Quality Matters | Supporting Improvements in Social Services

Don’t just take our word for it

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• Quality Matters, led by Caroline Gardner, conducted an SROI evaluation for the Mojo programme in South Dublin County. The experience of working with Caroline and her team was extremely positive as their professionalism was mixed with a warm and friendly approach. The quality of the evaluation was excellent; the data gathered was valuable, accessible and practical. I look forward to working with Quality Matters again in the future and would highly recommend them to other organisations.

  Derek McDonnell / Development Specialist / Mojo Project

• The experience of Crinan Youth Project in working with ‘Quality Matters’ has been extremely positive. We have found the professionalism, competence and dedication to quality in governance most helpful, especially in the areas of review of policy and procedures, in the insistence on practical outcomes and in the way QM have taken a personal interest in our organisation.

  Fr. Hugh O’Connell / Chairperson / Crinan Youth Project

• Following a piloted two year strategic harm reduction alcohol programme in Dublin 12, Quality Matters were engaged to evaluate the programme; to provide an overview of the programme, identify how the programme fits with best practice in alcohol treatment, highlight outcomes in the context of ARC’s overall aims and Service Level Agreements, provide recommendations to improve the programme and examine sustainability of the programme into the future.

  Quality Matters located our research in a strategic context and considered the long-term needs of our service users and community. They effectively engaged our service users, staff team and partners in a thorough evaluation process. Quality Matters were efficient, cost effective and delivered a quality report on time. The evaluation report will support ARC to improve our services and the recommendations are also useful to other services and the addiction sector generally.

  Susan Collins / Managing Director / Addiction Response Crumlin

• Working with Quality Matters in addressing a serious health issue like overdose within the homeless sector was an eye-opening experience. Their commitment and dedication as well as their professionalism and sensitivity around the subject matter and those who experienced overdose was commendable and made the research a very real and live piece of data. Novas hope to use this important work to push the issue of overdose onto the national agenda and ultimately reduce the numbers of homeless persons overdosing by providing real and accessible safety mechanisms. Novas hope to continue their relationship with Quality Matters in addressing issues that affect those most marginalised in our communities…

  Anne Cronin / Head of Homeless Services / Novas Initiatives

• Having worked with Quality Matters over a 9 month period, we found them to be a professional, competent and diligent research team. They were clearly able to understand the wide spectrum of social issues facing our community and also brought a flexible and relaxed approach that is important when working in a community setting. They were extremely generous with their time and were always at the end of the phone when we needed clarifications and updates on progress. We would have no hesitation in recommending them for contracts in a similar capacity.

  Manus Bree / Regeneration Coordinator / Dolphin Alliance

• “We recently worked with Aoife and the gang from Quality Matters on our new strategic plan. The process was facilitated with creativity and integrity, and we were both challenged and motivated accordingly. Aoife brought a very informed and engaging approach to the work, and the result was a bespoke plan for our organisation which distilled the broad consultation into a shared commitment to enhance the capacity of our service via six goals. Quality does indeed Matter to them.”

  Mick Ferron / Manager / Sphere 17

• We engaged Quality Matters to undertake a review of the Quality Standard Framework developed for Volunteer Centres. It was a complicated project in the sense of there being a multitude of stakeholders with sometimes varying requirements, but Caroline and the team’s prodigious knowledge and excellent communication skills made sure the work stayed focused, and was enjoyable. The end result went far beyond the call of duty and we look forward to working with QM again in the near future.

  Yvonne McKenna / CEO / Volunteering Ireland

• It’s great to see this kind of analysis that I and the community can learn from, this is the first time we have done this kind of research on the distribution of resources.

  Gordon Jeyes / CEO / Child and Family Agency

• Thanks for your wonderful facilitation at the workshop and for catching the points so eloquently in the report.

  Louise Murray / Chair / Dublin City Volunteer Centre