| Type | Not-for-profit |
|---|---|
| Founded | London, UK (1993) |
| Key people | The Princess Royal (Patron), David Callaghan (President), Joe Goasdoué (CEO) |
| Website | www.bqf.org.uk |
The British Quality Foundation (BQF) is an independent, not-for-profit corporate membership organisation and was founded by the DTI and UK business leaders in 1993. The BQF’s Patron is The Princess Royal and the current President is David Callaghan, Country Leader and Senior Vice President, Oracle Corporation UK, Ireland and Israel.
Contents |
The BQF's vision is to be the UK’s most effective corporate membership organisation championing continuous improvement and sustainable excellence. Its mission is to help organisations to learn from best practice, improve performance and achieve sustainable excellence.[1]
The BQF’s members range from leading international companies to small firms and public sector bodies. Membership can be for a whole organisation, a division, a department or even a single unit, and there are different categories of membership depending on the size of organisation and the level of service and benefits required. Premier members enjoy exclusive benefits including best practice events and seminars.
The BQF supports organisations on their journey to achieving excellence with a comprehensive suite of performance improvement products and services including training and workshops, Networking Groups, the BQF Lean Six Sigma Academy, self-assessment software and publications.
As an EFQM Primary Partner, the BQF is the only organisation in the UK that is able to provide EFQM's full range of products and services. The most important of these is the EFQM Excellence Model 2010, Europe’s leading performance improvement methodology, and these are delivered primarily through the EFQM Levels of Excellence programme and EFQM Excellence Model training courses.
The EFQM Levels of Excellence is an international recognition programme for performance improvement which offers opportunities for real performance improvement to all organisations, regardless of size, location or sector. It has two levels which provide encouragement and help focus improvement initiatives: Committed to Excellence (C2E) is ideal for organisations starting out on their excellence journey, while Recognised for Excellence (R4E) is designed for organisations that are well on their way to organisational excellence.
The BQF’s EFQM Excellence Model training courses offer valuable experience in using and applying the Model. There are two levels of training: one for Line Managers that use or plan to use the Model in their organisation, and one for those that want to become fully accredited assessors. Completion of this training demonstrates to employers, colleagues and peers that individuals are equipped to the highest standard to lead improvement initiatives.
The BQF runs a comprehensive annual awards programme which allows organisations to demonstrate their commitment to performance improvement and the achievement of excellence. These include the UK Excellence Award, the BQF Achievement Awards and the Lean Six Sigma Awards.
The UK Excellence Award is the highest and most prestigious BQF accolade available. Using the EFQM Excellence Model as the success criterion, winners of this Award will have achieved, and sustained, levels of performance that met or exceeded the expectations of all of their stakeholders. They will have demonstrated this by undergoing a rigorous assessment against the EFQM Excellence Model by a team of specially trained assessors.
The winners of the 2010 UK Excellence Award were:
Previous winners include Ricoh UK Products Ltd, Northern Ireland Housing Executive, Halcrow Consulting Business Group and Liverpool John Moores University.
==