Quality of care
Ensuring quality at scale
War Child's evidence-based methodologies are designed to improve the protection, wellbeing and education of children affected by conflict and crisis.
The Quality of Care Framework helps us understand whether our methodologies are being delivered as intended and to the standard needed to achieve meaningful results for children. It gives our teams and partners a practical way to monitor quality, strengthen delivery, and improve our work over time.
Our framework is built around three core indicators:
Competency
Do facilitators have the knowledge and skills they need to deliver the methodology effectively?
We assess facilitators’ ability to use the skills and techniques required to support participants and achieve the intended outcomes. A facilitator may closely follow the intervention protocol, but without the necessary competencies the quality of delivery may be compromised.
Fidelity
Is the methodology being delivered as intended?
We monitor whether the essential elements of each methodology - which are proven to work - are being delivered consistently, while allowing for appropriate adaptation to different contexts. A facilitator may be highly skilled, but if the intervention is not delivered according to the methodology, we cannot assume it will deliver positive outcomes.
Attendance
Are participants attending often enough to benefit?
We measure whether participants attend enough sessions to benefit from the methodology. Even when competency and fidelity are high, participants must attend regularly for it to be successful.
Why does quality of care matter?
Evidence-based methodologies can be highly effective. But when they are delivered at scale - across different countries and contexts, by War Child and partners - we need to know that quality is being maintained.
Competency, fidelity and attendance work together. Monitoring all three gives us a clearer picture of whether programmes are being delivered in a way that can achieve the outcomes demonstrated through evaluation. When targets of all three indicators are achieved, we can reasonably expect outcomes that align with those demonstrated in the evidence used to build the methodology.
How do we use the framework?
Quality of care data is collected across all War Child’s evidence-based methodologies as part of routine programme delivery.
Supervisors assess competency and fidelity through direct structured observation, while attendance is monitored through participant registers.
The framework sets minimum requirements for quality monitoring, while allowing teams to collect additional observations where possible. This data helps us identify where to focus our support for continuous improvement.
What do we use the framework for?
Quality of care data helps us to:
- Monitor the quality of our work
- Support supervision and mentoring
- Protect evidence-based practice
- Scale our approach to have more impact for children
