Introducing the business excellence model and self assessment to the UK public sector

The UK Quality Award was opened to the "not-for-profit" sectors of the UK economy in the fourth quarter of 1994. In a leading edge development a research programme was established to test the assumption that the commercially developed Business Excellence Model and self assessment processes are applicable and of value to public sector organisations (PSOs). This paper describes the historical development of the Business Excellence Model and self assessment, the key assumptions that underlie the use of the model in the public sector environment, a research programme using pilot sites to test the applicability and value-add of the model and self assessment techniques within the UK public sector, the results over the past eighteen months, the conclusions of the research so far and the ongoing development of guidance.