New research and innovations in the field continue to reshape the child care industry.  Things that use to be best practice have evolved or been replaced over time, requiring child care providers to regularly evaluate and modify their practice to best meet the needs of children and families.

This practice is not unique to the early childcare field.  Businesses of all different varieties engage in a process that has been coined “Continuous Quality Improvement” or CQI.   In fact, there is an entire industry devoted to helping companies go through CQI projects.

Child Welfare Information Gateway defines CQI as:

“…the complete process of identifying, describing, and analyzing strengths and problems and then testing, implementing, learning from, and revising solutions.”

The most critical piece of CQI lies in the word “continuous.”  Programs that engage in CQI do so, continuously.  They don’t stop.  There is no end to the process.  The belief is that every process and practice can be evaluated and improved upon, even slightly. As a result, program improvement is embedded in the culture of the program; it’s something they just do as a natural part of their operation.

In this month’s newsletter, we will explore aspects of continuous quality improvement and provide resources to help you start 2019 with a new set of program improvement practices.

For the article Benefits of Continuous Quality Improvement, CLICK HERE

For the article Steps to Continuous Quality Improvement, CLICK HERE

For the article Tools to Support Continuous Quality Improvement, CLICK HERE

For the article Director’s Corner – Creating a Culture of Continuous Quality Improvement, CLICK HERE