(a) It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure the well-being of consumers, taking into account their informed and expressed choices. It is further the intent of the Legislature to support the satisfaction and success of consumers through the delivery of quality services and supports. Evaluation of the services that consumers receive is a key aspect to the service system. Utilizing the information that consumers and their families provide about those services in a reliable and meaningful way is also critical to enable the department to assess the performance of the stateâs developmental services system and to improve services for consumers in the future. To that end, the State Department of Developmental Services, on or before January 1, 2010, shall implement an improved, unified quality assessment system, in accordance with this section. (b) The department, in consultation with stakeholders, shall identify a valid and reliable quality assurance instrument that assesses consumer and family satisfaction, provision of services in a linguistically and culturally competent manner, and personal outcomes. The instrument shall do all of the following: (1) Provide nationally validated, benchmarked, consistent, reliable, and measurable data for the departmentâs Quality Management System. (2) Enable the department and regional centers to compare the performance of Californiaâs developmental services system against other statesâ developmental services systems and to assess quality and performance among all of the regional centers. (3) Include outcome-based measures such as health, safety, well-being, relationships, interactions with people who do not have a disability, employment, quality of life, integration, choice, service, and consumer satisfaction. (4) Include outcome-based measures to evaluate the linguistic and cultural competency of regional center services that are provided to consumers across their lifetimes. (c) To the extent that funding is available, the instrument identified in subdivision (b) may be expanded to collect additional data requested by the State Council on Developmental Disabilities. (d) (1) The department shall contract with an independent agency or organization to implement, by January 1, 2010, the quality assurance instrument described in subdivision (b). The contractor shall be experienced in all of the following: (A) Designing valid quality assurance instruments for developmental service systems. (B) Tracking outcome-based measures such as health, safety, well-being, relationships, interactions with people who do not have a disability, employment, quality of life, integration, choice, service, and consumer satisfaction. (C) Developing data systems. (D) Data analysis and report preparation. (E) Assessments of the services received by consumers who are moved from developmental centers to the community, given the Legislatureâs historic recognition of a special obligation to ensure the well-being of these persons. (F) Issues related to linguistic and cultural competency. (2) Notwithstanding any other law, the contract and any amendments pursuant to this section shall be exempt from all of the following: (A) The personal services contracting requirements of Article 4 (commencing with Section 19130) of Chapter 5 of Part 2 of Division 5 of Title 2 of the Government Code. (B) The Public Contract Code, the State Contracting Manual, and the State Administration Manual. (C) The approval of the Department of General Services. (D) The approval of the Department of Technology. (3) The exemptions specified in paragraph (2) shall remain in effect until there is more than one available assessment that meets the criteria in subdivision (b) from an organization that also meets the criteria in this subdivision. (e) The department, in consultation with the contractor described in subdivision (d), shall establish the methodology by which the quality assurance instrument shall be administered, including, but not lim
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