Quality assurance and change

You can use the concept of quality to improve the way you do things. 

Quality services are those that are:

• needed by users or your cause, to a required standard
• well run
• assessed and improved
• shown to make a positive and measurable difference, and
• continuously improved again and again in order to achieve the very best results.

Thinking about quality can be a powerful way to embed an improvement culture within your organisation.

Since the 1990s there has been a significant increase in interest amongst voluntary and community organisations in using the concept of quality.  The Quality Standards Task Group, managed by NCVO, ran extensive research across the sector in this area. Many funders are now keen to see organisations adopt quality systems and the implementation of certain quality standards or frameworks has become a requirement of some funders and statutory commissioners. Read more about funders' approaches to quality.

Quality assurance systems

A quality assurance system is a systematic way of ensuring your organisation undertakes a continuous process of learning, developing and reviewing. This often involves working towards an agreed level of performance, or quality standard. 

It's possible to devise your own quality system with your own standards and to do your own self-assessment but there are also a range of ready-made standards or frameworks available, with or without kitemarked assessment, such as:

• PQASSO the Practical Quality Assurance System for Small Organisations
• Investors in People
• EFQM Excellence Model
• Social auditing and accounting
• Investing in Volunteers
• Quality Mark

Use our quality selector to compare popular standards.

However, before you investigate the options, we recommend taking some time to consider how you might want to approach the concept of quality.

It is very common for organisations to find themselves focusing almost exclusively on the task of completing the quality assurance system, or getting the badge for a particular standard. This can mean they miss out on the most important benefit, which is embedding a permanent culture of ongoing improvement.