European Quality in Social Services (EQUASS) is an initiative and a quality framework created and managed by the European Platform for Rehabilitation. EQUASS aims to enhance the social sector by engaging social service providers in continuous improvement, learning and development to ensure quality of life of service users.
EQUASS is constantly changing itself to meet the needs of different stakeholders- service funders and providers, users and their families and other interested parties. Changes in the world and in Europe also push EQUASS to be representing the wider needs of the society and the social services sector.
Recently finalized EU- funded QUASAR project, partnered by the European Platform for Rehabilitation, looked at the present most known quality systems to see where EQUASS is compared to them and where it should improve to meet the needs of future users that may not have been born yet.
In the session we introduce EQUASS and share some of the reflections from the QUASAR project. We would also like to engage participants into discussions about the future of quality of social services: What are the expectations and trends in the sector? What are the needs that EQUASS should meet? What is the future of quality social services?
Speaker: Keiu Talve has been working in social services sector for 20 years. She’s been involved in implementing EQUASS in Estonia since 2010 by being a consultant, international auditor and trainer. She was in the revision team of EQUASS framework that resulted in creating EQUASS 2018. She was one of the management board members of the Estonian Quality Association 2019-2021 and she has been an expert in the projects that support improvement of social services of Georgian Republic.
Currently she is managing quality and services of the biggest elderly care service provider in Estonia- Südamekodud AS.