CQL’s COVID Safety Protocols For In-Person Service Activities

Posted on August 9, 2021

Updated: 12/1/22

CQL | The Council on Quality and Leadership has reintroduced in-person activities for our core services of accreditation, training, and certification. Accreditation may include a hybrid model, incorporating both in-person and virtual components, while training and certification may entail either in-person or virtual options.

We have developed protocols to help protect the health of organizational partners, their staff, people receiving services, and our own employees as we start traveling again. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, these measures aim to ensure that all stakeholders feel comfortable and safe during focus groups, meetings, interviews, visits, etc. The following precautions will help CQL and our partners in determining if the service should be conducted in-person, virtually, or a combination of both.

“There is nothing more important to us than the health and safety of those we work with,” says Mary Kay Rizzolo, president and chief executive officer, CQL | The Council on Quality and Leadership. “We’re carrying out some of our services with people face-to-face, and these protocols help ensure we do that safely.”

CQL has developed the following safety protocols related to the pandemic:

• If your agency would like to request special safety measures regarding COVID, please let us know at the time of the RFE submission.
• CQL will follow guidelines issued at the national, provincial/state, or local level. This may include mask wearing, social distancing, handwashing, etc.
• CQL will take various factors into consideration in decisions about travel and on-site activities, such as if the location has a high transmission rate or a spike in COVID cases.
• If it is safe to travel, CQL will only send the staff member(s) necessary to conduct the specific in-person activities. Through CQL’s successful experiences in conducting virtual activities, we can work with organizations on carrying out our services through a hybrid or fully virtual model.
• If CQL’s on-site staff begin to display any COVID-related symptoms (cold symptoms, fevers, etc.), they will not participate in any of the in-person activities.
• If CQL’s staff test positive or are exposed for COVID prior to an on-site service, we will follow CDC or the country’s public health guidance to determine when it is safe for that staff person to travel. The activities may need to be rescheduled, completed by another member of the CQL team, or conducted virtually.
• If the CQL on-site staff member either displays COVID-related symptoms or tests positive for COVID following the visit (in alignment with CDC or the country’s public health guidelines), CQL will notify the organizational contact via email within one business day.
• CQL will be aware of, and sensitive to, COVID-related risks as well as people’s comfort level with direct interactions.
• CQL reserves the right to change any in-person activity to a virtual activity.

In-Person Activities In The Future

As we have been since the onset of COVID-19 in early 2020, we are closely monitoring the situation and will make adjustments to our plans and protocols in order to remain responsive to the pandemic. CQL will post additional information, including updates to our protocols, as they become available.

CQL will continue to be flexible in how we carry out the activities related to our core services of accreditation, training, and certification. We appreciate how understanding our partners have been throughout these unprecedented times.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, comments, and/or concerns specific to your service activities, or if you would like to request additional precautions, please contact Gretchen Block, CQL’s Director of Partner Engagement.

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Since 1969, CQL | The Council on Quality and Leadership has been a leader in working with human service organizations and systems to continuously define, measure, and improve quality of life and quality of services for youth, adults, and older adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and psychiatric disabilities. CQL offers accreditation, training, certification, research, and consultation services to agencies that share our vision of dignity, opportunity, and community for all people.