The Association for Persons with Special Needs (APSN) was awarded the prestigious ISO 9001:2015 certification last month, making it the first local disability service to do so.

While the idea was mooted by APSN, the ISO journey was only made possible thanks to the National Council of Social Service Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs)-Charities Capability Fund (VCF). With the support of the VCF Fund, a consultant was engaged to guide the APSN management team on its journey from August last year.

While APSN already had most of the documentation and work processes in place before the ISO journey, it made use of the certification process to tidy up the documents in a systematic way.

Through the adoption of ISO 9001 standards and requirements, APSN has been able to embed an even better quality management system within the organisation. More complete quality records, procedures and work instructions were developed as part of the requirements of the standards.

The scope of this ISO certification is applicable to: APSN Shared Services, APSN Centre for Adults and APSN Student Care Centre.

Acting Chief Executive Officer Alex Shiu said, “The objective of attaining this certification is to show our commitment to ensuring our services meet stakeholder and regulatory requirements and expectations. Our teamwork and foresight in pursuing better work practices will stand us in good stead to care for our beneficiaries for the long term in an enhanced way.”