Academy Care Ltd are on the pathway towards ISO certification
Posted on 22nd June 2023 at 12:17
Academy Care Ltd is proud to announce that we will be working towards certification in ISO 9001, ISO 27001, and ISO 14001.
We have been working incredibly hard behind the scenes to prepare for the process, ensuring all of our current processes and procedures meet the requirements of the Standards. So, we are now officially on the pathway and in the coming months will be working with an independent body towards the certification. We will continue to keep you updated and hope to announce and celebrate it with all of our employees in the coming months.
What is ISO?
ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is an independent, non-governmental international organization with a membership of 168 countries, with one standards body representing each member country. For example, the British Standards Institute (BSI) represents the UK.
ISO members are national standards organizations that have come together to collaborate in the development and promotion of international standards for technology, science, manufacturing, working conditions, management and so much more. It brings together experts across all industries to share knowledge and work together in technical committees and subcommittees to take care of standards development. At the point of writing this post, there are 24803 international standards that have been produced by ISO, with that figure rising, as they continuously adapt to the forever changing world around us and the new challenges we face daily.
You will find the Central Secretariat, which oversees all operations of ISO at the central headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The ISO’s General Assembly is its decision-making body and consists of representatives from the members and elected leaders called principal officers.
What is ISO certification?
ISO is not involved in the certification themselves, they only develop the standards, this is performed by external certification bodies, therefore a company cannot be certified by ISO themselves. Certification is an accredited certifying body’s assurance that a service, product, or system meets the requirements of the standard.
So how are we going to get certified? over the coming months we will work alongside an accredited independent certifying body towards certification in each of the three ISO’s that we are working towards, we have always prided ourselves on our transparency with our team, hence why you are being informed now before the process begins formally.
It will begin with a stage 1 audit, this is where an auditor will develop an in depth understand of Academy Care Ltd.’s current processes and procedures, so that any recommendations and an action plan can be made to improve them, if necessary, in compliance with the standard. We will then work on a management system based on any recommendations, a management system is a set of documents that outline our processes and procedures, showing how we will meet the standard required for certification. Once these documents have been submitted, a stage 2 audit will be conducted to see if we have met the objectives set out in the first audit, if everything is in place, we will be granted certification. Audits will be continuously carried out to ensure the standard is being upheld.
What are the ISO’s we are working to be certified in?
ISO 9001
ISO 9001 is defined as the international standard that sets out the requirements for a Quality Management System (QMS), helping us to be more efficient and improve customer satisfaction overall within our day-to-day operations. ISO 9001 helps businesses like ours to ensure that our clients receive a high-quality service, which in turn brings many benefits. Including satisfied customers, management, and employees, having an organised QMS, have continuous improvement to our processes and procedures, attract more clients, as well as more efficiency to the financial side to the business.
ISO 27001
ISO 27001 is defined as the international standard that sets out the requirements for Information Security Management Systems (ISMS). IT security, cybersecurity and privacy protection are all absolutely vital for companies these days and we are proactive in ensuring that financial information, intellectual property, employee data and information from third party sources are kept safe. ISO 27001 will benefit us by ensuring that all of our information is secure, we have increased resistance to cyber-attacks, provide a centrally managed framework, ensure companywide protection, respond to evolving security threats, reduce costs and spending on ineffective defence technology and protect the integrity, confidentiality and availability of data. ISO 27001 will ensure that our processes and procedures are at the highest possible standard.
ISO 14001
ISO 14001 is defined as the international standard that sets out the requirements for an Environmental Management System (EMS). It helps companies to identify, manage, monitor, and control their environmental issues in a ‘holistic’ manner. It maps out a framework that a company can follow to set up an effective EMS, providing assurance that our environmental impact is being measured and improved upon all the time, to employees, clients, and other interested parties alike. We have been on a mission to make Academy Care Ltd go green and this will help ensure we keep to that very important promise. We just want to make an impact in the care industry and to our clients lives, not on the planet.
Why we want certification?
Simply put, ISO standards are the highest possible standards that a company or organisation can work at, therefore that is the standard that Academy Care Ltd wants to work at. Here at Academy Care Ltd we don’t like to do things by half, we like to exceed expectations and provide the very best service that is possible, setting new standards within the care industry and raising the expectations of what people should expect from the care industry.
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