Quarriers breaks new ground in streamlining food hygiene standards
07-Feb-2003
Scottish care charity Quarriers and Inverclyde Council are pioneering a new way of working today as Quarriers becomes the first charity in Scotland to sign a Home Authority Agreement in Food Hygiene.
The Agreement streamlines the complex process of organisations with more than one location having to comply with regional standards in each of their localities. Quarriers is the first Scottish charity to follow this ground-breaking route to simplifying the Food Hygiene standards process.
Quarriers runs over 70 projects across Scotland and is a registered food handler. Like many organisations of its size and type, the charity found itself in the position of having to negotiate food hygiene standards with a variety of local Environmental Health departments - ultimately resulting in a lack of consistency of standard across the organisation's projects, and a large time commitment for staff in each of the projects liaising with local councils.
The Home Authority Agreement in Food Hygiene asserts Inverclyde Council - the council closest to Quarriers' head office in Quarriers Village, Bridge of Weir - as having overarching responsibility to ensure all of the charity's projects meet one agreed set of standards. Local councils will inspect premises in their regions as before, but any problems will be discussed directly with Inverclyde Council.
For Quarriers, and other organisations facing similar problems, the Agreement allows a consistency across its Scotland-wide projects and allows local project managers to focus on their social care responsibilities.
For Inverclyde Council and other councils across Scotland, the Agreement means avoidance of duplication of services, saving time and money in the public sector.
The Home Authority working method has been in operation for several years, but formalised Home Authority Agreements - written and signed documents - are less common.
Chief Executive Phil Robinson said today: "We're delighted to be pioneering this new way of working with Inverclyde Council. Quarriers lays the greatest emphasis on meeting standards, but we've found in the past, particularly on the issue of food hygiene, that the interpretation of standards and issues vary greatly from region to region. By working with the Council to agree a centralised plan of standards, we're freeing up our care staff to spend more time helping some of Scotland's most vulnerable people."
John Arthur, Head of Environmental and Consumer Services at Inverclyde Council agreed: "The primary aim of the Council's Environmental Health Service is to support and assist local businesses in attaining high standards of food safety, in the interests of safeguarding the health of their clients. The Home Authority Agreement with Quarriers is a significant step towards that aim. This formal agreement is the first of its kind and we're delighted that this pioneering work will assist Quarriers and serve as a template for other similar organisations and councils in the future."
ENDS
Notes to Editor:
Quarriers is Scotland's third largest care charity, number SC001960. Established in 1871, it provides a wide range of care services for children, families, young people and adults with a disability from around 70 projects at around 100 sites in west-central, south-west and north-east Scotland.
This information from Shona O'Donnell of The Business, public relations support to Quarriers. For more information please contact: Tel: 0131 718 6022 Fax: 0131 718 6145 Mobile: 07879 842527
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