Quality Assurance
Purpose: To reassure the buyer that your organisation has the management systems and processes in place to consistently deliver the goods/services asked for in the contract.
Key questions for the Buyer:
- Can I depend on you to provide the same levels of service consistently?
- Will you satisfy customers?
- Are your staff motivated enough to provide a good service?
Typical Scoring/Assessment:
Either Pass/Fail or scored based on the organisation’s progress towards achieving a Quality Assurance policy. Therefore you may not be rejected for having not implementing it, but you may score zero in comparison to an organisation who is either developing it currently, or already has these systems and processes set up and fully operational.
Information typically requested:
- Details of any quality assurance accreditation or processes/procedures you implement, including a statement on how your organisation manages quality of the goods and services it produces.
- For Social Care contracts in particular, the Buyer may replace the QA questions with appropriate alternatives, for example CQC or Ofsted requirements.
HANDY TIPS:
- Write a quality policy for your business. The policy should be relevant to the nature and scale of the work to be undertaken and set out responsibilities for quality management throughout the organisation.
- List the systems and procedures that you have in place in your business which are key to your customer delivery.
- Describe all your operating processes and the checks and balances in place at each stage to ensure quality. (Draw a diagram or flow chart, or use post it notes to help you)
- Use a feedback loop to ensure continuous improvements.
