EQUASS Annual report 2017 by EQUASS

ANNUAL REPORT 2017

The European Quality in Social Services (EQUASS)

Mission, Vision and Values

Our services / activities offered

Main achievement in 2017

5-6

Overview of EQUASS Certifications awarded in 2017

Highlights of 2017 Certifications

Building capacity

TVLC project

10 - 11

Dissemination of our message

12 - 13

Social Media

Testimonials 15 EQUASS People How to support us

ANNUAL REPORT 2017

16 - 17 18

Mission

Values

EQUASS enhances the social sector by engaging social service providers in continuous improvement, learning and development, in order to guarantee service users quality of services throughout Europe.

Commitment to inclusion: We believe that social services should contribute to a greater agency, self-determination, autonomy, inclusion and quality of life of the social service users. In supporting social service providers in delivering the best quality of services to their beneficiaries, we wish to contribute to our vision of a high quality of life for everyone. Customer focus: We believe in providing a responsive and high quality service, by being competent, flexible and friendly with our commercial partners, and responsive to complaints.

Vision EQUASS contributes to a European social service sector where high-quality services ensure and promote inclusion and a high quality of life for the service users.

Partnership & Cooperation: We value our relationship with our key partners, contractors and stakeholders, and wish to create a sense of community, by increasing their ownership in major strategic decisions and by seeking a win-win outcome to all our negotiations. Transparency: Our stakeholders, partners and customers should understand how EQUASS works, what we focus on, how we decide and award, and to give us feedback on those. Professionalism: We believe that responsible, motivated and competent professionals deliver professional services, and we want our staff and other representatives to be a reflection of that principle. Ethical approach: We ensure an impartial outcome for our awarding decisions, and expect all those who work with us to act in accordance. We ensure the confidentiality of all sensitive or personal information that is sent to us in the context of our activities, and ask that our partners, contractors and auditors do the same.

Services / activities offered

EQUASS promotes, supports and recognises quality in the social sector by organising or contributing to the following activities:

Promote Quality

Support Quality

Recognise Quality

Awareness raising: events, research and publications

Development and delivery of training actions

Quality Recognition

EQUASS promotes continuous quality improvement, learning and development on issues around quality in social service provision; the place of service users and their social services in society; the importance of a quality approach in social service provision, the positive impact of good services and the damaging social cost of poorly-run services. EQUASS frequently organises dissemination actions on these issues.

EQUASS offers trainings for auditors and consultants in the EQUASS system. It also offers service providers the opportunity to attend seminars on the EQUASS system, on quality in social services and to participate in learning events where performance on services are compared and exchanged.

ANNUAL REPORT 2017

Consultancy and support in projects EQUASS offers consultancy, tailor made advice or research on quality issues to individual service providers and others, including in the context of short or long term projects, European or otherwise.

EQUASS offers two recognition programme for quality assurance and excellence in quality in social services. These programmes enable social service providers to engage in an external independent assessment process by which they assure quality of their services to service users and other stakeholders. All EQUASS recognition programmes are based on a Quality Framework (a set of quality Principles), quality criteria and performance indicators that are customised for the social sector. An international Awarding Committee oversees the certification process.

Main Achievements in 2017

To intoduce the new EQUASS system and promote its objectives, many events were organised during 2017.

EQUASS Info events in

Norway,

TROMSØ

with our hosts

BODØ

TRONDHEIM

BERGEN

RUD

OSLO

LIER STAVANGER

PORSGRUNN

Main Achievements in 2017

new

What is in the EQUASS 2018 system?

EQUASS is one coherent system enhancing Compliance, Improvement, Learning & Development

EQUASS is more selective on having clear approaches (e.g. values, concepts, objectives, policies, systems, procedures and processes)

EQUASS will more emphasis to have relevant results.

EQUASS is more focused on how the approaches are put into practice (= Implementation)

ANNUAL REPORT 2017

EQUASS is less demanding on documentation as proof / evidence of performance. (Therefore reduced bureaucracy)

Overview of EQUASS Certifications awarded in 2017

Total awarded Assurances 148 Excellences 2

Norway Assurance 106 Excellence 0

Sweden Assurance 1 Excellence 0

Estonia Assurance 8 Excellence 0

Ireland Assurance 1 Excellence 0

Germany Assurance 3 Excellence 0

Slovenia Assurance 3 Excellence 0

Portugal Assurance 26 Excellence 1

Greece Assurance 0 Excellence 1

Highlights of 2017 Certifications

EQUASS Excellence: Workshop Panagia Eleousa & Associação do Porto de Paralisia Cerebral (APPC)

Congratulations

to Workshop Panagia Eleousa in Greece, whose services were certified with EQUASS Excellence for the third time in 2017. Panagia Eleousa provides training, counselling, psychological support, lifelong education and care to 160 persons with disabilities in Western Greece. to the Cerebral palsy Association in Porto (APPC) for its second EQUASS Excellence certification in 2017. APPC provides a wide range of services to more than a thousand service users, that includes an occupational activities centre, residential and educational services and a community centre.

EQUASS 2018 Assurance certifications in 2017: 20 Norwegian organisations became certified with the new EQUASS 2018 system in 2017.

ALLVEKST AS

Vesseveien 2 :: 7200 Kyrksæterøra :: Telefon: 7245 1995 E-post: post@allvekst.no :: Hjemmeside: www.allvekst.no VI ER EN

ANNUAL REPORT 2017

KUL

BEDRIFT:

K OMPETANSE

U TVIKLING

LIVSKVALITET

Building capacity EQUASS training

Training Auditor Consultancy training training

for SSP in Porto, Portugal on 12-13 June

participants participants

participants

3 auditor training sessions: in May in Lisbon,

in October in Oslo,

in November in Olsberg,

Portugal

participants

Consultants training Vilnius, Lithuania

Norway

participants

(part 1), Tallinn, Estonia

participants

Evaluation of events: Overall score of quality of trainings:

participants

Consultants training

Germany

evaluation forms with average

score of 4,5

Overall score of the relevance of the trainings:

evaluation forms with average

score of 4,4 (on the scale of 1-5 and target was 4)

(on the scale of 1-5 and target <4)

participants

TVLC project The VET Learning Community: a network of mainstream and special VET providers that works on quality improvement and inclusive education Quality in Vocational Education and Training can be seen from two different perspectives: • Visible factors for quality: the quality system and the quality behaviour; • Non-visible factors for quality: quality aware¬ness of staff and the quality culture of the organisation. Many organisations focus on the implementation of a quality system and quality behaviour when they want to improve the quality of their services. However, research learned that the quality

ANNUAL REPORT 2017

cul¬ture of an organisation (how do we really think aboutand act on quality) may also have a sub¬stantial influence on how quality in education is provided and assured. The TVLC project focusses on systematic comparing, exchanging and learning from day-to-day prac¬tices in a national and international context. The EQAVET building blocks (European Quality As¬surance in VET) and the results of a quality cul¬ture assessment are the frameworks for mutual learning and improving daily practice in VET. The key objectives of the project are: • The improvement the overall quality perfor¬mance and quality

culture of mainstream and special VET providers throughout Europe; • Promoting inclusive education by identifying preconditions for inclusive education (opportunities and threats) and by building partnerships between special education and mainstream VET in the partner countries • The creation of a sustainable partnership for exchange and learning. At the end of the project 3 intellectual outcomes must be in place: • methodology for benchmarking

• description of preconditions for inclusive education • curriculum of specific training modules related to aspects of quality culture and performance In 2017 2 transnational meetings took place: 1 in Lithuania and 1 in Coimbra. In those meetings a lot of attention was given to quality management instruments and how to use them. This is the core of the curriculum. To test the usefulness of the curriculum, all partners made plans how to improve the quality assurance and the quality performance in their own organisations. Feedback was given by quality experts (EPR and 2 external subcontracted organisations)

and by the partners in the project. In the coming year, the partners will implement the improvement plans and in the end the results will be measured. After that the curriculum will be finalized.

Project partners Project partners Project partners

D D

A sA es m e om po tp

A lot of attention was given to the concept of inclusive education. European studies were analysed, concepts discussed and improvement plans for each country made. A publication with guidelines to improve inclusive education for people with disabilities will be ready in April 2018.

I cI

c B RB b R w b

In the last year of the project (2018) the focus will be on the methodology of benchmarking.

T m aT m w a w

Testimonials from project partners about: working together: special and mainstream:

“

I During the group work, I realized that the problems or obstacles to overcome we have in mainstream schools are quite similar.

”

the training modules:

“

I had heard a lot of useful information and got acquainted with techniques that I had not encountered before.

”

“

The workshops are very useful. And I love how some partners really listen/ are involved and help others to get new ideas/better solutions for improvement plans!!

“

I learned some new practical tools to use in staff trainings but I still need more information how to identify real training needs of staff and plan an innovative training programme for quality topics.

”

Disseminating our message

EQUASS Conference in Vilnius

participants

Other events about EQUASS Organised by EQUASS Norway Porsgrunn

14th February

Oslo

24th February

BodĂ¸

28th February

TromsĂ¸

6th March

Trondheim

16th March

Stavanger

22th March

Bergen

27th March

Lier 30th March 29 Baerum

24th May

Oslo

12th October

27th November

Denmark Ringsted

Total number of participants 297

Externally organised events Greece Athens and Agrinio

28-29 September

Portugal Coimbra

18-19 October

UK Brighton ANNUAL REPORT 2017

8-9 November

APQ – Associação Portuguesa para a Qualidade The activity of APQ in 2017 as an EQUASS LLH was mainly based, in addition to the manageCarla Cunha ment of the applications for certification, in the holding of events, meetings, workshops and publication of articles in the magazine QUALIDADE with the aim of promoting the Model and its dissemination in Portugal. In this context, “1st National Meeting | EQUASS and the Social Sector” was held. This event exclusively destined to entities that have or already had an EQUASS certificate in Portugal. This session, which aimed to develop a correct understanding of the 2018 version of the model, make a balance of the 7 years of its use in Portugal and its future prospects, enhancing its use as an organizational development tool for service providers in the social area, was attended by 100 participants. At the level of training, APQ’s offer is quite wide in this area, and the following courses have been prepared: EQUASS Quality Model for Social Economy Organizations; EQUASS Assurance Self-Assessment Methodology; Quality Models of Social Responses; Psychosocial Risks for Organizations of the 3rd sector; The New

EQUASS 2018 - The Changes; EQUASS 2018 Internal Auditors; Evaluation of the Stakeholders Satisfaction for organizations of the 3rd sector; Definition of Indicators and Benchmarking in the Model 2018; Individual Plans: the EQUASS philosophy: Models of Quality of Life and Evaluation; Strategic Planning and Operational Planning.

ties, 41 entities (5 new and 36

Portuguese LLH has published several articles in their Quality Magazine in order to promote the Model and the certified organizations.

For the future, APQ expects

They´ve also used their social networks and to this promotion and dissemination. APQ´s website has been updated with useful information about EQUASS, the new version of the Model and the certification process.

all stakeholders know and

renewals) applied for EQUASS Assurance Certification in this seventh year of the operation of the Model in Portugal by APQ. It should be noted that in 2017, once again, Portuguese entities no longer have financial support from the state to finance the certification and renewal of certification.

the model to continuousty grow to other areas beyond rehabilitation, something that has already started, and that understand the Model and recognize the gains from being certified with EQUASS.

The year 2017 was dedicated to the translation of all the EQUASS 2018 documentation and to the preparation of the new associated documents in Portuguese. Regarding certification activi-

Social Media

340

It was of you who followed us on Twitter in 2017

228

159

We sent tweets promoting our certified organisations and ongoing activities

There was new page likes in 2017!

131

We sent facebook posts promoting our certified organisations and ongoing activities

EQUASS_Europe EQUASS.Brussels

ANNUAL REPORT 2017

Testimonials Feedback from EQUASS auditor training in Olsberg, Nov 2017

Feedback from EQUASS auditor training in Lisbon, May 2017

“

I am convinced that eQuass 2018 is a really good system that helps to structure the quality management in organisations. The stronger focus on results fits to the requirements which the funders put on social service provider.

”

Feedback from auditor calibration session in Oslo, October 2017

“

I think it is a clear improvement from the 2012 system. I like the emphasis on the idea of learning for the service provider. It enhances the focus on constant improvement. It is also an improvement that there is less demand for documentation for the service provider. I think many small organisations in Norway will approve of this.

”

Feedback from EQUASS conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, Feb 2017

“

I have great belief in the new system and think it is a good step forward. I particularly like the focus on learning and continuous improvement. I also think it is a good idea to put more emphasis on the results the SSPs are achieving and think that these changes will benefit both the SSPs and the persons served.

“

EQUASS 2018 brings clarity to Providers on how they can improve their systems and services for Users. Emphases on learning and development are important for future developments.

”

EQUASS People EQUASS Secretariat Marie Dubost – EQUASS manager Sarah Vansimpsen – EQUASS Officer (From June 2017) Grete Kvehaugen – EQUASS Officer (Norway) Loredana Alen – EQUASS Officer (Until June 2017) Lisbeth Wille – EQUASS communication and event support (From July 2017)

Technical services Guus van Beek – EQUASS Key-expert

Supporting services Laura Jones – EPR General Secretary Alicia Gomez Campos – (From June 2017) Ronald Schollaart – (From Dec 2017) Cinzia De Letis – EPR Communications Coordinatorn (Until June 2017) Laurence Meuret – EPR Financial Officer (Until June 2017)

EQUASS volunteer My name is Dirk. I am 33 years old and I come from Meise, a Belgian town near Brussels. My hobbies are bowling, gaming and listening to music. In summer I also like traveling with my family very much. I started working with EQUASS on 15 July 2014. At the start I used to work once a month. In the meanwhile, that has evolved to every two – three weeks, depending on how much work needs to be done. I make certificates in Adobe Indesign for Social Service Providers that have been certified. Besides that, I update the internal database and parts of the website. I like working with EQUASS it very much because I get to work on the computer, which is one of my hobbies. It is very important for me to keep working in EQUASS office. I would like to continue there because I like my work and my colleagues. The fact that I work during the morning only, is something else I like, since I always have the afternoon still for my hobbies. Dirk Keymolen ANNUAL REPORT 2017

Local Licence Holders (LLH)

National representatives

APQ, Portugal

Panagia Eleousa, Greece

Astangu, Estonia (Until end of January 2017)

Mr Peter Adam, Belgium

Estonian Social Insurance Board (From May 2017) VRC, Lithuania Josefsheim Bigge, Germany URI, Slovenia

EQUASS Awarding Committee European Platform for Rehabilitation (EPR) - Frits Wichers European Social Insurance Platform (ESIP) - Wolfgang Schulz-Weidner and Mr Franz Terwey European Association for Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD) - Luk Zelderloo Council of Europe (CoE) - Irena Kowalczyk-Kedziora Business Disability Forum - TBD Rehabilitation International (RI) - Jan Johansen European Federation of Older People (EURAG) - Dirk JarrĂŠ European Network of Social Authorities (ENSA) - Johan Lindstrom

EQUASS Subcommittee of the EPR Board of Directors Manfred Schulte (Germany) Herma Veltman (The Netherlands)

How to support us

Donations