The first paper published from the National Study of Quality Professionals in behavioral health services concludes that many quality professionals don’t think they have the skills they need to do their jobs well. The paper, published online (in prepublication format) … Continue reading
In August, the University of Chicago will host a 3.5 day on-site training in performance measurement and quality improvement for social service agency staff and faculty members in schools of social work. For seven of those agency-faculty pairs, the training … Continue reading
I continue to hear from people that they don’t know where they can learn the science of quality in an economical way. It really is here on the web for all of us, not always in an organized way, but … Continue reading
1. Social work students intuitively understood that the social service agencies they loved had quality problems. Every one I know in the social services understands this. But few talk about it. These students knew the arenas in which their agencies … Continue reading
There are lots of resources out there for the budding quality professional in the social services to get some quality game. Social service folks are always looking for the cheap way to do things. There is no cheaper way to … Continue reading
Update 2 from my pilot course on Quality Monitoring and Improvement for the Social Services: It was great fun watching social service students catch on to the idea of improvement cycles, charters, and how to know if your change is … Continue reading
Teaching How to Monitor for Quality Monitoring is not a word always embraced in the quality field. To some, it evokes images of Big Brother in the workplace. To others, the word feels paternalistic. Dad is keeping a watchful eye … Continue reading
John Priebe, who blogs on the quality profession, argues this week that it is up to the quality professional to take charge of his or her own training. This resonates strongly in the social services. In only rare exceptions does the … Continue reading
If we are going to move the practice of quality monitoring and improvement into social service agencies, then schools of social work will need to get in the game of educating their students about quality tools, concepts and management. As … Continue reading
The graphic to the right shows the most common metrics used in quality work in manufacturing and service industries across the globe, according to the Global Quality Survey administered by the American Society for Quality. (The full report is available … Continue reading