Attendees at the ASA’s Quality Work event on the 26th of January heard from a range of speakers talking about all things QUALITY ASSURANCE in theory and in practice and what it means to provide a good quality advice service.
See the full list of speakers and downloadable presentations – Quality Work: Delivering Better Advice Services in 2021 event page.
Quality in context/what is quality and what is it for? Different approaches to quality and quality assurance
After an introduction from ASA Patron Lord Low about his work on the Low Commission and support for ASA’s projects, the talks began with Consultant Matthew Howgate discussing the wider context of quality and different approaches to ensuring it. He spoke honestly and clearly about what a high quality advice service may look like and the ways to spot the signs that a service might just be ‘getting its ducks in a row’ to pass a quality audit. He gave a particular focus to the importance of peer review in imbedding quality in practice.
Current approaches to advice quality assurance
Sarah McNeice, Quality and Transformation Manager at Money & Pensions Service (MAPS) gave an overview of their quality framework for MAPS funded debt advice including their 2nd tier support service, the quality requirements of their funding and the advice training programme they fund. Paul Neave, Head of Advice Services at the Welsh Government delivered a presentation about the Information and Advice Quality Framework (IAQF) for Wales, which made clear the crucial role that advice giving was seen to play in ensuring they met the goals of the Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. Lastly Rachel Irvine, Performance Manager at Citizens Advice gave a whistle-stop tour of how national Citizens Advice understands quality, including an overview of their their leadership self-assessment programme for local Citizens Advice and the impact of their client experience and people management surveys on measuring advice and financial health monitoring.
These speakers imparted their wisdom on what they thought the main changes would be in quality assurance post Covid-19. There was a consensus that there would be a need to embed a quality culture in home working, coinciding with a need to ensure staff well-being is protected and a need to make sure evaluation is accurate, risks are managed and advisers are equipped with the right tools and training.
Other approaches to quality assurance: theory of change approach, user feedback and engagement and systems thinking approaches
In the next speaker session Tony Sheppard, Project Coordinator- Rossendale Crisis Support from Citizens Advice Rossendale & Hyndburn informed us of the Rossendale Crisis Support Project which works with local organisations to prevent and reduce the impacts of the financial crisis for people living in Rossendale and their strategic plan to improve mental health in the local area. Dal Warburton, National Network Lead at AdviceUK gave a flavour of approaches to systems thinking in the advice sector. Giving an overview of how local community advice services currently operate and redesign themselves for longer-term financial wellbeing, sharing this learning with others across the UK. Richard Harrison Chair of the Reading Advice Network (RAN) discussed their local approach to quality advice giving through the RAN Quality Standard, available to be achieved by their members.
This session sparked conversations about the need for quality to be directed at the unique needs of communities served rather than for meeting targets set by funders. The issues faced by smaller organisations who feel over burdened with demands from the maintenance and expansion of quality processes and the need for quality assurance to give providers room to demonstrate effectiveness in a way that isn’t too prescriptive.
Advice quality assurance in the post Covid-19 world
ASA Director Lindsey Poole provided clarity on 3 questions, is quality assurance in the advice sector really necessary? (it most definitively is!) Can quality assurance in the advice sector be proportionate and affordable (oh, yes and the ASA can help with this) and how do we balance resource for Quality Assurance against the demand for our services (focus on the key elements of best practice that really make a difference for example the ASA’s Peer Review Online Platform). Her future-looking presentation showed us that the benefits of quality assurance for the advice sector are possibly more central to our work than other parts of the voluntary sector but she ended with a call to the sector to take greater ownership of these.
The event finished with an overview of the Advice Quality Standard from ASA’s Quality Manager Dawn Draper and Liz Morris from Recognising Excellence.
More information on the assessment process, the benefits and support available to those seeking to get AQS accreditation.
There was much to take away from the event for those assessing and providing standards of quality assurance and those aiming to assure quality of their advice giving alike. What this event has shown is that the global pandemic doesn’t take away from the appetite for quality assurance but shows its importance remains in place and the need for adaptability as services navigate new challenges and look towards the future of advice giving.
Event attendee comments
“We’re really going to look at the systems thinking and check that we are really living our quality mark. We had signed up for the peer review pilot but will now focus on getting really stuck into that to help drive forward staff development.”
“It’s important not to see quality measures and policies as something just for passing an audit or an assessment but something live by everyday…and clients’ centred.”
“There should be more discussion about how the needs of very small independent organisations can be met.
Lindsey Poole ASA Director’s comments after the event
“When the team set up the event, we had wondered whether everyone in the sector would be feeling so overwhelmed by the ongoing pressures that quality assurance would be low on the list of priorities. How wrong we were and how inspiring the advice sector is for its insistence on always providing the best quality work to their clients, however challenging the circumstances!
Over 200 people registered for our online event to hear about and to consider the issues of quality assurance in relation to their advice service. So many different types of advice providers were involved from small user lead organisations to large and nationally recognised advice services.
I do sometimes worry that we design the perfect event for ourselves! We had wanted to hear some challenges to our own thinking about best practice and where quality assurance fits in. As Matthew Howgate so nicely summed up at the start of the event, it is people thinking and caring about the service they deliver which really makes the difference. If we are to encourage critical thinking and self-reflection in advice services, we need to start with ourselves.
So our take away from the event is the need to find a way to provide organisations with a quality assurance scheme that supports and drives best practice, particularly for small organisations or where a limited part of the activity is related to advice giving. We recognise that the AQS will not work for some very small organisation and yet the desire to provide some level of scrutiny of the service is real and passionately felt.
But we are keen to continue this very exciting dialogue particular as advice services shift and adapt to the challenges of the post Covid-19 world. Please do share your thoughts or views with us- we are always pleased to hear directly from the frontline- email us on info@asauk.org.uk.”