Promoting Quality Assurance

An important element of YMCA work is that of striving to be a learning organisation with the aim of continually reflecting on what it is we do - not only to identify and learn from the work we do well but also discovering what it is we need to change in order to ensure we are truly meeting the needs of the young people we engage with.

As an organisation with limited resources, it is important to us that any Quality Assurance system 'fits in' to the work that we are already doing whilst also supporting the development of robust Quality Assurance systems at local level.

In 2013, YMCA Ireland began a 3 year cycle of the National Quality Standards Framework (NQSF) as a formal means to help strengthen our organisation through a process of reflection and improvement. Over the past 12 months as part of our continuing quality assurance 'journey', we have considered how best to integrate the NQSF system with other internal quality assurance processes that we have developed.

This has led to the inclusion of tools such as our themed 'Health Checks' in the areas of Safeguarding, Quality Youth Work, Health and Safety, Finance and Compliance, all of which help us to take stock of what it is we are doing and identify what it is we still need to do. We are also looking at new ways of recording the outcomes of our provision as well as how young people engage with our work as part of our ongoing Quality Assurance processes both at National and local level. It is important that our support to local YMCA's enables them to develop a Quality Assurance system that works for them - one model does not necessarily fit all!

Within YMCA, Quality Assurance is about raising standards of delivery and hence consistency in all areas of the organisation. YMCA Ireland has now fully embraced the NQSF as its quality assurance system across all its national programmes and centres and over the past 12 months has began a second NQSF cycle. Following an evidence review with an appointed NQSF Standards Officer earlier in the year, we are now in the process of implementing a 3 year continuous improvement plan which will consider areas such as collaboration and the embedding of youth participation at all levels of the organisation.

'Excellent planning and review and a lot of impact information. Focus on planning and inclusion of young people in same is of a very high standard based on what was presented. '

'Evidence offered shows a very clear role for YMCA (Ireland) in terms of supporting the development of practice amongst its local YMCA’s. The evidence was thorough, varied and showed a clear emphasis on quality practice.'

Quotes from the NQSF Evidence Review and Observation Report 2017