Community Action Suffolk Quality Framework (QF)
An effective and trusted framework for the Voluntary Community Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) Sector. Supporting quality in organisations since 2005.
One resource, multiple uses and benefits
Strengthen your organisation. Make it safer and more sustainable using the Quality Framework to develop your policies, procedure and practice to build strong foundations for safer services for your service users and staff and volunteers.
The Quality Framework is designed with you in mind. You are in control and have the flexibility to choose the level of support and resources that are right for you. There are three options to choose from.
Option 1: Organisation HealthCheck
Option 2: Organisation HealthCheck Plus
Option 3: Quality Standards
Each section acts as a stand-alone resource. However, they are designed to allow you to move from one to another as your organisation grows and your needs change.
Start your journey now.
Click on the sections below for more information.
Organisation HealthCheck
The Organisation HealthCheck is a useful tool to assess how effectively your organisation is operating and being governed. An excellent entry point to quality assurance. Downloadable resource.Self assessment.Free of charge.
Organisation HealthCheck Plus
An excellent hybrid or bridge between the HealthCheck and Quality Standards. It brings all the benefits of a self-assessment, you do it to your own timescale, and unlocks the resources that Quality Standards Organisations can access. A full range of complementary resources policies, procedures, forms et c. to help you as you develop and embed quality policies and procedures. Secure online portal. £150
Quality Standard
The CAS Quality Standard is an award which helps your organisation to build upon a firm foundation of robust policies and procedures. It helps you to demonstrate your organisation has strong safeguarding and governance in place. It was created and developed for the Voluntary Community Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) sector by the VCFSE sector and has been a valuable resource since 2005. Secure online portal. Dedicated support from Community Action Suffolk to help you achieve the standard. Externally verified.£500
Key policies and procedures
Click here for a few foundational policies and procedures to get you started.
Success stories
'We are incredibly proud of the work that we do across the county and by successfully completing the CAS Quality Standards Award we could ensure that we were fully recognised as an outstanding professional organisation'.
Contact CAS
For support or a conversation about any element of the Quality Framework: Contact Jacqui Wilkinson, Training, Safeguarding and Quality Framework [email protected]
Reasons to use the Quality Framework (QF)
Having effective policies and procedures are a foundation and hallmark of a safe, well run, sustainable organisation.
Policies and Procedures help keep your staff, service users and organisation safe. Your policies enable staff, volunteers and service users to understand your approach, values and attitude in specific areas and informs them how you would want them to act when handling specific situations. They show why, for example safeguarding, equality diversity and inclusion are important and how you want everyone to be treated and act. Procedures set out the actions people need to take in specific situations.
Without effective policies and procedures your organisation has no reliable or consistent way of responding to specific situations meaning staff and volunteers will be forced to invent what they think needs to be done. This can be highly stressful for staff and volunteers who have no guidance about what is expected of them and there can be serious consequences for individuals and organisations if the wrong approach is taken. Governance is a key priority for charities, and the VCFSE sector according to the Charity Commission.
Support your organisation, staff, volunteers and service users by having effective policies and procedures in place to keep people safe and supported.
The benefits of QF are many and varied, including:
- Valuable insight: Understand how well you are leading and governing your organisation
- Clear structure to follow: A tool to complete a structured assessment of your organisations governance, policies and procedures
- Quick results: The Organisation HealthCheck and Organisation HealthCheck Plus are self assessments providing you with your own insights into your organisations health.
- Build confidence: A comprehensive range of quality example policies and procedures are available for you to download with the Organisation HealthCheck Plus and the Quality Standard
- Compliance: Supporting you to understand your legal obligations including safeguarding, equalities, health and safety and governance.
- Putting you in control: You choose the level of support that you need.
- Flexibility: The Framework supports you as you grow. It’s easy to progress through the framework.
- Validation: The Quality Standard is externally assessed and reviewed with dedicated support from Community Action Suffolk supporting you to achieve the standard
- Understanding – a quality framework for the VCFSE by the VCFSE: The framework is built on nearly 20 years of experience supporting the VCFSE to be a safe, well run provider of services.
- Demonstrate your commitment to continuous improvement
What does the CAS Quality Framework (QF) cover?
Having effective policies and procedures are a foundation and hallmark of a safe, well run, sustainable organisation.The CAS Quality Framework covers the four main areas an organisation requires to demonstrate it has the relevant policies and procedures in place to support its commitment to being a safe, well run provider of services to those that use its services and work or volunteer for it.
The four areas covered are: Safeguarding Matters, Health and safety Matters, Wellbeing Matters, Governance Matters.
‘It’s a useful tool helping shape discussions in our organisation so we can all get ‘on the same page’. Organisation HealthCheck February 2023
Don’t just take our word for it. Read what users say about it here
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