Good questions - and great answers

Back in September I was very pleased to publish an interview with Peter Hillman, a TQS assessor with Investors in Excellence.

At the time Peter agreed to answer questions about the TQS on this blog.

Here are the first three questions that were sent to me. Thanks again to Peter for his clear responses.

Why aren't assessors drawn from education and from OFSTED?

"As I indicated in my earlier interview, the assessment includes the perspective of the "employer's experience". It is an assessment of how a provider defines, implements and manages the processes that support this, and how achievements and performance are measured in relation to the objectives defined in the strategy for each aspect of performance - i.e. planned outcomes, employer satisfaction and assessment of impact on the employer's business.
The Standard is an assessment of continuous service quality improvement which is fundamentally different from OFSTED's inspection role.

Part of this difference is that TQS is a process driven assessment framework which looks at how well specific approaches are developed and implemented, where "soundness" (or degree of "good") relates to the contribution to the achievement of the organisation's (provider's) strategy and not to an objective model of educational excellence.

Hence what might be "sound" for one provider may not be for another. Consequently assessors need to understand how organisations and processes are managed appropriately and effectively and it is this background that is looked for in assessors rather than a specific educational knowledge.

Experience has shown that having many assessors with a limited background in education (and not limited education!!!) has been valuable in bringing a fresh perspective on provider practice.
There is no bar on assessors from an OFSTED background becoming TQS assessors as long as they have the background experience and knowledge e.g. EFQM Excellence Model experience."

What proportion of organisations being assessed now are gaining conditional certification?

"This is information that is not routinely published and individual assessors do not have access to this information. However an initial report published by CFE is on the TQS website."

Is it a problem if people in a provider organisation haven't seen the TQS application?

"Not really.

However it is highly likely that the verification visit will include discussions with a range of staff involved in the employer responsiveness processes. We would expect them to know how things are done and whether this should be consistent with the information provided in the application.

Remember the application should reflect what actually happens in the organisation rather than "what is thought happens" or "what should happen". The evidence in the application should be "naturally occurring" which means it is "what happens on the ground" and it is key to ensure that this is the case.

So if you are confident that the application represents what is actually happening - particularly in relation to implementation - then it would not matter if everybody has not seen the application!!"

If you have more questions for Peter, please post them in the comments section of this post.

See also, the original interview with Peter: An assessor's view on the TQS and the series of good questions in the blog archive.