The Ministers of Public Administration agreed in November 1998 that new methods should be developed for sharing knowledge between the EU Member States on quality improvements of public sector. This led to the decision of organising a public sector quality conference where best practice cases from all member states would be presented. Portugal volunteered to host this 1st Quality Conference for Public Administrations in the EU during its Presidency in spring 2000. After this successful event the decision was made to continue organising these conferences of 1200 participants every second year.
Ever since the best practice cases selected from the Member States have remained to be the core of the conference. The rest of the three day programme has been formulated according to the most current topics of quality management at the given time.
1QC: Sharing Best Practices
Where: Lisbon, Portugal
When: 10-12 May 2000
Main themes: New Millennium, New Public Management, Total Quality Management, Internet and the new technology, Citizen Orientation
About the content: Presentation of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF 2000), 39 best practices, the usefulness of best practices as a learning tool.
2QC: Innovation, Change, Partnership
Where: Copenhagen, Denmark
When: 2-4 October 2002
Main themes: Innovation, Change and Partnership
About the content: Presentation of the new version of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF 2002), 49 best practices were presented. The key findings of the conference highlighted that more attention for users' demands is required, quality improvement is an ongoing process of trial and error, more attention is required for problems and barriers since these areas will teach us the most. 74 percent of the participants went home with new ideas for improvement. 89 percent would recommend others to participate in 3QC.
3QC: Making Opportunities Work
Where: Rotterdam, the Netherlands
When: 15-17 September 2004
Main themes: Leadership, customer orientation, e-Government, partnerships, change management, measurements, TQM models, cost-effectiveness, staff development
About the content: 65 best practices were presented. According to the summary of the conference the future challenges of quality management include paying more attention to leadership development, enhancing competitiveness of public sector as a employer, bettering the management of diversity and enhancing the use of ICT in service delivery. Also the relationship between public sector and civil society need attention. 85 percent of the conference participants felt they received new ideas for their future work and 94 percent would recommend others to participate in 4QC.