The Scottish Local Authorities Network for Quality
International Workshop Agreement (IWA) 4 - Quality Management Systems
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Case Study: City Developments
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City Developments is one of eight Edinburgh City Council Departments. The Department is composed of four main functions namely Corporate Property and Emergency Planning; Transportation; Planning; and Economic Development.
The Department is the third largest with the City Council with 1200 staff. Corporate Property and Emergency Planning are ISO 9001 registered with BSI; and Transportation and Planning are both registered with SGS Yarsley. The quality management system of City Developments is arranged into four components: the Service Plan which includes quality objectives; the six Management System procedures; Operating Procedures and finally Work Instructions.
Both the Council and City Developments have been subject to a considerable amount of structural change in recent years. This is continuing and is exemplified by the construction of new Council offices in Edinburgh which will be ready in the autumn of 2006. The move into a new building will be accompanied by a change to the working environment and working practices for all staff.
Why ISO 9000?
Initially in 1992 the Director of Technical Services wanted a means to consider the customer care implications of their work. In particular he wished to gain the insight from a third party audit –hence the interest in ISO 9000. Subsequently through re-organisation the Technical services function was subsumed into the new City developments Department and renamed Corporate Property. Additionally the Building Services Section runs very much on procedural lines eg the management of Building Warrants.
Lothian Regional Council Highways Department was in a different situation!
For such a diverse range of services the change to the ISO 9000 standard introduced from 2000 provided a new set of challenges and an opportunity to involve managers more directly into the working of their own Management System.
Guidelines for the Application of ISO 9001 in Local Government
Welcome
Quality Management Systems may have 'made their name' in the manufacturing area originally, but today their value to the public sector is recognised by everyone. Charter Mark, Investors in People, ISO 9001, and the Excellence Model are the most popular systems to achieve Continual Improvement and Client Satisfaction.
An international congress of local government officials, employees and elected members have met in Mexico to discuss the best ways to implement ISO 9001 as an 'improvement model'. The result was "IWA-4: Quality Management Systems - Guidelines for the Application of ISO 9001 in Local Government". This International Workshop Agreement has now been adapted by SQMC for Scottish Local Authorities, and details are available free of charge through the newly-formed Scottish Local Authorities Network for Quality (SLAN:Q).
The objective of International Workshop Agreement IWA 4:2005 is to provide local governments with guidelines for the voluntary application of ISO 9001 on an integral basis. These guidelines do not, however, add, change or modify the requirements of ISO 9001.
For a local government to be considered reliable, it should guarantee minimum conditions of reliability for the processes that are necessary to provide all the services needed by its citizens in a consistent and reliable manner. All the local government's processes, including management, core, operational and support processes, should constitute a single, integral, quality management system. The integral character of this system is important because, otherwise, although a local government could be reliable in some areas of activity, it may be unreliable in others. For a government to be considered reliable, it should guarantee minimum conditions of reliability for all key processes and services. To achieve this, it is advisable that the local government clearly identify the management, core and support processes that, together, make it reliable (for more info see Annex A of the publication). IWA4's "Annex B" provides a diagnostic tool for local governments to evaluate the scope and maturity of their processes and services.
SLAN:Q is a recent SQMC innovation to give those involved with QMS in local government an opportunity to share ideas and 'best practise' with their colleagues.
After consulting some Quality Systems officers from Local Authorities known to us nationwide, SQMC organised an inaugural seminar with a select audience to explore the 'mechanics' of IWA-4 and how it could be a useful tool in helping to improve QMS. Local Authorities have to be seen - by the Scottish Executive and public alike - to be "reliable and consistent". IWA-4 Guidelines help to achieve that end.
One of the first 'Quality in Action' systems that SQMC examined was Fife Council's Bereavement Services. An outline of their project is given opposite.
Memo
The next available SLAN Quality Workshop is now:
22nd June, 2012
Venue: SQMC
Cost: £25 + vat
Purpose: To further explore ISO 9001:2008 application to Scottish Local Authorities. New attendees are welcome and will be emailed pre-Workshop material.
Please book places here, or call SQMC on 01383 725 000 for more details.
Members' Zone:
Industry Links:
www.QualityAuditor.co.uk
www.IRCA.org
www.IQA.org
www.ASQ.org
www.EFQM.org
www.ISO.ch
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