About us
CAF Center for Better Quality of Public Administration Organizations in Slovakia
CAF centre was established as initial point of contact for all public administration organizations interested in improving and delivering higher quality services to their customers/citizens. We offer these organizations assistance and support on how to take the right steps in quality management. At the CAF centre we focus on providing basic consultation, organizing educational activities, conducting analytical-methodological work, exchanging information and best practices, and many other activities.
Centres with the same purpose and goal are established in several European countries. The absence of such a centre in the Slovak republic inspired us, as the coordinator of the national quality policy, to create a CAF centre within the Slovak Office of Standards, Metrology and Testing.
The CAF Centre was established at the beginning of 2019 within the national project of the Office Implementation and Support of Quality Management in Public Administration Organizations, which was supported by the European Social Fund through the Operational Program Effective Public Administration. The establishment of the CAF centre initiated the institutionalization of systematic support for the development of quality management in public administration in Slovakia. This support is based on the principles of providing information, consultations, assistance with the implementation of quality management, and building a community of organizations interested in improving and changing the organizational culture of public administration organizations.
MISSION:
Providing professional educational, consulting, and analytical-methodological services, as well as reliable and verified information and updates in the field of quality management.
GOAL:
Intensifying activities in the field of quality management in public administration, raising awareness about the importance and benefits of systematic quality management, and supporting the CAF implementation and other management systems.
The establishment of the CAF centre began with the creation of a training room at the ÚNMS SR, which served as the foundational cornerstone for the idea of creating such a centre in Slovakia. We recognize that establishing the CAF centre is not just about setting up a new training room; it is primarily about building beneficial partnerships, working with people, actively listening, and engaging in discussions. We still have a lot of work ahead
Therefore, the VISION of the CAF centre for the coming years is as follows:
Who is the target group of the CAF centre?
Our services are provided to all public administration organizations in Slovakia. Our doors are open to any organization that is not afraid to face new challenges, that is proactive, and that is serious about improving the quality of its organization.
What services does the CAF centre offer?
When establishing the CAF centre, our goal was to unify many activities necessary for the development of quality management in public administration. The services of the CAF centre are therefore divided into four basic categories:
Providing basic consultation – We are here for all organizations interested in obtaining basic information about the possibilities of implementing quality management in their organizations or for those that have already started their journey with quality management but are looking for inspiration, ideas, or tools for further improvement. You can contact the CAF centre at any time to arrange a meeting where we will answer your questions. We are happy to advise you on CAF, quality management system according to ISO 9001, EFQM Excellence Model, as well as other areas and topics related to quality management.
Supporting CAF implementation – As the CAF national correspondent, we pay special attention to the development of this European improvement tool in Slovakia. We will gladly provide you with all the key information for the successful implementation of this model. We also strive to support CAF implementation directly, from the self-assessment process, through improvement, to the CAF External Feedback.
Conducting training activities – We offer various types of educational activities (training, workshops, seminars, conferences) for employees and especially public sector managers, as we know that a fundamental prerequisite for development of quality management in public administration is having sufficient information and knowledge about it. We have compiled a portfolio of educational activities conducted by experts with many years of experience from both private and public sectors. We provide trainings in our main office of the Slovak Office of Standards, Metrology and Testing or online.
Conducting analytical-methodological activities – We support the development of quality management by publishing professional methodologies and studies with various thematic scope. We have identified several key areas and focused our issued documents on them. You can view them on this website. In the future we would like to identify areas that need support by issuing professional manuals, methodologies, guidelines, studies, or any other type of document that would help with applying new procedures, solving a problem, or applying experiences and best practices.
Providing information, news, exchange of experiences and best practices – we want to find the topic of quality being discussed everywhere, and the creation of the CAF centre website is one of the steps to achieve this. Through it, we are able to provide all information about the CAF and “the world of quality management,” not only from Slovakia but also from abroad, all in one place. You can find here, among other things, our Newsletter, the Slovak database of CAF users, a database of best practices related to the CAF implementation, a terminology dictionary, online registration for training activities, and more.
Supporting benchlearning, exchange of experiences, and best practices – The exchange of experiences and discussion about quality management is a key priority for us. Therefore, in addition to our “classic” conference on quality and social responsibility, we also organize workshops and meetings focused on the opportunity to learn from each other, share best practices, seek inspirational approaches, and often find common answers and solutions to questions and problems that concern several organizations.
What results have we achieved since the establishment of the CAF centre?
KEY RESULTS OF THE CAF CENTRE
To ensure our services are provided promptly and, above all, with high quality, we have set goals, established processes, and identified key performance indicators. We are moving away from conventional methods of describing results in text form and instead, we visualize them.
We update our achieved results monthly and you can see them by clicking on the image.