CAF Resource Centre

The CAF Resource Centre (RC) was established in May 2001 at the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) in Maastricht.

Mission

to be a centre of expertise in CAF implementation promoting the CAF and good practice in its use in public administrations in Europe;
to act as a complement to, and in coordination with, the existing national centres of expertise, and with a focus on countries without a national centre of expertise;
to be a training and consultancy centre;
to carry out research on the use of the model and further develop it;
to support and stimulate the European network of national CAF contacts and the community of CAF users;
to maintain the CAF database for registered users and good practices.

Vision

The CAF RC contributes to spreading quality management approaches in the public sectors of the Member States of the European Union. We aim to achieve a target of 2010 registered CAF users by 2010 and to become the European Quality Centre for the public sector.

Values

The CAF RC operates in a spirit of open coordination between the members of the European public administration network (EPAN) and practises common European public-sector values: openness, accountability, participation, diversity, equality, solidarity, collaboration and partnership. We aim to be customer-oriented, efficient, effective and result-oriented.

CAF Network

The CAF-Network consists of the national correspondents in charge of the dissemination of the CAF at national level and the European CAF Resource Centre at EIPA.

The network has defined its mission and vision in the context of its Strategic Plan for Public Quality Management with CAF 2009-2011.

To achieve our vision with our partners of the network, we developed the Action Plan 2009/2011.

Mission

The CAF network’s mission is to move public organisations towards excellence and to improve the performance of public administrations by promoting and facilitating the use of CAF.

Vision

The overall vision of the CAF Resource centre and the CAF network can be described as “Keep Total Quality Management in the focus of public sector policies of the Member States and the European Institutions through our common framework , in order to raise the quality of services for the citizens.”

A common European quality management instrument for the public sector

developed by the public sector.

The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) is a result of the co-operation among the EU Ministers responsible for Public Administration. A pilot version was presented in May 2000 and revised versions were launched in 2002 and 2006. A CAF Resource Centre (CAF RC) was created at the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) in Maastricht following the decision of the Directors General in charge of public service. It works in close cooperation with the network of CAF national correspondents.

The CAF is an easy-to-use, free tool to assist public-sector organisations across Europe in using quality management techniques to improve their performance. The CAF is a total quality management (TQM) tool which is inspired by the major Total Quality models in general, and by the Excellence Model of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) in particular. It is especially designed for public-sector organisations, taking into account their characteristics.

The model is based on the premise that excellent results in organisational performance, citizens/customers, people and society are achieved through leadership driving strategy and planning, people, partnerships, resources and processes. It looks at the organisation from different angles at the same time; a holistic approach to organisation performance analysis.

Structure

The CAF has four main purposes:

To introduce public administrations to the principles of TQM and gradually guide them, through the use and understanding of self-assessment, from the current “Plan-Do” sequence of activities to a full fledged “Plan-Do-Check-Act (PCDA)” cycle;
To facilitate the self-assessment of a public organisation in order to arrive at a diagnosis and improvement actions;
To act as a bridge across the various models used in quality management;
To facilitate bench learning between public-sector organisations.

Highly appreciated in the CAF implementation is the involvement of staff. CAF is a joint project for management and staff and very often CAF is the first occasion in which management and staff meet to discuss the state of affairs of the organisation and the options for the future in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

The use of CAF in Europe

Over the past 10 years, nearly 2000 public sector organisations all over Europe have used the model and the number of CAF Users is still growing.

In 2009, the CAF External Feedback has been created to further support organisations in using the CAF most effectively in their future quality management journey. This procedure carried out by peers and experts in TQM aims at providing external feedback on the introduction of total quality management with the help of CAF, not only relating to the self-assessment process, but also regarding the path organisations have chosen to attain excellence in the long run.

This website provides all the available information at European level. We invite you to discover it and to contact us if you need further information.

Quality Development in the Field of Justice Patrick Staes and Nick Thijs Published: 2008	CAF - Movie Caf Resource Centre Published: 2007
CAF - pour un service public de qualité Editors: Elisabeth Dearing, Patrick Staes, Thomas Prorok Published: 2006	CAF works - better service for the citizens by using CAF Editors: Elisabeth Dearing, Patrick Staes, Thomas Prorok Published: 2006
CAF - wirkt – mehr Service und Leistungsqualität für alle Editors: Elisabeth Dearing, Patrick Staes, Thomas Prorok Published: 2006	Quality Management Tools in CEE Candidate Countries: Current Practice, Needs and Expectations Christian Engel Published: 2003

Patrick Staes (BE) Seconded National Expert Fields of Specialisation: Public management; quality in the public sector; Common Assessment Framework (CAF); consulting services.	Nick Thijs (BE) Lecturer Fields of Specialisation: Public management reform; comparative public administration; public sector quality management; quality models and techniques (Common Assessment Framework – CAF); consultancy services.
Ann Stoffels (BE) Programme Organiser

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