Naacemark for Service Providers (NMSP)

Background

Quality assurance (QA) is about establishing and following processes to ensure consistent high quality outcomes. These processes should provide the means to deal with any issues that may arise. It is about getting things right first time - and every time!

Service providers are the organisations (such as Local Authorities, companies and consultants) who provide services to schools.

In 1997 Naace launched a quality mark for service providers offering training ('INSET' or CPD) involving the use and pedagogy of ICT in schools. This was eventually expanded to encompass seven service areas, from provision of 'ICT Education and Training' to development of 'ICT Education Resources'.

The scheme was revised in 2003 with support from Becta, but the underlying approach was largely untouched - providers had to produce a detailed portfolio of evidence against the scheme's criteria. This was submitted to Naace for assessment by a panel of accredited peers.

During 2006/7 a thorough review of the whole approach and structure of the scheme was carried out. This has resulted in what we might call 'NMSP 2.0', based on self-review, launched in 2008.

Quality assurance and self-review

NMSP is a quality assurance scheme

Just as a product manufacturer that implements effective quality assurance (QA) cannot guarantee that every product leaving its assembly line will be fault free, NMSP accreditation does not guarantee, or endorse, any particular product or service. Indeed, the relationship between service provision and education is very much more complex, since the final 'outputs' are not products in the same sense.

Quality assurance examines policies and procedures that underpin a process. We all know that planning is essential in every sphere of life, from taking a long journey to constructing and delivering a curriculum. QA ensures that appropriate plans are in place, implemented and monitored for a given system. These plans are defined in the policies and procedures that govern what the system is intended to do, how all the parts interrelate and what to do if something goes wrong.

Service providers following an effective QA system will have these plans in place: everyone will know what their role is in delivering the service; all the necessary resources will be available; contingency plans will be in place; and procedures will be followed when something is not at the standard expected. All this will be set within a 'quality management system' that ensures QA procedures are followed and adapts them according to the quality of the outcomes and the changing needs of the organisation.

This puts the responsibility for quality firmly in the hands of the service provider, not some distant body conducting random checks. The service provider is answerable to the customers, who will soon seek to take their custom elsewhere if delivery is not up to scratch.

It follows that QA accreditation should adopt the same principles; just as quality is within the direct remit of the service provider, identifying and documenting evidence of appropriate systems is also the service provider's responsibility. Self-review, based on the context, customers and services of the provider, should be endemic in a culture of QA.

Naace's approach to QA accreditation of service providers is to validate these internal systems of self-review. NMSP provides a flexible structure for both the development and review of QA systems, which can be accredited through an optional, charged assessment process.