1. Quality Students’ Unions
The mark of a great student union
Steven Symonds – QSU Lead Auditor / Greenhouse Partners
Introduction and about me

2. What is Quality Students’ Unions
A completely new standard for students’ unions.
Designed to allow an assessment of the quality of a students’ union and to provide guidance to help unions develop.
Developed by NUS in response to feedback around SUEI.
Designed to compliment and build up previous and existing standards.
Designed to pick up from suei
Developed specially by nus to address feedback around SUEI
Designed to compliment existing standards without undue replication
Designed to compliment and build up previous and existing standards. E.g. good governance, IIP,

3. Key Features free to enter contextual time efficient transparent
It has been developed to be assessable as possible – all students’ unions across the UK can participate.
free to enter
contextual
time efficient
transparent
Is designed to be assessable to all unions – all students’ unions (HE and FE) across the UK can participate.
It is free to all unions that are affiliated to NUS across the UK. Non-affiliates in England can also access Quality Students’ Unions free of charge, at present, due to funding donated by HEFCE.
Its contextual – the system has been written to take account of the diverse nature of unions and the unique circumstances in which they operate – definitely not a one size fits all nor is there BEST PRACTICE – its about effective practice
Its time efficient – not something that is worked towards – rather an assessment of the current situation as part of the routine ‘review’ process – no excessively time consuming evidence gathering requirements
The criteria (the descriptors) are available to all – the auditors will use the same documents as the unions – the verification audit will be a conversation / about reaching consensus……

4. Furthermore It is based on self evaluation
Uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures.
Is impact focused.
Can be embedded as part of a union’s annual cycle – not an add on.
Gives an impression of excellence and a route by which to achieve it.
Or – “helping unions to help themselves to be better”
A quote from an officer who sits on the development board

5. How does it work? Part A Part B
It is an assessment in 2 distinct sections: Part A and Part B
Part A
Designed to ensure that all participating students’ unions are able to demonstrate basic minimum standards for a union. Unions need to meet the requirements of Part A before they are eligible to proceed to Part B.
Part B
A self-assessment process where union judge their own performance against a number of broad indicators / descriptors.
It is an assessment in 2 sections: Part A and Part B
Part A is designed to ensure that all participating students’ unions are able to demonstrate basic minimum standards for organisational good health. Part A is simple to complete and unions are required to submit this information return on an annual basis.
Any Union that fails to meet all of the minimum standards will not be able to access Part B and will not be eligible to achieve an award.
Unions that meet the minimum requirements are credited with a ’Working towards accreditation’ status and are eligible to proceed to Part B.

6. PART A

7. Part A Criteria
Part A requires unions to be able to meet and evidence 12 requirements:
A strategic plan
Annual audited accounts
Monthly financial reports
A List of trustee board members and terms of reference
A health and safety policy
An equality and diversity policy
An election report from the returning officer
An employment document / staff handbook and an appraisal process
A communications plan
Election turnout 5% and 50% posts contested
Performance and delivery monitoring
50% or more NSS q23 score
The evidence is uploaded to the Quality Students’ Unions web portal for external verification
Very much encouraged to ask if anything isn’t clear or you have any questions – you may also be asked to clarify some of the evidence you upload if it isn’t clear
Assuming all the criteria are met you are awarded with a ‘working towards accreditation’ status and gain access to Part B – that’s it!

8. PART B
Move on to Part B

9. Part B
Part B is built around the principle of unions self assessing their own performance against a series of indicators / descriptors.
Descriptors were developed from the principles of a successful students’ union.
The quality mark is broken down into three core areas:
ON SLIDE
2nd bullet - Descriptors were developed from the principles of a successful students’ union.
3rd bullet - The quality mark is broken down into three core areas:
1. Governance, leadership and management
How the union manages, plans, controls and monitors its activities.
2. Activities
How well the union does what it sets out to do.
How well the union aligns its activities to the needs of its members and how effective or IMPACTIVE these activities are.
3. Outcomes
The positive impacts the union has on its members. links to the work of the Impact Project that is currently being undertaken as part of the wider work of NUS Charitable Services.
Critically, these core areas are interdependent – e.g. a union that has very strong governance, leadership and management and very strong
these core areas are interdependent – e.g. a union that has very strong governance, leadership and management and very strong activities will invariably have very strong outcomes. Performance in any two of the core areas will essentially predict the performance in the third. This interdependency should enable these three core areas to be used by unions to effectively and accurately analyse their own performance and for them to be accredited with a high level of confidence.

10. Part B - Components Governance, leadership and management
a. Strategic planning
b. Relationships and partnerships
c. Governance
d. Democracy
e. People
Activities
a. Communication
b. Services
c. Participation
d. Representation and campaigning
Outcomes
a. Review and evaluation
b. Context
c. Impact

11. Part B - Descriptors Each of the 12 component has a descriptor.
Each components descriptor can be read to provide both a series of detailed individual attributes and as an overall broad description of a union.
The descriptors describe are a series of typical attributes a union is likely to exhibit at each of the three levels; Good, Very Good and Excellent.
No one union will match every single attribute in any one level.

12. The Process
Unions complete a self-assessment for each of the 12 components to create an overall self assessment document.
Unions judge their own performance by aligning their self assessment to the descriptors for each component using ‘best fit’.
The 12 self-judgements provide an overall statement of the union’s (self-assessed) performance.
The union is then able to request an audit in order to have their self-assessment externally verified.
Self assessment – talk about in next session
12 self judgement – aggregated to provide an overall score

13. The Verification Audit
The visit is to externally verify the union’s own self assessment – not to audit the union.
The auditor will:
Validate the evidence.
Use the evidence to agree or disagree with the self assessment judgements.
Identify development areas and what is needed to achieve a higher level where applicable.
The union and the auditor work together to verify the self assessment
Will use language like…. X union is a good union because……… X union is not yet Very Good because…….. X union should focus on…….. Really will spell it out

14. Award Following a verification audit the union will be confirmed as:
Excellent
Very good
Good or
Working towards Accreditation.
(and moderation)

15. What is the outcome
Quality Students’ Unions provides a framework to look at an entire union, what it does and the differential or impact it creates.
Promotes effective review and evaluation.
It provides a mechanism for identifying areas for development.
Provides a means for officers to really understand areas of strength and areas for development.
Sets both basic requirements and promotes stretch.
Provides an opportunity to recognise areas of particular strength.
Results in a detailed assessment of overall performance.
Opportunity to share effective practice
It provides a framework to look at your entire union, what it does and the difference or impact you are creating.
It provides a mechanism for identifying areas for development.
Providing an insight for officers to really understand areas of strength and areas for development.
Opportunity to recognise areas of particular strength.
It results in an assessment of overall performance. – so much more meaningful and useful than NSS q23 score
Opportunity to share good practice – national level

16. Next Steps: Register at www.qualitystudentsunions.org.uk
Upload Part A evidence via the portal
Start work on your self assessment
Any questions please contact me directly or via the Quality Students’ Unions web portal.

17. Questions?

18. Quality Students’ Unions
Self Assessment
Steven Symonds – QSU Lead Auditor / Greenhouse Partners

19. How Part B works
The union writes a self assessment against each of the 12 components.
The union uploads its self assessment statements to the Quality Students’ Union portal and books an audit visit.
The auditors verifies the unions self assessment and a level is awarded.
The union is re-audited every third year there after.

20. The Descriptors 12 components in three core areas
They are cumulative along the levels.
They are a series of statements but should also be read as overall broad description.
Don’t have to achieve them all to be performing at a level.
Some can be achieved by other awards e.g a Fully Achieved Good Governance Award corresponds to ‘Excellent’ in the Governance descriptor.

21. Self assessment statements
Objective
The self assessment is your document that you use to determine the level of your performance which provides you with confidence in your judgements.
Approaches
Can be written by an individual; a group of people supporting one author or by multiple authors – there is no set way.
To gain value from the process the union should:
Be accurate and honest.
Complete a self assessment annually at the same point in the year.
Be brief and to the point.
Be ‘Impact’ focused
Unlikely that one person know everything
The first year is going to take some time to do but after that it will be a question of updating rather than re-writing

22. Self assessment statements
A good approach to writing a self assessment is to build it from a series of statements that essentially take the form of:
Activity followed by Impact
This can then be further supported by a:
‘How do you know’
statement
Very simple example
Minutes from trustee meetings are posted online monthly – activity
As a result our members can see what is being discussed in these meetings – impact
Google analytics results show that X number of students download the meetings every month – How we know
Without getting bogged down in terminology – students having access to trustee minutes is an ‘output’ more than an impact
In reality its likely that the impact you are trying to achieve is a lot bigger than this…. Posting trustee minutes is just one aspect of a whole series of activities aim at creating a differential areas of your ‘democracy’ ‘participation’ and others.
This differential is the impact
Another session – James Robertson – talks about Impact – will be articles about this too
In reality you are more likely say – here are a series of activities that have created these differentials or impacts and this is how we know.
Looking at a section of a descriptor – next page

23. An example – an extract from Strategic Planning
Good
Very Good
Excellent
The union may have a statement that outlines its fundamental beliefs, often in the form of a set of values. However, it may not be clear how these beliefs or values are translated into the union’s activities and it is difficult to demonstrate the impact of these beliefs.
The union has a statement that outlines its fundamental beliefs, normally as a set of values. These values will have been considered when the plan was written, but evidencing the translation of these values into the union’s activities may not always be possible.
The union’s strategic plan embodies these beliefs/values, which are clearly translated into practice. As a result, the union can demonstrate how its vision and values are an integral part of its day-to-day activities.
Is a extract so slightly out of context – this section is about how the plan is constructed (visons / values / mission statements – not important) --- there isn’t a prerequisite to have ‘Values’ in your strategic plan --- its about what impact or differential it creates
Increasing impact left to right
Good union has identified its values, which may or may not be written down, but there is no real impact that has resulted from this that CAN BE EVIDENCED.
Very good union has imbedded its values into its plans – therefore there is a difference – the plans has been steered by these beliefs - but the impact on the ground may not always been seen
Whereas the excellent union has not only imbedded its values but they easily evidenced and are obvious in everything the union does.
Think about typical union values: equality, partnership, sustainability – what does that actually look like in a advice centre, a union shop or student council. Can you truly see your values at work in your activities - How would you evidence in your own self assessment. Can you evidence this?
Other parts of the descriptor will address how the values were actually derived

24. Self assessment – self evaluation
Judging Performance and Best Fit
Deciding which level in the descriptor most closely describes your performance.
It won’t be an exact match – you will need to use ‘best fit.’
Writing statements that broadly align with descriptors will help.
The hovering, the bottom up and the highlighter approaches.
The existence of strong evidence of your impacts will give you confidence in your judgements.
QAA – hovering
Ofsted – highlighter (2 highlighters)

25. The verification audit
Auditor needs to achieves three things:
Validation of your evidence.
Agreement with your self assessment judgement.
Identify development areas.
A core principle of Quality Students’ Unions is that, wherever possible, the auditor and the union will agree on the judgement during the audit.
READ SLIDE and expand
Should be a positive affirmation exercise – done along side not done to

26. After the verification audit - What is the outcome?
A judgement will be agreed upon and a level awarded - Excellent, Very good, Good or Working towards Accreditation.
A written report will be submitted to the union which will detail the judgement, detail why the next level was not achieved (if applicable) and will identify areas for development.

27. This presentation will be available at me