Quality Assurance & PQASSO Child Action Northwest hold the externally verified PQASSO kite mark for quality assurance and were the first organisation in the UK to achieve the standard. PQASSO covers key areas of the organisation to ensure that it is meeting in the first instance it legal obligations and secondly that services are reviewed and evaluated to meet the needs of users who are engaging with our services and that as a result these services are fit for purpose in terms of quality, relevance and impact. PQASSO allows us to effectively collate, interpret and evidence our ability to improve the lives of parents, young people, families and communities using a robust monitoring process that translates the project users ‘distance traveled’ The framework means that we continually involve service users in development and ongoing review of services. It allows  a way of being able to translate and share the project findings with funders and partners demonstrating our capacity to sustain continuous improvement and raise standards in service provision. The organisation continually monitors, reviews and evaluates all interventions/support offered to service users, and has effective tools in place to collate data to ‘measure the distance travelled’ and the ‘difference’ the service has made to children, young people and their families in achieving positive outcomes. Pictured John Tempest, CANW Chief Executive Officer and Trevor Marklew, CANW Chair of Trustees receiving the PQASSO Quality Mark Certificate from Jack Straw MP PQASSO, endorsed by the Charity Commission, is the leading award-winning quality assurance system designed specifically for the Third Sector. Created by Charities Evaluation Services (CES) it encompasses all aspects of an organisation from governance through to how it delivers its services. The PQASSO Quality Mark is an externally audited award that assesses an organisation’s achievement of a recognised level of quality. The rigorous process of assessment includes independent reviewers spending time at the organisation in what CES have called “a stretching but rewarding assessment process.”  Child Action Northwest are proud to have become the first organisation to be awarded the new national Quality Assurance ‘kite mark’ for the Third Sector.  The PQASSO Quality Mark certificate was presented by Jack Straw MP on 2nd April. The award reflects Child Action Northwest's commitment to quality assurance and approach to ensuring that the children, young people and families that we support are receiving the very highest quality of support that we can offer them.