Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance describes the procedures an organisation puts in place to systematically monitor and evaluate processes, to ensure quality of its products or services.

Through putting in place standards against which quality can be measured, you will be able to demonstrate that your work is fit for purpose and help eliminate mistakes, ensuring it is ‘right first time’.

Choosing a Quality System for your organisation

A quality system will provide your group with a framework of recognised standards and methods that your committee can use to strengthen and improve your group/organisation. Meeting these standards takes commitment, planning and investment of resources but ultimately these will all be repaid by the benefits to your group/organisation as a whole.

Quality Systems give your group the chance to look critically at what you are doing. They also help identify areas where your group needs to make changes to improve its service or activities for users. Achieving a recognised quality standard will give your service users, members, volunteers and funders the reassurance that your services meet a certain standard.

Practical Quality Assurance System for Small Organisations (PQASSO)

PQASSO is a quality assurance system especially for Third Sector groups/organisations. This flexible system, developed by The Charities Evaluation Services, is widely used across the Third Sector particularly by small to medium sized groups. External accreditation (the PQASSO Quality Mark) is optional, the system having been originally intended as a tool for self-assessment.

European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM)  

EFQM offers your group a framework for continuous improvement. It gives your group chance to assess its own strengths and areas for improvement across nine key areas (including your group’s policies and leadership and the results you achieve in relation to your users, your members and all the people involved in or benefiting from your groups activities and services). 

EFQM is the most widely-used Business Excellence Framework in Europe, with over 30,000 businesses using the Excellence Model to improve performance and increase their bottom-line.  In Scotland EFQM is promoted and delivered by Quality Scotland.

EFQM is the Quality Assurance framework used by the network of support agencies for community groups in Scotland (known as Third Sector Interface  organisations).

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Last Updated 05/02/2013 11:08