Vo l u n t a r y S e c t o r S u p p o r t

Your Guide to Quality Assurance

PROMOTING EXCELLENCE IN VOLUNTARY AND COMMUNITY SERVICES

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Your Guide to Quality Assurance

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What is Quality andQuality Assurance?Quality is about learning what you are doingwell and striving to do it better. It also meansdiscovering what you need to change to makesure you meet your users' needs.

A quality assurance system is a formalmanagement system that you can use tostrengthen your organisation. It is intended toraise standards of work and help you to doeverything consistently.

Your Guide to Quality Assurance

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Why is Quality Assuranceimportant?There are a number of reasons whyQuality Assurance is important. The usersof voluntary organisations’ services andthe general public expect highstandards. There are increasing pressureson voluntary organisations to be formallyaccountable to their funders, to provethat their performance is of a highquality and to adopt more business-likemanagement. They may have todemonstrate how quality can beguaranteed, and how they perform incomparison with others.

Implementing a quality assurance systemcan increase an organisation’s credibilityby demonstrating its accountability tovarious stakeholders. A quality assurancesystem also enables an organisation tostrive for continuous improvement in allit does and improve the way in which itmanages and delivers its services andactivities.

Some funders ask about anorganisation’s approach to quality aspart of an application for their funding.Others may ask that a quality assurancesystem be introduced, and almost allfunders require evidence of the quality ofservice provision through regularmonitoring reports.

Which Quality AssuranceSystem should we use?

There are many quality assurancesystems from which you can choose. It isimportant to choose a system that fitswith the size of your organisation andthe kind of services that you deliver.

Most quality assurance systems areexternally accredited. This means thatsomeone from outside your organisationwill come in to determine whether ornot your organisation is meeting thestandards required by the QualityAssurance system. A few systems are notexternally accredited and thethoroughness and levels to which yourorganisation meets set standards isentirely down to you. External evaluationis usually quite expensive.

We have briefly outlined some of themost popular quality assurance systemsin the voluntary sector. The top five arePQASSO, ISO9001, EFQM, The Matrixstandard , and Investors in People.

Your Guide to Quality Assurance

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PQASSOPQASSO, produced and owned by theCharities Evaluation Service, is designedfor use by small and medium-sizedorganisations. It offers a staged approachto implementing quality through 3 levelsof achievement. PQASSO is a self-assessment tool, which an organisationcan progress through using a Work packand CD Rom. PQASSO focuses stronglyon outcomes, and helps you to measurethe differences to your organisation andusers that come about by planning andimplementing improvements. You canalso choose to work towards theexternally assessed PQASSO QualityMark. The PQASSO Quality Markvalidates an organisation’s progressmade through self-assessment, and costsbetween about £1,055 and £1,200depending on the size of yourorganisation.www.ces-vol.org.uk

ISO 9001 (2008) This is an internationally recognisedquality management system, basedaround generic five areas of quality. It isimplemented by over 1m companies inover 170 countries. More suitable forlarger organisations. Accreditation isdone externally, and reviewed every

three years; the cost can be expensive asthe reviews are externally verified. It canimprove internal and externalcommunication of managementprocedures. It has less flexibility thanother tools and may not be suitable forsocially enterprising organisations.

For further information: www.iso.org

EFQM Excellence ModelThis is the most popular quality tool inEurope, used by more than 30 000organisations to improve performance.It supports you to self-assess and reflect.84% of EFQM members say that theEFQM model helps to improve theirorganisation.

The EFQM Excellence Model has beenreviewed to ensure it reflects the worldwe operate in. It encouragesorganisations to move from rigidcorporate structures to more agile onesbetter suited to the rigours of today’sglobal economic environment.

The EFQM model has been designed forany organisation regardless of size orsector, because it is not prescriptive andholistic. Further details can be found ontheir websitehttp://www.efqm.org/en/tabid/108/default.aspx

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Investors in PeopleInvestors in People are probably the bestknown Quality Assurance system in theUK, and can provide an independentstamp of approval for prospective staffand other stakeholders. It is externallyevaluated and is designed to advance anorganisation’s performance through themanagement and development of itspeople. It is mostly used by relativelylarge organisations where the staff is theprimary resource. There are severalprinciples to which an organisation mustsubscribe, along with standards thatmust be met and evidenced.

The assessment process costs from£550 – £750 per day and the number ofdays required will depend on the size ofyour organisation.www.investorsinpeople.co.uk

Investing in VolunteersInvesting in Volunteers is a qualitystandard for organisations which involvevolunteers. The Standard enablesorganisations to comprehensively reviewtheir volunteer management, and alsopublicly demonstrate their commitmentto volunteering. The Standard is managedregionally by Volunteering England. TheStandard is based on four areas –planning for volunteer involvement,recruiting volunteers, selecting andmatching volunteers, and supporting andretaining volunteers. The cost of theInvesting in Volunteers package varies, butfor an organisation with up to 10

volunteer roles and based within oneoffice it would be around £2,000.www.investinginvolunteers.org.uk

Visible Communities Visible is aimed at community centresand multi-purpose communityorganisations. It has been developed as astandard by Community Matters andcan be used as a diagnostic anddevelopment tool by organisations keento identify gaps in their performance.

The Becoming Visible Workbook, whichcosts £25 - £55, contains clearachievable indicators to help show thatproper procedures and systems are inplace within an organisation and toassess how well they are working. It willalso help you to demonstrate a broadrange of services that are inclusive andmeet the needs of local people. TheVisible standard has recently introducedan independent assessment of thestandard achieved by organisations andcosts (£1,400 – £1,650 + VAT).www.visiblecommunities.org.uk

The Visible website also has a link to theVoluntary Sector Quality AccreditationForum. This forum has created adirectory of voluntary organisationswhich provide independent qualityaccreditation schemes. The directory hasbeen designed to encourageCommissioners to be more open toquality standards held and managed bythe voluntary sector especially in theprocurement process.

Your Guide to Quality Assurance

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The Matrix StandardThe matrix Standard is the nationalquality standard for any organisationthat delivers information, advice and/orguidance on learning and work. Yourorganisation may deliver information,advice and guidance to external clients.Alternatively you may be an employeroffering your staff support or assistancein areas such as skills training,management development, appraisals,promotion and succession planning orredundancy programmes.

The way that the matrix Standard isassessed is based on achieving excellentend-results that anyone working orvisiting your organisation willconsistently hear, see and experience.The matrix Standard is a flexible qualitystandard that can be used by a widevariety of organisations including thefollowing: adult and communitylearning providers, work basedlearning providers, careers advisoryservices, trade unions, etc. The costsof accreditation are £600 per day(VAT and assessor expenses needto be added). Most accreditationsinvolve an average of 3 days.www.matrixstandard.com

How to prepare forQuality Assurance Implementing a Quality Assurance systemeffectively will take several months, and itis important that you commit sufficientresources (time and money) to doing itproperly. A quality system should beintegrated into all aspects of yourorganisation’s work, rather than beingseen as an add-on. It must involve timeand commitment from different peoplewithin your organisation.

More Online ResourceCentre GuidesCommunity Impact Bucks has produceda number of guides on all aspects ofrunning a voluntary and communityorganisation.

These guides can be downloaded fromthe online resource centre atwww.communityimpactbucks.org.uk

For further information about any issuesraised in this guide please contact:E-Mailinfo@communityimpactbucks.org.uk