What's happening with the Quality Mark?

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Important notice-Revised Audit Costs for General Quality Mark audit

Please note: The Assessment Network Ltd (TAN) has introduced a new size banding and associated fee for organisations employing between 1 and 3 members of staff.  Please see audit charges below.
 

Audit body contract awarded

We are pleased to confirm that after a successful application process the Legal Services Commission (LSC) have awarded the contract for the delivery of the auditing services for the General Quality Mark (including Telephone) Standard to The Assessment Network Ltd.  The contract started on 1 April 2009. 

GQM auditing services:

Existing GQM holder

 Organisation Type  Audit charge (excl VAT)

 1-3 employees**

£750

 4-15 employees

£1,000

 16-30 employees

£1,250

 31+ employees

£1,500

*Organisation size relates to the number of people that work within the service (or part of the service) that the GQM covers.

**The Assessment Network Ltd has introduced a new size banding and associated fee following a review of their estimates of resources required to audit very small organisations.  'The GQM Audit Charges' schedule is available in the General Documents section on the right hand side of this page.

New Applicants

Preliminary Audit (including Desktop)

Organisation Type Audit Charge (excl VAT)

1-3 employees**

£500

 4-15 employees

 £750

 16-30 employees

 £875

 31+ employees

 £1,000

Full Audit

Organisation Type Audit Charge (excl VAT)

 1-3 employees**

 £750

 4-15 employees

£1,000

 16-30 employees

 £1,250

 31+ employees

 £1,500

** The Assessment Network Ltd has introduced a new size banding and associated fee following a review of their estimates of resources required to audit very small organisations.  'The GQM Audit Charges' schedule is available in the General Documents section on the right hand side of this page.

General Quality Mark Registration closed

The registration period for organisations wishing to continue to hold the General Quality Mark standard has now closed.

The Assessment Network Ltd will contact organisations that have re-registered shortly, in order to schedule in their audit. If an organisation has missed the deadline but wishes to obtain the GQM standard they can apply directly to The Assessment Network Ltd .  For further information on The Assessment Network Ltd please access its website.

Any organisation that has not already registered to continue with the GQM standard will have until 1 June 2009 to withdraw all references to the QM from their materials. For the avoidance of doubt, any organisation that has missed the registration period and applies to the Assessment Network will need to withdraw QM references from 1 June 2009 until they can arrange to obtain an audit.

The way forward

We are aware of, and welcome, the sector led initiatives to develop a new quality standard and competence assessment.  Therefore, we view the appointment of a GQM audit body as an appropriate solution whilst the sector wide standard is in development.  We will work with the sector over the coming years and review the role of the GQM in the light of developments.  We will keep all standard holders up to date with any future developments.

Additional Information

Go to this page on our website for further information regarding the GQM.

Please email the Quality Mark team with any other queries.

Standards withdrawn

We have withdrawn the following quality mark standards:

This was effective 3 Mar 08.

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Last updated: 03 September 2008

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