Council’s Quality Review Framework for Recognised Institutions

The Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC) is the statutory body responsible for setting the standards for education and training in pre-hospital emergency care in Ireland. It is also responsible for the quality of the awards made in its name and the quality of the courses that lead to those awards. Responsibility for developing and delivering courses is delegated to Recognised Institutions (RIs), who delivery courses on behalf of PHECC. RIs should aspire to excellence in the development and delivery of all courses. Such aspirations require regular monitoring, review and constructive dialogue to provide the necessary assurance about standards and quality.

In February, Council approved the first quality review framework (QRF) for recognised institutions (RIs). The QRF, has been developed to provide a range of Quality Standards (QS) for RIs delivering courses on its behalf, and a process for monitoring achievements against these standards. The aim of the process is to develop and implement a quality assurance model that will lead to continuous improvement in the service offered by RIs, in a manner that meets the needs of students, RI faculty and management and PHECC.
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The quality assurance model that has been developed encourages partnership and collaboration between all stakeholder groups. It highlights the importance of developing systems for carrying out all the key activities, associated with the delivery of PHECC approved courses. It also emphasises the need to develop policies, associated procedures and a system of continuous monitoring, in order to establish best practice and ensure consistently high standards of service in the delivery of PHECC approved courses.
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The process of self-assessment has already commenced and all 43 institutions have returned a completed self-assessment report (RISAR). The next stage in 2015 will be on-site reviews or site visits where the RIs performance will be assessed against each of the agreed 31 quality standards by a panel on behalf of PHECC.
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To assist recognised institutions through the new requirements, PHECC held an information workshop in November 2014 and was attended by representatives from 35 institutions. The following guides and supporting documents have been developed and are available to download from the webpage:
 

1) Quality Review Framework
2) Recognised institution self-assessment report (RISAR)
3) Guide to self-assessment
4) Quality improvement plan and progress report