Quality standards
caritas-magazine/yielding-results-185.htmlTotal Quality Management (TQM) has come a long way since Armand Feigenbaum first articulated the concept of ‘total quality control’ in his seminal book Quality Control: Principles, Practice and Administration back in 1951.
By the mid 1990’s, what was widely termed a management fad, had grown and fallen in popularity. Nevertheless, the appetite for management systems and standards that deliver efficiencies and reassure customers is alive and well: the ISO 9001 Quality (formerly BS 5750) standard is used in 161 countries by 750,000 organisations, 40,000 of which are in the UK.
The Charity Commission’s report Public Trust and Confidence in Charities 2008 brought glad tidings of overall public trust and confidence in the sector but, worryingly, also indicated that 62 per cent of the respondents were not confident in making a donation to small charities, because they had more confidence in large ones. The adoption of inexpensive or free recognised standards and quality marks has tended to be more prevalent in larger organisations, despite the accreditation processes and fee structures being suitable for all organisation sizes and types. So why are the smaller organisations less enthusiastic?
Part of the problem is one of resources. As the sector becomes increasingly professionalised, the need for homogenous structures and systems that everyone can relate to becomes more pressing. However, in so many organisations, just getting through the day job absorbs everyone’s attention, leaving little time to stand back and review the cost/benefit of implementing standards that are not mandatory.
The Charities Evaluation Services launched the PQASSO Quality Mark service (funded by the Big Lottery Fund) in November 2007 and around 5000 voluntary and community organisations and networks have signed up so far. Although this plays an important role within the sector, one has to ask how far this would resonate with the general public, and in non-sector circles. Perhaps more needs to be done on addressing its public awareness, and developing this service into an equivalent of ISO 9001 for the non-profit sector – or talking to BSi (which has very clear brand attributes) about a non-profit variation of it. The adoption by some charities of Investors in People (see Simon Jones's article. Yielding results), the emergence of the Fundraising National Occupational Standards (see Lindsay Boswell's article, Supply and demand) and acevo’s Code of Professional Conduct (see Simon Bubb's article, Voices of dissent) represent some important steps for the sector, but there is much further to go in reassuring the public and maintaining standards as a part of daily living and breathing. An umbrella quality standard could be a very good thing in these times of rapid change in the sector’s identity and perception.
Clarissa Dann
cdann@caritasdata.co.uk
Author: Clarissa Dann
Clarissa Dann was the editor of Caritas as well as an HR and management online service,he People Bulletin until July 2011.
She is now the editor of the specialist trade finance magazine, Trade and Forfaiting Review which can be viewed at www.tfreview.com but does write on charity finance and investment from time to time.
Clarissa has a background in legal and professional publishing, as well as business journalism and holds an MBA from
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