Common Assessment Framework (CAF) and Quality Award in the Public Sector

The effective public administration has a determinant influence on the competitiveness of each national economy. The UN report edited in 2001 pointed out that the globalisation pressed the states to improve the level of the public administration and to train the civil servants for achieving this important objective. The use of quality management tools and sys tems, for a long time confined to the private sector, has since the early 1990’s started to permeate into the public sector Europe as part of its strive for modernization, 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 but it was not possible to speak of a common understanding and language of quality. In this context, the Innovative Public Services Group (IPSG) developed the Common Assessment Framework (CAF), a simple and easy-to-use tool that help public administrations across the EU to understand and employ Total Quality Management (TQM) techniques, to embark on their “journey to excellence” and to compare themselves with similar organisations in Europe. CAF has been developed by public administrations for public administrations and reflects all the needs of public sector organisations.