As a result, FRN Enterprises hopes that the assurance offered by the certification will encourage more public and private sector bodies to work with the furniture and WEEE reuse sector, as well as maintaining reuse centres' service standards.
To date, eight of the 40 FRN members who have signed up to its FRNE operation have passed the auditing process to receive a quality assurance certificate, with managing director Craig Anderson claiming that the certification is playing a vital role in allowing reuse schemes to grow.
“With the reuse sector moving increasingly towards national partnerships with the private sector who have a high service expectation; FRNE is taking the lead in ensuring that one standard of service is being offered by a growing number of reuse social enterprises,” he said.
“By doing this we are now finding increasing numbers of retailers, manufacturers, waste management and logistics companies who want to work with the sector,” he added.
Auditing
Aspects of the reuse centres' operations that are examined in the auditing process include: their management; documentation and records; resources; the performance of their work and provision of service, and their management verification and a
With the certification already in place, groups who pass the audit are also being encouraged to further boost their opportunities to work with both public and private sector partners by gaining further professional accreditation.
Doncaster-based Re:furnish recently received the FRNE certification and has since gone on to be recognised by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service in the shape of three ISO quality accreditations.
Recognition
The organisation's Jo Ward was keen to emphasis the important role that the FRNE and its accreditation had played in its achievement of that external recognition.
“The support given to us from FRNE and Fred Dobb (FRNE assessor) was superb, and it was due to their expertise and dedication that we achieved ISO quality recognition within a very short time frame,” she said.
She added: “This accreditation will help us to achieve our strategic plan and prove to others that we are a professional organisation committed to delivering quality services to our partners and customers.”
FRNE was launched in 2006, as a means to assist those among the FRN's 400-plus members who hoped to broker deals for furniture and WEEE reuse with both private sector companies and public sector bodies (see letsrecycle.com story).
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