REC Education to revamp Quality Mark scheme
27 February 2013
The Education Sector Group of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) is to develop a new version of the Quality Mark standard it developed alongside the Department for Education (DfE), after the department made a surprise announcement in January that it would not continue its accreditation of the scheme.
Wed, 27 Feb 2013The Education Sector Group of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) is to develop a new version of the Quality Mark standard it developed alongside the Department for Education (DfE), after the department made a surprise announcement in January that it would not continue its accreditation of the scheme.
This was agreed at a meeting of the group at the REC’s London headquarters yesterday, at which Recruiter was present. Chairing the meeting, John Dunn, a director at education recruitment group People to Keep, said the decision to withdraw the scheme was “completely consistent” with a wider move whereby “schools are going to be left increasingly to be the final decision-maker”.
Tom Hadley, REC director of policy & professional services, agreed and said that he is certain that “they’re not going to reconsider, but let’s take the bull by the horns”.
“Quality Mark was delivered but not owned by REC,” he explained, and meeting approval from attendees for the renewal or re-structuring Quality Mark as an REC initiative, gave five areas the REC thought would be key in a new scheme:
• The new scheme should be compliance-based
• It could involve other standards such as customer service
• Staff other than teachers could be included in the scheme
• The scheme would involve all stakeholders
• The scheme would be “built by industry for clients”
The new scheme, it was confirmed, would be consistent across all four UK regions.
Hadley also told Recruiter that there was a potential for developing or re-formatting the Quality Mark scheme for other sectors, including potentially health or social care.
This was agreed at a meeting of the group at the REC’s London headquarters yesterday, at which Recruiter was present. Chairing the meeting, John Dunn, a director at education recruitment group People to Keep, said the decision to withdraw the scheme was “completely consistent” with a wider move whereby “schools are going to be left increasingly to be the final decision-maker”.
Tom Hadley, REC director of policy & professional services, agreed and said that he is certain that “they’re not going to reconsider, but let’s take the bull by the horns”.
“Quality Mark was delivered but not owned by REC,” he explained, and meeting approval from attendees for the renewal or re-structuring Quality Mark as an REC initiative, gave five areas the REC thought would be key in a new scheme:
• The new scheme should be compliance-based
• It could involve other standards such as customer service
• Staff other than teachers could be included in the scheme
• The scheme would involve all stakeholders
• The scheme would be “built by industry for clients”
The new scheme, it was confirmed, would be consistent across all four UK regions.
Hadley also told Recruiter that there was a potential for developing or re-formatting the Quality Mark scheme for other sectors, including potentially health or social care.
