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As the disability support sector matures and diversifies, there is growing recognition of the role clinical governance plays in ensuring safe, effective, and person-centred service delivery. However, clinical governance isn’t always easy to translate into the day-to-day world of disability support, particularly when systems are designed for clinical environments like hospitals or aged care.

In our latest AICG webinar, we heard from David Naughton, CEO of Enable WA, the regional Western Australia’s largest disability service provider. David offered an honest and insightful look at how his organisation has worked to embed clinical governance into every layer of service delivery, from point-of-care support to executive oversight.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the session:

Clinical Governance Starts with Culture

One of the most important messages from the webinar was that clinical governance doesn’t begin with documentation—it begins with organisational culture.

At Enable WA, this meant deliberately shifting the organisation's mindset. Rather than viewing clinical governance as something external, David and his team worked to embed it in how every staff member approaches their role.

“Clinical governance is not about one part of an organisation, it's about the whole of the organisation.”

The organisation began by asking foundational questions: What does safety mean in disability support? How do we make quality real for the people we support? From these questions came practical cultural changes, like including people with disabilities in governance conversations and empowering staff to speak up about concerns.

Support Workers Are Essential to Clinical Safety

In the disability context, clinical care is often delivered by support workers who aren’t registered clinicians—but who are vital to identifying and responding to risk.

David highlighted that Enable WA made a deliberate effort to recognise and build the capability of support workers as key partners in clinical governance.

“Support workers are at the frontline of risk, wellbeing, and human connection. We need to trust them, support them, and involve them in clinical governance systems—not treat them as outside of it.”

This included training, mentorship, and simplifying communication pathways so staff knew when and how to escalate concerns, particularly around high-intensity supports.

Systems Should Reflect Complexity—But Stay Practical

Rather than overengineering clinical governance frameworks, Enable WA has focused on developing practical, scalable systems that can work across diverse service settings—from metropolitan allied health programs to remote community-based support.

One of the webinar’s most valuable insights was the need to balance rigour with excellence: clinical governance systems must be robust and usable by the people expected to apply them.

“Good governance isn’t about having a 100-page manual—it’s about making sure people know what to do, when to do it, and who to go to for help.”

Enable WA developed a system that focuses on learning from incidents, near misses, and feedback, not just reporting them. The key shift: using data to drive everyday improvements, not just audits.

Co-Design Is Not Optional

A recurring theme was the importance of partnering with people with disabilities in designing governance systems. David made it clear that true governance must reflect the perspectives, needs, and goals of the people being supported.

“If we’re not involving people with disability in designing what good looks like, we’re not governing—we’re just managing risk from the top down.”

Enable WA includes consumer voices in governance conversations, engages participants in feedback loops, and treats complaints as opportunities for meaningful change—not just compliance responses.

Leadership Needs to Model the Commitment

Finally, David emphasised the role of leaders—not just in overseeing governance frameworks, but in modelling a learning culture. That means being open to challenge, transparent about outcomes, and willing to shift when systems aren’t working.

“If we want our teams to take governance seriously, leaders have to show that it matters—and that it’s okay to learn, reflect, and adapt.”

He shared candid reflections about challenges Enable WA faced early on and how they used those moments to reshape their systems and improve trust across the workforce. Find out more about how AICG serves the disability sector. 

Join AICG as a member today to unlock the full recording, access exclusive resources and templates, and stay updated with best practices as the sector evolves.

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