Short Guide to Code of Practice Standard Five: Prioritise Quality

Standard five of the Standards for Official Statistics in the Code of Practice for Statistics recognises that the organisational structure, the way it is run, and its quality culture, can impact the statistical producer’s ability to produce statistics that are of suitable quality.

The Standard encourages people working in organisations producing official statistics to be open about their commitment to quality. This means actively promoting appropriate quality standards and values, reflecting the organisation’s approach to quality management. It is not a responsibility for leaders alone – everyone has a part to play.

A good quality culture relies on learning from what works, as well as what doesn’t, and transparency in sharing the lessons and actions. It encourages honesty and openness to learn from errors and near misses to strengthen producers’ systems.

The Standard

5. Producers must support a quality culture that promotes good practice and encourages learning and improvement, under the direction of the Chief Statistician/Head of Profession for Statistics – so that the public can have confidence that published statistics are produced by organisations that continuously improve quality standards

5.1 Promote and apply appropriate quality standards, taking account of how quality can change

5.2 Provide a supportive environment to enable staff to propose improvements in ways of working and raise quality concerns

5.3 Promote the sharing of good practice and examples of effective quality management. Learn from both mistakes and good practice and conduct timely reviews of quality concerns

5.4 Work collaboratively with data supply partners, other producers, topic experts, and other partners, to develop a common understanding of quality matters. Welcome and seek their input on ways to improve quality

5.5 Periodically review the effectiveness of your processes and quality management approach and be open about findings and planned improvements

5.6 Keep up to date with possible ways to improve the statistics. Innovate where possible to keep statistics relevant and useful. Collaborate across professions and organisations where appropriate

5.7 Assess the added value of potential improvements to methods and consider the impact on the statistics, including in relation to comparability and coherence

5.8 Publish your quality management approach and explain how it aligns with your organisation’s commitment to data quality

Questions to consider

1. Open approach

How does your organisation explain its quality management approach to users and is the explanation kept updated? How do you reassure users about the quality management approach for your statistics?

2. Application

How do you ensure that you work in line with your organisation’s quality management approach? Are staff confident about sharing their concerns about quality with managers? How do you ensure that the quality is proportionate to how your statistics are used?

3. Relationships

How do you work with data supply partners, other producers, topic experts, and other partners to develop a common understanding of quality matters? How do others in your organisation approach this, and what can you learn from their approach?

4. Learning

What is your approach to learning from, and addressing, quality issues? How do you ensure the lessons are shared with others?

5. Innovation

How are you seeking to innovate the way you produce statistics? How do you find out about new opportunities for improving the way you work? How are you able to test and implement new approaches?