PQASSO Essentials - Quality Assurance Pilot for Small Organisations launches today

PQASSO Essentials is intended to help smaller, third sector groups and organisations that:

·         May never have reviewed their whole group or organisation and that want to do a basic ’health check‘ to know which areas they need to develop and strengthen

·         Want to start to introduce and embed quality and continuous improvement in their work

·         Need a framework to support the development of their group or organisation, and 

·         Want to be more effective and efficient in how they work.

PQASSO Essentials will help a group or organisation improve two really key areas – governance (the function performed by the Board or management committee) and how risks of all sorts are identified and managed.

Good governance is about ensuring that Board or management committee members understand their roles and responsibilities, that they ensure the group or organisation is meeting all relevant legal and regulatory requirements, and that there is a plan for the intended work or activities. They will also oversee the finances of the organisation and ensure there are effective financial controls in place and a budget that is monitored regularly.

For small groups or organisations the situation sometimes arises where a group of initial founders then become Board or management committee members. They will need to review their role, as they may need to become more strategic and less hands on, especially if staff begin to be employed.

Identifying and managing risks of all kinds – however small a group or organisation is, it should identify key risks to it being able to deliver the work it wants to do, to its financial position, to its reputation or to any other area of how it operates. Identifying and managing risk is a key part of the role of Board or management committee members.

PQASSO Essentials has 10 questions which prompt reflection, discussion, action and learning to develop and strengthen a group or organisation: These include asking:  

·         If a written mission exists

·         If legal requirements are being complied with

·         If the Board or management committee has the skills and experience to lead the direction of the organisation

·         If users or beneficiaries have been identified

·         If the organisation is achieving what it set out to do and how it knows whether it’s making a difference.

Through using PQASSO Essentials, a group or organisation will make a judgement about the extent to which it is addressing the 10 questions, and will be prompted to identify actions to implement until they are confident they fully address the questions. Like PQASSO, PQASSO Essentials takes an evidence-based approach to self-assessment.

There is no option of external accreditation for groups or organisations using PQASSO Essentials but it is a starting point that could lead to using the full PQASSO standards, and applying for the PQASSO Quality Mark, over time.

In order to use PQASSO Essentials you will need to register at WCVA’s website.