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Improving Quality

Improving quality

includes all efforts to do a better job of achieving the desired outcome for children, and at the same time enhance the efficiency and reach of services and programmes. In the past, efforts to improve quality often focused almost exclusively on developing standards and providing training; however, recent experience shows the power of other strategies, such as supportive supervision, team-based process improvement, and improvement collaboratives and communities of practice.

"Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it is achieving” (Paul Batalden). In other words, if you want to improve quality, you need to change something that you are doing. However, not all changes are an improvement. Determining what to do to make improvements becomes an important step in the process. Quality improvement relies on teamwork to examine systems and processes. Teams within and across the range of service providers use standards to reflect on their current activities and process. Teams then test options for implementing changes. Innovation is highly encouraged. Team exchanges often strengthen the learning process and result in best practices.

Quality improvement also leverages supervision skills to support teams in the process of improving quality. For example, supervisors can use the dimensions of quality to help teams reflect on current activities and application of service standards to reach outcomes. One dimension of quality - access, can encourage teams to consider ways to increase the number of vulnerable children who are able to receive services.

Several options to share learning from quality improvement experiences are being created, including this website. As programmes enter the stage of applying service standards in OVC programmes, more evidence and lessons learned will be posted. See How to get involved for more ways to engage in the Quality Initiative.

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