IEP Quality Improvement Framework (QIF)
Welcome to the IEP Quality Improvement Framework (QIF), a groundbreaking initiative tailored specifically for the employability sector.
Developed through a collaborative effort between the Institute of Employability Professionals (IEP), Mesma, The Good Employability Company, and leading employability providers in the UK, the QIF represents a significant milestone in our mission to enhance quality standards and practices within the industry. Special acknowledgements to Fedcap and their associated service providers for organising and taking part in an initial trial and The Growth Company, Serco, Ingeus, Education Development Trust, the DWP and ERSA for their contributions and many other employability organisations from the sector who have been involved in the development of the QIF through roundtables and sector forums.
This unique framework is designed to offer a comprehensive blueprint of effective practices across various organisational contexts. Grounded in independent research and evidence, the QIF is not intended to replace existing quality assurance mechanisms but rather complement them, with a specific focus on elevating employability services.
To find out more about the QIF, watch the video from the launch here
To further explore the QIF and receive support, we have held two workshops as below:
Workshop 1 – Understanding the evidence, rationale, components and impact of the IEP Quality Improvement Framework
Hosted by David Imber FIEP | Head of the Centre for Employability Excellence and Principal of The Good Employability Company
Recommended for quality professionals, leaders, managers and staff responsible for frontline delivery and quality.
During this session we uncover the rationale for the six Quality Improvement Framework components, and show how its adoption in your service culture can improve quality at all levels.
Workshop 2 – Using the IEP Quality Improvement Framework in practice
Hosted by Louise Doyle MIEP | CEO of Mesma
Recommended for Quality professionals, leaders, managers and staff responsible for frontline quality.
During this session you will learn about the different applications for the framework to underpin your quality enhancement strategy. The team at Mesma will also share with you how the framework has been built into their software platform to help users coordinate and report on a range of activities.
Workshop 3 – Self Assessing Brilliantly
Hosted by Louise Doyle MIEP | CEO of Mesma
When you self assess brilliantly quality improvement activity has clear focus and big impact. Brilliant, collaborative self assessment starts with good preparation and a strong approach.
The session is aimed at quality professionals and anyone who leads or champions quality improvement for their team or department.
We guide you on how to self assess brilliantly using any quality standard including the IEP Quality Improvement Framework, as Lou Doyle shares the insights, hints and tips gathered working with hundreds of organisations on quality improvement.
To view the workshop videos or for any enquiries regarding the Quality Improvement Framework please email us at quality@iemployability.org
The Framework
1. Commitment to Quality
A commitment to quality should be represented by the organisation’s policies, procedures, performance standards, ethics, values and other commitments. This should be shown to be enacted in the service received by participants.
The vision includes concrete goals for society, participants, employers, the organisation and its partnerships. It should be apparent what is to be achieved, and how it might be measured. Quality indicators are written with qualitative and quantitative measures that can be objectively assessed.
Values are expressed in terms that relate directly to the service provided to participants. They can be implemented by the organisation’s policies and employees and contribute to the delivery of the vision and goals. Values indicate not only that persons are respected or supported, but in what ways and how.
The organisation is open to acknowledging areas for improvement, supporting improvement activities, and undertaking regular review.
The commitment to quality actively encourages organisational and individual progression toward quality standards. Activities to support and enhance quality are focussed on the benefits to be achieved; they are not limited to procedural compliance.
The organisation sets out performance indicators and definitions of quality, consistent with the Quality Improvement Framework.
Quality indicators are relevant for participants, understood by employees and used well. Performance measures consistently focus on processes, employee competencies, and service competencies as well as the end results. Performance measures include both quantitative and qualitative behavioural evaluations against stated, objective criteria. Where performance involves a degree of compromise (for example between caseloads and case complexity) the means of establishing priority are clearly stated and used in practice.
The organisation assesses resources of all kinds needed to meet its goals and can demonstrate that they are available. The assessment of resources required to meet participant and employer need is based on concrete measures and available evidence. Objective evidence is applied to adjust resource allocations as circumstances demand.
Policies and practices provide time for regular and effective collaboration, planning, delivery, and review with external partners. The practices are enacted at the relevant levels of management and delivery, with relevance to the services to and needs of participants. Working with partners contributes to achievement of the organisation’s goals and performance measures by making the service effective, easy to use and understandable by participants and employers.
Effective ongoing training and skill development is provided for frontline practitioners and middle managers. Training and development needs are established to link the service and Continued Professional Development (CPD) provision such as training and mentoring.
The goals of CPD are clearly stated and the resulting investment in high-quality content and methods are relevant to build competence and confidence over time. The impact of CPD is evaluated and used to plan further development.
Those delivering CPD are skilled in their field. Mentors (or coaches) are given relevant training and training is designed and delivered by individuals who are professionally qualified.
Group facilitators are suitably skilled and experienced to both train and make use of the competencies of person-to-person advice and guidance.
2. Capacity for Improvement
The organisation has the ability, expertise and will to get better at what it does over time. It adopts continuous improvement methods to embed a cycle of acting, reflecting, and adjusting in accordance with its commitment to quality.
Leaders and managers lead and participate in quality improvement activities. They have suitable experience or training and are careful to use their position to lead by example to stimulate discussion and innovation.
Leaders understand and respond to the complexity of problem-solving with suitable approaches that recognise the variability, interdependence, and ambiguity inherent in the delivery of the provision.
Leaders use relevant external research and local data to gain a deep understanding of employees, participants, employers, and partners; they use this information to respond to issues, problems, changing needs or circumstances and to lead improvements.
Employees at all levels are encouraged to adopt a continuous improvement approach and how their efforts contribute to their own work or the overall service. Employees are provided with suitable training or support to help them solve problems, evaluate risks, act, reflect, and adjust.
The methods used focus on service, process and product improvements that benefit participants and employers. The burden of work to gather information and feedback and to analyse, propose and make changes is commensurate with the benefits and does not stifle creative or innovative suggestions.
Irrespective of whether quality initiatives ultimately succeed or fail, leaders and managers are supportive and actively encourage a culture of quality improvement from all employees.
The policies, procedures, processes, or frameworks that drive quality assurance and improvement can be seen to be active, and are linked to service goals, objectives and priorities.
Successes and failings are identified, causes are sought, and action is taken.
Leaders and managers effectively and systematically gather, record, and use qualitative and quantitative information to inform assurance and continuous improvement. The objectivity of the information it uses is assessed. Causality or correlation are distinguished to inform reliable decision-making.
Service partners can describe how leaders and managers of the service engage them in constructive and collaborative quality improvement.
The organisation has robust methods for gathering feedback from participants, employers, and other stakeholders that is systematic, regularly implemented, and appropriately resourced. The feedback received is recorded faithfully and subject to objective analysis. Actions are planned and tied to the feedback and evidence gathered.
3. Engaging the Local Labour Market & Supporting People Into 'Good' Jobs
The organisation, employees and partners understand the actual, concrete, relevant and local labour market through active involvement with employers and self-employment opportunities. They understand the diverse ways in which recruitment and advancement at work take place. They both support and guide current or prospective employers and support participants into work through practical and tailored steps to enable participants to benefit from good quality employment opportunities.
The organisation works with employers and others who offer local employment support, to support and encourage employers to provide good quality employment opportunities, and co-operates to make improvements where working practices fall short.
Leaders and managers of the service have up-to date knowledge of the relevant, usually local, labour markets based on direct experiences with employers and supported by statistical sources (see also 3.6).
They show how the design of the service takes account of this information to provide a service that meets the needs of employers and is also tailored to the needs of participants.
The service co-operates and constructively challenges circumstances where existing recruitment or working practices are inappropriate for clients, and supports employers by identifying improvements to job quality, recruitment practices and in-work progression.
Partnerships between the organisation, employers and other services are linked to maximise effectiveness (the achievement of employment goals) and efficiency (the economical use of resources and effort).
The service develops relationships with other sources of local business support, with charters and other initiatives focusing on improving employment practices.
Leaders, managers, and delivery team members engage successfully with employers and employer organisations and make use of the information this provides to inform service design and progress participants into work.
The organisation participates in labour-market associations and bodies (for example Chambers of Commerce, professional associations, trade unions and others) to enhance its understanding, contacts, marketing and reputation.
Leaders ensure employees have processes in place to ensure employers are active in the design and review of services, including forward planning, overall assessment, and individual participant placement support.
Employees job descriptions, team structures, targets, caseloads, and time management procedures encourage practical and effective links with employers, commensurate with their needs and the needs of participants.
Organisations have sufficient mechanisms to allow team members to share and disseminate practical labour market information.
Employees use their understanding of the workings of the local labour market to support participants effectively to progress into or maintain or advance in suitable or good employment. They focus on the suitability and quality of job roles and placements, and encourage employers to go beyond minimum legal requirements.
The organisation accesses statistical sources on the labour market and on their contribution to employment in it. Leaders and managers make effective decisions based on information they judge to be relevant and informative.
4. Participant-Practitioner Relationships
The success of employability advice requires practitioners to have:
- A high quality and professional relationship with their participants
- Knowledge of and contact with the local labour market
- Respect within and for the locality, people or local community(ies) they serve
- The ability to help participants to make choices and to carry out successful work-focussed activities.
Caseloads and time available for each participant are set in relation to participant needs and labour market circumstances. Substantial increases or decreases in the number of referrals to the service are met with timely adjustments to the resources (time, employees, methods, etc.) to maintain the overall quality.
Practitioners are able and are encouraged to use their skills and professional judgment from the outset to support participant progress. Managers demonstrably provide flexibility to use professional judgment to adjust to the needs and aspirations of each participant and/or employer. Participant and employer feedback shows how this flexibility or personal service is received and helps participants progress.
Practitioners can describe and demonstrate research-informed interpersonal skills, applying suitable interpersonal behaviours to build a professional relationship with each participant.
Working relationships provide suitable practical support and encourage independent action by participants.
Practitioners challenge false beliefs or inappropriate behaviours towards the labour market, while maintaining constructive relationships.
Practitioners’ work with participants can be seen to have a consistent focus on employability goals. Within that, they show how they provide helpful information and understanding to participants. They can show how they help participants to make informed choices based on that understanding (for example through developing an understanding of ‘suitable’, ‘desirable’ ‘good’ or ‘decent’ work, with awareness of employment rights and obligations).
Planning of action is done with participant engagement and can be shown to be appropriately adjusted to each participant.
The service provides facilities, resources and methods that are relevant to the service goals and to participant and employer needs. It can describe and demonstrate how it supports participants who need to acquire labour-market skills as part of their progress to work.
Leaders, managers, and practitioners effectively evaluate participant’s needs, participants’ capacities, and goals, and demonstrate how they then support and develop participants’ competence and confidence to act on their decisions.
The service can show how it helps participants assess and improve their capacity to choose a suitable realistic occupation, to discover opportunities in that occupation, to compete for positions and to sustain employment.
Participants’ progress towards or progress within suitable work is guided by their own developing capacity and choices.
A focus on the local or relevant labour market is maintained so that action is targeted at real opportunities.
The organisation can show the means it uses to achieve, and examples of, constructive relationships with participant groups. It has suitable means to monitor and gather feedback on its reputation and value. The feedback is used to adjust and enhance the service and to further engage relevant groups and individuals.
Employees are effectively encouraged and supported to share experiences and learning and to deploy and co-ordinate multiple skills in support of participants.
5. Working with Groups of Participants
When services work with participants in groups, it can result in positive peer-support and achieve economies of time and effort. When it is carefully planned and sensitive to the needs of individuals in each group, group working can provide exemplars, learning and motivational experiences. Adjustment to the needs of the group provides good and relevant learning opportunities and should accommodate learners’ different social and labour-market environments. Group leaders and facilitators need to be suitably skilled and experienced to both train and make use of the competencies of person-to-person advice and guidance.
The learning needs analysis should:
– Reflect on starting points, which could include social and family context, prior experiences and qualifications, identification of additional learning needs.
– Outline what the participants would like to achieve and identify clear goals (including employment goals).
– Provide details of the group sessions, including content and techniques to be used.
The learning needs analysis or preparation should be of scope and detail appropriate to the planned events. A series of group events spanning over 12 months may have a different LNA than a one-off group event.
Post-event evaluations include member and group leader (tutor) feedback and outcome measures. The longer-term impact of group participation is evaluated after a suitable delay.
Group events effectively help participants (and employers) learn and apply new knowledge and skills. Clear expectations for behaviour, tolerance, and respect should be understood by the group from the outset.
The group events should be designed appropriately whether for face to face or online delivery and should include opportunities for active engagement, meeting learning outcomes, skills development, based on sound learning principles and providing opportunities for actionable feedback.
Group leaders and facilitators adapt their approach to individual needs within the group, responding to group and individuals’ skill and stage of learning.
Group leaders or facilitators monitor and respond well to each participant’s confidence and performance. They support individuals with low self-efficacy, recognise and provide for individuals of high-self efficacy.
Group leaders or facilitators are suitably skilled and experienced both to train and to make use of the competencies of person-to-person advice and guidance.
The group environment ensures participants feel safe and can contribute confidentially. It is conducive to ease of communication, experimentation and questioning and allows for accurate transmission of ideas, debate and materials between group leader or facilitator and participants.
Technology and media are used appropriately and accessibility requirements are met (for example WCAG, language, location and accessibility).
6. Managing Influences External to the Service
The organisation is aware of and monitors all significant aspects of its working context, for example, contractual obligations, legal regulations and duties, labour market, social contexts and other commitments. It demonstrates how it plans to respond and how it does respond to changes and to both operational and ethical challenges.
Employees at all levels are aware of the terms of the contract that affect their work, including those with an indirect influence.
Employees are aware of and able to implement regulations that pertain to their work or scope of practice.
Employees can conduct their work to meet contractual and regulatory obligations.
The service can show how its discussions with commissioning agents are open, frank, and constructive. Where necessary, confidentiality is maintained, but it is complemented by sharing concerns and issues. The standard applies both to commissioning organisations and to service providers.
Employees can describe important influences on their work and can show that appropriate policy, procedure, or operational responses are in place.
Employees can describe their limitations or boundaries of their work and are aware of when and how to refer participants to further sources of support.
The organisation sets out an ethical stance and adopts suitable procedures to address ethical standards and adjusts provision accordingly. It encourages employees to consider how to respond to ethical issues; employees can show how they respond.
The service can describe and give instances of how it responds to the specific local circumstances in which it operates and can give examples of actual adaptations or precautionary plans responding to changes in the working context and environment.
