Common Assessment Framework : The state of affairs

The origins The use of quality management tools and systems, for a long time confined to the private sector, has since the early 1990s started to pervade the public sector in Europe as part of its strive for modernisation, better public management, increased performance and a stronger “customer” focus. In the course of the last decade, various quality management tools and systems started to be used in the public sector across the EU – albeit to a very different extent from one Member State to another – and in many EU countries public sector organisations started to participate in Quality Awards both for the private and the public sector, or Quality or Innovation Awards specifically destined for the public sector were developed. Although many of these quality management systems and Awards were – and are – fully based on the Excellence Model owned, developed and promoted by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), it was not possible to speak of a common understanding and language of quality within the public sector in the EU. In the German-speaking part of the EU, for instance, quality management in the public sector follows a different approach, based on the bi-annual Quality Award organised by the Speyer Academy. During the Austrian EU Presidency in the second half of 1998, the possibility of developing a European Quality Award for the public sector was discussed in the framework of the informal meetings of the DirectorsGeneral of the Public Administration of the EU Member States. The idea as such was dismissed in view of the fact that the diversity of cultures and visions of “quality” in the public sector in EU countries would not allow for direct competition, but an alternative idea came up and was finally accepted: the establishment of a common European quality framework that could be used across the public sector as a tool for organisational selfassessment. The discussions revealed that what was lacking in the realm of quality management was an easyto-use and free entry tool for self-assessment in the public sector that could help public administrations across the EU understand and employ modern management techniques and could be of particular relevance for those public sector organisations that are interested in trying out the use of a quality management system, are just embarking on their “journey to excellence” or that wish to compare themselves with similar organisations in Europe. As a consequence of this, it was decided that a Common Assessment Framework (CAF) – as it was later called – should be jointly developed under the aegis of the Innovative Public Services Group (IPSG), an informal working group of national experts set up by the Directors General in order to promote exchanges and cooperation where it concerned innovative ways of modernising government and public service delivery in EU Member States. The basic design of the CAF was then developed in 1998 and 1999 on the basis of joint analysis undertaken by the EFQM, the Speyer Academy (which organises the Speyer Quality Award for the public sector in the German-speaking European countries) and EIPA. First pilot tests were conducted in a number of public sector organisations and the “final” version of the CAF was presented during the First Quality Conference for Public Administration in the EU in Lisbon in May 2000.