if you wish to proceed and reminding you that the associated Goal Strategies and Goal Strategy Tasks will also be deleted if these have been entered:
Once deleted, a temporary Notification will display above the Personal Goals list with a red background i.e. 'Goal record deleted':
The Notification disappears once another action is completed.
N.B. Once a record has been deleted, it cannot be undone.
Deleting Goal records with linked Journals
A Goal record cannot be deleted if it has been linked to one or more Client Journals.
When attempting to delete a Goal record with a linked Journal, a warning message will display to advise this:
Attempting to delete a Goal record without the relevant privilege
When Staff do not have the 'Delete Records' Staff Account Privilege and attempt to delete a Goal record, the 'Delete Goal' option does not display in the Actions menu:
Deleting a Goal Strategy
To delete a Goal Strategy, open the relevant Goal record and navigate to the 'Goal Strategies' section.
Select the rubbish bin icon located far right of the relevant Goal Strategy in the 'Delete' column:
A warning message will display checking if you wish to proceed and reminding you that 'This change cannot be undone':
Deleting Goal Strategies with linked Journals
A Goal Strategy cannot be deleted if it has been linked to one or more Client Journals.
When attempting to delete a Goal Strategy with a linked Journal, a warning message will display to advise this:
Attempting to delete a Goal Strategy without the relevant privilege
When Staff do not have the 'Delete Records' Staff Account Privilege and attempt to delete a Goal Strategy by selecting the rubbish bin icon in the Delete column, the following message will display:
Reporting on Client Goals and Goal Strategies
SupportAbility provides several reports on Client Goals which can assist with auditing and reviewing your organisation's progress with recording Client Goals and Goal Strategies in Client records. Some of these Reports are also useful for monitoring whether related Journal evidence is being recorded and linked to Goals.
The available Goal Reports are as follows:
- Client Goal Report
- Client Goals Report for Site/Service
- Client Goals Statistics Report
- Client Goal Strategy Search and accompanying export
- Maintenance Reports
More information on each of these features is outlined below.
Client Goal Report
The 'Client Goal Report' lists the Client's Goals and where the following information has been entered or linked, also displays the Goal Strategies, Standards, and Journal evidence linked to the Goal, if the related filters are activated.
The Report is accessible via the Print menu from any tab in a Client record:
The various sections of the report may be turned on/off depending on the level of information required:
Once 'Generate Report' has been selected, the information displays as follows:
'Show Journal Detail' filter
When the 'Show Journal Detail' filter is set to 'Yes' for this report, the 'detail' displayed relates to the Goal/Strategy Notes from the respective Client Journal.
These Goal/Strategy Notes will appear in the report underneath the corresponding Client Journal header.
Data in the Notes field in the Journal Details section of the Client record will not be included in the Client Goals report.
Client Journals where the Goals/Strategy Notes field has been left blank (as per the above example) will still appear on the Client Goals report, however, the field below the corresponding Client Journal header will remain blank as there is no data to display.
N.B. Client Journals created prior to the release of v6.8.0 in August 2019 (which introduced the ability to link multiple Goals/Strategies) function differently. In the absence of data in the Goal/Strategy Notes field, data contained in the Notes field in the Journal Details section of the Client Journal will be included in the Client Goals report.
Client Goal Strategy Search
The Client Goal Strategy Search Report is useful for generating a list of Active Goal Strategies, primarily for the purpose of tracking Goal progress as per an organisation's NDIS requirements.
The Client Goal Strategy Search is accessed via the 'Goals & Strategies' area of the Clients section in the Reports menu:
A range of search criteria related to the Client, Goals, Goal Strategies and Journals is available for selection.
These are helpful for refining the search results to identify:
- Goal Strategies for specific individual Clients,
- Goal Strategies for all Clients participating in a specific Site/Service,
- Goal Strategies linked to specific Services only, or
- Goal Strategies that are yet to have Journals or Progress Assessments added
The results returned and information available in the export is dependent on how much information is being recorded in the Goal Strategies section of Client Goal records:
The Client Goal Strategy Search results list is sorted alphabetically by Client and includes a link to the Client record, lists the related Goals, includes links to the Goal Strategies, and lists the related Goal Strategy Services, Start and Actual End Date, and count of linked Journals and Assessments along with the latest date for each:
The results can be downloaded in a CSV file by selecting 'Download Client Goal Strategies List' from the Actions menu:
The export contains all of the information displayed onscreen as well as additional information about the Goal Strategy and related Goal.
More information on this functionality is available in the Client Goal Strategy Search article linked below.
Client Goals Report for Site/Service
The 'Client Goals Report for Site/Service' lists the Client Goals and Goal Strategies for all Clients participating in a particular Site/Service.
Team Leaders may find it a helpful resource in which to review Client Goals, Goal Strategies, Standards and presence of Journal Evidence for all Clients participating in the Services they have responsibility for, in one place, rather than reviewing individual Client records.
This Report is accessible via the Goals & Strategies area of the Clients section in the Reports menu:
Similar to the Client Goal Report, the various sections of the report may be turned on/off depending on the level of information required:
For more information, please review the Client Goals Report for Site/Service article linked below.
Client Goals Statistics Report
The 'Client Goals Statistics Report' provides statistical information on the number of Client Goals and Goal Strategies which have been created for each Site/Service. It provides a snapshot and comparative overview of the number of Client Goals and Goal Strategies created, relative to the number of Clients participating in each Site/Service.
This Report is accessible via the Goals & Strategies area of the Clients section in the Reports menu:
This Report is filterable by the following search criteria; Date, Sites and Services:
The selected search criteria is listed at the top of the Report and the statistical information is grouped by Service, listed alphabetically:
Maintenance Reports
Maintenance Reports provide a snapshot of the active Goals within a three-month period detailing the Journal evidence created for those Goals within that timeframe. The Report also provides the ability to enter summary information for each Goal about the Goal Progress for that period.
Maintenance Reports are added on the Goals tab of a Client record in the 'Maintenance Reports' section, situated below the 'Personal Goals' section containing the summary list of Client Goals:
Selecting the '+ Add a new maintenance report' button opens the 'Maintenance Report' window where the 3-monthly 'Report Date' period can be selected e.g. ending June 2022:
Once the 'Save Maintenance Report' button has been selected, all of the active Goals in the Reporting period will be displayed.
Goals highlighted in green and displaying 'Progress' indicate that Goal Progress i.e. Journal evidence has been recorded in the three month period. Goals highlighted in red and displaying 'Awaiting Progress' indicate that no Goal Progress has been recorded in the three month period:
Summary notes may be added in the 'Notes' field for each Goal to summarise how the Client is progressing with their Goal at that point in time:
Goals that are not relevant for a particular Report may be removed from the Report by selecting the 'Remove from Report' checkbox then selecting 'Save Maintenance Report':
