Frequently Asked Questions

Embedding quality into your organisation is a key driver in mitigating risk to your service and product users and also within your organisation; modules within the scheme can help with delivering service transformation, workforce development and serves as a business “healthcheck”. You can use the scheme to strengthen governance an develop a service that is more personalised, proactive and preventative in its offer. 

No, the QSF is open to all TEC industry organisations irrelevant of size and whether they are TSA members or not. Whilst QSF is the intellectual property of the TSA, TEC Quality is a fully independent organisation with it's own team, board and structure.

All organisations undertaking the QSF are required to do the 10 Common Standard Modules. If you deliver a service covered by one or more of the Service Delivery Modules, then these must also be included as a part of your audit.

Visit our dedicated page here with information and requirements for each module.

CoP was an ‘outputs’ driven set of standards, but QSF is completely different, concentrating on ‘outcomes’ and focussing on the service user. It is a mixture of assessing evidence, discussion with partners, senior officers and staff. The Code of Practice is no longer used.

This depends on the number of modules you will be audited against. Full details of the modules can be downloaded from the TEC Quality website. The cost however, has been balanced over the three-year cycle. So, even though people think the remote audit should be cheaper, this helps cover the cost of the more expensive 3-year audit and it also helps for budget projections. Application audits are more expensive in the first year to account for the stage 1 audit.

There's no specific checklist but you can use the module documents as a checklist. There is also a GAP analysis to help you prepare, which you have access to when you apply for your audit.

Not at the moment, but this is being considered. When it does come into force, it will be based on quality, not more outputs.

It is possible that some other standards, such as ISO 9001, or ISO 27000 series may have elements that compare to some parts of QSF. It is up to the auditee to demonstrate this to the auditor.

Yes of course, but we will need to charge for the pre-audit process.

4 weeks prior to the audit. Review of the evidence in advance of the audit is key, so if you cannot complete the document upload by this time, your audit may be postponed and additional costs incurred.

The auditing journey depends on whether it is a full three-year audit, or an annual surveillance audit. It also depends on the number of service delivery modules you are being audited against. Call our team for an informal chat to discuss this, if you would like some more detail on timescales.

This depends on the preparedness of the organisation. Normally it will take between 4 and 8 months, but must be completed within 10 months of application.

We advise that an organisation should undertake this quite early on in the process.  The Stage 1 is used as a gap analysis day, for the auditor to advise how well the preparation is going and will help you plan your next phase of preparation.

This is normally undertaken within 4 to 6 months of the stage 1 audit. The whole process must be complete within 10 months of the application. If this is not done, you may have to start again from the beginning.

This is a 3-year cycle. There is a full-audit every 3-years, with the two intervening years being annual, surveillance audits.

Following on from the last full audit, organisations will be asked to upload any changes to their policies to CRM, with an index. This will be checked by the auditor. There will then be a conference call using GoToMeeting, TEAMS or similar, where the auditor will check that all is still safe and secure, but will ask for evidence that all non-conformities from the previous year have been corrected.

We will send out the decision and report within 28 working days after your audit. 

After the evidence from the audit is collated, the report is then written and goes through a moderation process before final sign off. 

Yes, you will be able to download the TEC Quality Certification logo's on successful award of certification. These can be used on publicity in line with our Brand Guidelines. 

We welcome publication of articles regarding certification and want you to celebrate your success, but these must be approved by TEC Quality prior to publication. Please submit to admin@tecquality.org.uk

In accordance with the QSF Scheme Handbook, audits need to be completed within one month of the renewal date. This should allow for any holidays, sickness etc. Deferrals can only be granted in exceptional circumstances and each case will be considered individually. At most, a maximum of 3 months could be allowed. Audit dates will always revert back to the anniversary date after a deferral. Please get in touch with the team to talk through your circumstances and request.

TEC Quality takes appeals and complaints very seriously and will investigate any concern raised thoroughly and impartially. Full details of these processes can be found in the Scheme Handbook, which is available on the QSF Modules page here .