Project Update
July 2010
CVO East Ayrshire achieve Committed to Excellence
Congratulations to CVO East Ayrshire who have achieved the internationally recognised EFQM Committed to Excellence award. CVO East Ayrshire are one of 67 organisations participating in the Quality Matters project and the fifth organisation to achieve the award.
New Advisory Group Members sought
The SVA Quality Matters project Advisory Group is due for renewal, so we are looking for new members who are committed to the implementation of the Quality Matters framework across the CVS and Third Sector Interfaces. Further details are available within the advert and remit. To apply please email or phone 0131 474 8022.
June 2010
Award winners!
Congratulations to East Dunbartonshire CVS, West Dunbartonshire CVS, Voluntary Action Highland and Falkirk & District CVS and Volunteer Centre who were presented with their Committed to Excellence Awards at the Quality Scotland Business Excellence Awards ceremony last week. They are the first four of sixty-six organisations who participating in the Big Lottery funded Supporting Voluntary Action (SVA) Quality Matters project to achieve Committed to Excellence status. For further information see the press release
From left to right: Kelley Miller, Voluntary Action Highland; Sheena Bremner, East Dunbartonshire CVS; Kenny Murphy, Falkirk and District CVS & Volunteer Centre; Gilbert Grieve, East Dunbartonshire CVS; Paul White, SCVO; Rona Alexander, Big Lottery Fund
Outline
In May 2008, a national ‘Quality in the Scottish CVS Network’ conference demonstrated support for the development of a bespoke quality framework for the CVS network. In response to this, the Quality Matters project commissioned Quality Scotland to develop, deliver and support the roll-out of such a framework.
Quality Scotland developed a bespoke Voluntary Sector Support Organisation (VSSO) version of their online “Pathway” tool based on the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) ‘Excellence Model’, an enabling and flexible quality framework successfully adopted by organisations across public and voluntary sectors.
The VSSO Pathway was successfully piloted in early 2009 by 19 organisations (17 CVS and two Citizens Advice Bureaux) and adapted according to the participants’ experiences and their suggestions for improvement. Click on the link below for the review of feedback received from participants in the Quality Matters Pilot.
Feedback from participants on the Quality Matters Pilot
In the light of Scottish Government moves to fund “single interface” arrangements (usually made up of CVS, Volunteer Centres (VCs) and Social Enterprise Networks (SENs) for (VSSOs) within each of the 32 local authority areas, rather than individual organisations, the scope of the project has now been extended to include all potential partners within the new single interface arrangements.
Organisations who participate in the Quality Matters project are eligible to apply for the internationally recognised “Committed to Excellence” status, which is awarded by Quality Scotland.
For eligible organisations, the training, support and cost of submission for Committed to Excellence are fully funded by the Quality Matters project.
Activities
Over the past year to April 2010, training on the new Pathway, self-assessment and action planning has been rolled out to a further 47 organisations, including 19 CVS, four joint CVS, 13 Volunteer Centres and one Social Enterprise Network organisation.
These organisations are now at various stages of the process from carrying out their self-assessments to achieving Committed to Excellence. The Quality Matters co-ordinator and administrator, along with trained Quality Matters assessors, provide ongoing support and information for participating organisations.
Quality Scotland facilitated follow up support workshops will be held throughout 2010/11 to help organisations refresh their learning, share experiences, address issues, and find out more about the process. More details on these will be posted on the website as soon as the dates are finalised.
Impact on Vouluntary Sector Support Organisations
Quality Management needs to deliver:
Quality Control – making sure a service or product complies with a set specification and is consistently delivered
Quality Assurance – making sure that the product or service meets the needs of the service user or customer
Quality Improvement – getting feedback, benchmarking your products and services and embarking on the quest for continuous improvement
Participants in Quality Matters will therefore be better able to:
1. Demonstrate their work and value to stakeholders, including members, funders and partners
2. Identify areas for development and plan accordingly
3. Measure their progress against and learn from the experiences of other organisations from within the project and beyond.
Quality Matters Scoping Study
Report produced by Catch the Light consultants available by clicking on the the link below.
Download Scoping study
Project information and documents
In this section you will find information and documents that will help Quality Matters participants progress to Committed to Excellence status and beyond. Some information may also be of interest to potential participants in the project.
Getting to Committed to Excellence
The documents listed below will help Quality Matters participants go through the process and gain C2E status in a way that best suits their organisation’s scale and needs.
Going through the Quality Matters process
Top tips for getting to C2E
Committed to Excellence Action Plan template
Briefing for Boards and Senior managers
Quality Matters and Single Interface arrangements
Areas for improvement – where to get help
The map of AFI’s to products and services is a shared document updated by all QM participants. You can access this shared document from the Quality Matters shared workspace. Email Harriet if you would like to join the workspace.
Future Quality Matters workshops
Getting to Committed to Excellence and Beyond workshops
These workshops are designed to support participating organisations through the Quality Matters process and to facilitate the sharing of experiences and useful information between these organisations to help them on their road to excellence. They are suitable for lead officers and other staff involved in the roll-out of Quality Matters. Further information available.
Application forms are available for the following C2E Workshops
Dundee - 16th September 2010
Glasgow - 21st September 2010
Fortnightly updates
Update 4
Update 3
Update 2
Update 1
Other information
View the participation list to find out which organisations are participating in Quality Matters.
Further details
For further details please contact Harriet Grant Tel no 0131 474 6161.