This will be crucial in helping the FCN community meet challenges around quality and accreditation, pace of technological change and increasing demand, and in and creating a cohesive forensic science landscape.
To achieve this mission, Quality will provide products and services to the FCN community under the following four service headings and as described in more detail below.
Standards
Standard Operating Procedures
Competency frameworks, training & assessments
Catalogue of approved training providers
Quality and performance management
Competency frameworks, training & assessments
Catalogue of approved training providers
Quality and performance management
Validation
“Validate once; verify many”
Validation plans and timetable
Validation pilots and evaluation
Validation library
Verification plans and assessments
Validation plans and timetable
Validation pilots and evaluation
Validation library
Verification plans and assessments
Accreditation
Single voice with FSR & UKAS
Accreditation landscape planning
Accreditation support, advice and guidance
Compliance requirements
Trouble-shooting support
Accreditation landscape planning
Accreditation support, advice and guidance
Compliance requirements
Trouble-shooting support
Knowledge
Advice and guidance
Knowledge base
Quality management system
Ground truth database
Knowledge base
Quality management system
Ground truth database
Quality in action
Quality, as with most elements of the FCN core team, is only beginning to take shape now as resources are recruited. However, supported by the broader Transforming Forensics Programme and the FCN community itself, Quality is already delivering benefits. Four existing examples demonstrating the way that Quality will operate are: knowledge bases, fingerprints, CSIs and digital forensics.
