The Thematic Group “Quality in Alternative Care” is an initiative within FICE International aimed at enhancing the quality of care programs for children and families across member organizations. 

This group serves as a collaborative platform for exchanging best practices and addressing the challenges related to care quality. The group usually holds virtual meetings, engaging a consistent group of five to ten participants from seven national sections.

Through discussions, the group identified key issues, such as the need to avoid creating new standards, given the existence of many established frameworks, including recent contributions from FICE Austria. The ultimate goal is to improve the actual quality of programs and services delivered to children and families, focusing on closing the significant implementation gap between existing written standards and the daily experiences of those in care.

Core Goals:

• Enhancing Quality: Concentrating efforts on improving the quality of care programs rather than developing new standards.

• Implementation Gap: Addressing the discrepancies between written standards and the actual quality of care provided.

• Knowledge Sharing: Establishing a virtual exchange and learning platform to facilitate ongoing learning and innovation through shared experiences and insights.

Leadership:

The Quality in Alternative Care thematic group is led by Christian Posch and Bettina Terp from Austria.