You are here / Home / Register of Approved Providers /Accreditation FAQs
Accreditation FAQs
- What is accreditation?
- Assess organisations for ‘fitness for purpose’ and inclusion on the Register of Approved Providers;
- Assist organisations in checking that appropriate standards are in place and in identifying areas for improvement;
- Identify examples of good practice which could usefully be shared across the sector.
- Why is it needed?
- What is the Register of Approved Providers?
- early notification of new service opportunities;
- a stronger voice for providers;
- the sector being in a position to take on more services;
- more streamlined processes for accessing funding.
- Who is this Register for?
- How does my organisation get on the Register?
- What happens if my organisation is not on the Register of Approved Providers?
- Who is involved in delivering the accreditation?
- When did the process start?
- What support is available to organisations?
- What sort of documentary evidence will be needed for the accreditation process?
- Why do the records of board meetings have to be submitted?
- Why is there so much paperwork involved in the accreditation?
- How can we be confident that the information we send in will be treated in confidence?
- Why do you want to tape the assessment visit?
- for an Assessor or the organisation to refer back to in order to ensure accuracy;
- to provide an effective audit trail for the information gathered;
- to reduce the burden of note taking during a visit, thereby allowing a more direct dialogue between the Assessor and representatives of the organisation.
- Why do we need another quality system? How does this fit in with other quality assurance systems like Community Legal Services Framework, (CLSF), Quality Counts etc?
- What is ‘passporting’?
- What if my organisation wants to make a complaint?
- What if we disagree with the Assessor’s report and/or recommendation to the Panel?
- How will the accreditation process be monitored to ensure it is working properly?
- How will Alliance Board members avoid a conflict of interest?
- Will there be a charge for accreditation?
- Can the costs associated with accreditation be charged to funders and commissioners of services?
- How often will we need to be re-assessed?
- Can my organisation apply to the Members’ Development Fund?
- How can we undertake this when all our staff are unpaid volunteers and there is not anyone with time or knowledge to do this?
- How can I be sure that funders are going to abide by the decisions of the Accreditation Panel when they award contracts?
- Why are the funders making voluntary organisations go through all this? Private sector providers do not have to.
The accreditation system is designed to incorporate, evaluate and promote the particular ethos, qualities and added value that the sector can bring to service provision. Its purpose is to:
The accreditation process recognises that all organisations are different and is not seeking to set organisations up to ‘fail’. The process seeks to recognise what is good enough and to offer support and repeat opportunities for organisations to demonstrate that they are fundamentally fit for purpose. Accreditation should be an encouraging, worthwhile and rewarding experience and should really make a difference. Successful completion should enhance the credibility of organisations, recognise their success, and pave the way for opportunities to build on their achievements to develop and deliver more and better services, if they wish to do so. Accreditation will normally last for a period of three years. Organisations wishing to maintain their position on the Register will be reassessed within three years of the date of first/most recent registration.
The stage is set for the third sector to have a greater role in public service delivery. Many organisations want to be part of this new agenda and they want to participate on terms which promote the distinctive ethos and style of the sector and which strengthen their own organisations and the wider sector. They also recognise that contracts to deliver services will be earned on merit and that these contracts are likely to carry greater regulation and inspection. acquA is a bold step in self regulation, establishing a hallmark of good practice that will enable organisations to demonstrate their fitness for purpose for service delivery. It promotes professionalism through the setting of standards within a framework that combines learning and improvement with rigorous objective assessment. As well as enabling providers to demonstrate that they are ‘fit for purpose’ to deliver services and how they add value to the service, acquA is welcomed and supported by funders and commissioners who will have a pool of strongly performing preferred providers from which to procure services.
The Register of Approved Providers (RAP) is a list of third sector, (voluntary, community and not for profit) health and social care services in Herefordshire, which have been accredited as fit for the purpose of delivering services.
Inclusion on the Register confers eligibilty to provide servcices in Herefordshire and 'preferred provider'status.
The establishment of the Register is at the heart of a five year change programme and is a new undertaking for The Alliance. Inclusion on the Register is one of the benefits of full membership of The Alliance. Some of the benefits of being on the Register include:
The Register is open to third sector (voluntary, community and not for profit), organisations which are providing health and social care services in Herefordshire, however they are funded, and which are full members of The Alliance i.e. have successfully completed accreditation. (see also question 5 below)
It is also open to organisations that do not currently holdcontracts but wish to provide services in the county in the future.
It is likely that the accreditation process will be extended beyond health and social care in the future.
Inclusion on the Register is by successfully completing the aacquA accreditation process and becoming a full member of The Alliance. During 2007/08 some Supporting People, CSCI and Housing Corporation registered organisations are exempt from accreditiation. See Procedure and Guidance Notes section 3.4 for details.
From April 2007 and during 2007/08, all third sector (voluntary, community, and not for profit) organisations funded by Herefordshire Primary Care Trust, Herefordshire Council’s Directorate of Adult and Community Services, and Directorate of Children and Young People's Services, to deliver health and social care services, whether by grant or under contract, will be required to be on the Register of Approved Providers. If your organisation is not on the Register of Approved Providers this will affect your eligibility to tender for contracts with Herefordshire Council or the Primary Care Trust.
The Alliance is leading the work. A team of seven out-of-county Assessors, all with wide experience of working in the voluntary sector and in organisational development and performance improvement are carrying out the assessment of organisationa. Assessors undertake diagnostic visits and formal assessments and report to an Accreditation Panel. The Accreditation Panel has been appointed by The Alliance Board and comprises individuals with wide experience between them of working within the sector,finance, quality systems, and of assessment and regulatory frameworks.The Panel’s role is to ensure that the accreditation process is fair, valid and reliable. The Panel reports to The Alliance Board with recommendations on accreditation. Team biographies are available.
The management and administration of the accreditation is carried out by The Alliance.
The assessment period began in March 2006. An investment of Change-Up funds provided additional capacity to accelerate the accreditation process and the establishment of the Register of Approved Providers during the period to March 2007. The process continues with all organisations currently holding contracts or expecting to have contracts from April 2008 required to demonstrate by 1st october 2007 that they are on course to achieve accreditation by 31st March 2008.
An Accreditation Broker has been recruited to provide independent practical assistance to members of The Alliance working towards accreditation. The Broker will facilitate access to resources and training opportunities, signpost organisations to sources of specific help and advice, and broker the sharing of good practice. The accreditation is designed to be a positive and supportive experience. The Alliance recognises, though, that for some organisations there will be questions and perhaps some concerns and anxieties about accreditation. Organisations awaiting assessment will also want to carry out preparatory work and The Alliance will do all it can to provide information, time for preparation and practical support. Organisations can use the diagnostic interview to check how well they are doing, to identify any improvements required and to agree a timeframe for this with the benefit of an experienced Assessor to talk this through with them prior to the formal assessment visit. A Members’ Development Fund has been set up to provide resources for organisations to undertake necessary development to achieve the accreditation and for The Alliance to arrange events on specific topics for groups of members.
Assessors will be looking for a combination of documentary and oral evidence. Some documentation is essential and details can be found on the Assessment Registration Form. Assessors will also want to meet with a range of people in the organisation, agreed in advance, in order to understand what the documentary evidence means in practice, and to form a full picture of the organisation.
These are requested because they provide information about critical areas of the accreditation framework. These not only indicate the nature of governance and management within an organisation but also provide evidence relating to other units such as finance, leadership, policy and planning and looking outwards. The Assessor will read these as part of the desktop review and will learn about how your organisation is run e.g. sub-committee structure, if applicable, delegated powers, attendance at board meetings, proceedings at the Annual General Meeting etc. The Assessor will also gain insight into issues and decisions which have affected your organisation over the previous twelve months, which in turn helps the organisation to demonstrate how it is fit for purpose. If any organisation finds that the minutes of board meetings cannot be provided (e.g. for reasons of confidentiality) this should be discussed with the Accreditation Team Manager. If you are subject to a Charity Commission review visit you will be asked to submit copies of your last four board meeting minutes and last two AGM minutes.
Every effort has been made to keep the paperwork to a minimum. In order to have a robust, reliable, fair and valid process a certain amount of paperwork is inevitable.The system will be kept under review and adapted in the light of experience.
The accreditation process includes a confidentiality protocol which outlines the controls in place to ensure the confidentiality of information. Independent Assessors from outside the county have been recruited to minimise the risk of conflicts of interest. Organisations undergoing assessment are also asked to commit to the maintenance of confidentiality.
There are a number of reasons for this:
Organisations are not obliged to agree to this.The decision about the use of tape recording will be made during the diagnostic visit, in discussion with the Assessor.
The Alliance accreditation is not intended to duplicate effort and is designed to take account of quality assurance frameworks in a fair and demonstrable way. It allows an organisation to present evidence already gathered as part of other quality systems and to discuss their approach to quality assurance and continuous improvement with the Assessor. Most systems do not fully cover all of the seven units of The Alliance accreditation, e.g. Investors in People would not cover the Finance unit. Not all are externally assessed, e.g. PQASSO is self-assessed and is an excellent tool for continuous improvement over a period of time, but it is not interchangeable with an external assessment. Many others, such as the CLSF, focus primarily on the service being delivered, not the organisation, which is what acquA accredits.
Some organisations will have recognised quality systems already in place such as Investors in People or Quality Counts. Assessors will use the principle of ‘passporting’ so that organisations can present any evidence or data previously provided to other parties in order to show how they meet any of The Alliance standards. Passporting does not mean that by showing a certificate the Assessor will automatically omit units or criteria within the acquA assessment tool, but it will mean that organisations can show evidence already gathered and gain the benefit of work already undertaken (i.e. as with Accreditation of Prior Learning). These areas will form the basis of detailed discussion at the diagnostic meeting, and the scope of the assessment will be advised by the Assessor.
Organisations that have achieved Level C and above under the Herefordshire Supporting People programme will be counted as complying with The Alliance accreditation until 30th September 2007, where this covers all of the activities and services they deliver. Similarly, organisations that have completed a successful Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) for provision of residential care homes or domiciliary services will be counted as complying with The Alliance accreditation during 2007/08, where this covers all of the activities and services they deliver. The same arrangement applies to Housing Associations registered with Housing Corporation and providing care services.
These arrangements do not preclude these organisations from undertaking The Alliance accreditation if they choose to do so. Indeed, providers are actively encouraged to participate so that their experience can inform a review which will take place later in 2006/7, when the relative scope and content of each of the accreditation systems will be compared. Some Supporting People organisations and those providing residential care and/or domiciliary services will deliver services which are outside the Supporting People programme and the scope of the Commission for Social Care Inspection. Where these services form a significant proportion of an organisation’s activity, those organisations will need to be accredited through The Alliance in order to become full members of The Alliance and be included on the Register of Approved Providers.
The Alliance welcomes feedback on its activities. Comments including compliments and concerns can be registered as well as formal complaints. A lot depends on the nature and seriousness of the complaint, but generally any complaint should first be brought to the attention of the acquA Manager, so that we can try to resolve matters as quickly as possible. A copy of The Alliance feedback policy is included at Appendix F within the Procedure and Guidance Notes.
The Accreditation Panel is responsible for overseeing, quality assuring and ensuring consistency in the accreditation process. The Panel will handle any appeals against assessment findings or complaints about the accreditation process. Appeals may be made about the process or results of assessment. In handling appeals, the Accreditation Panel may interview the Assessor and review the evidence collated by him/her, and/or may commission a second assessment. A copy of the appeals procedure is included at Appendix E within the Procedure and Guidance Notes.
The Accreditation Panel is responsible for overseeing, quality assuring and ensuring consistency in the accreditation process.The Panel will carry out this responsibility by considering and moderating all assessment reports. The Panel will also review all evaluation forms about the assessment process and review the accreditation procedure in the light of experience. All assessed organisations will be invited to complete an evaluation form. Assessors will also complete an evaluation form. These evaluations will be analysed and the results reported regularly to The Alliance Board.
Independent members of The Alliance Board scrutinise the work of the Panel.
An external evaluation of acquA has been commissioned and will be published in the summer of 2007.
Board Directors will not be involved in direct decisions regarding the accreditation of individual organisations. The role of the Board is to appoint and oversee the work of the Accreditation Panel and to ensure that the Panel operates fairly and with integrity. Reports made by the Accreditation Panel to the Board will give the name of the organisation and the recommendation only. Board members will not have access to any detailed information gathered during the accreditation process. Summary anonymised data will be provided to show overall progress, distribution and trends.
There is no charge for the initial accreditation. A membership fee will be levied by The Alliance when an organisation achieves accreditation and becomes a full member, according to a sliding scale based on the annual turnover of the organisation. Membership fees are reviewed annually. They provide a fund administered by The Alliance for members’ development and services for members.
When organisations bid for contracts with funders their costings should be based on full cost recovery. This will ensure that all legitimate overhead and running costs are taken into account, including any costs arising from accreditation, registration and inspection.
Accreditation is valid for a period of three years. Organisations wishing to remain full members of The Alliance and be included on the Register of Approved Providers will be reassessed within three years of their last registration date. Reassessment may be required within the three year period, subject to certain circumstances, set out in the Terms and Conditions of the acquA award.
Yes, the Members’ Development Fund is a resource available to all organisations which are applying for full membership. Details of eligible activity and how to apply can be found at Members Development Fund
The information required for the accreditation process should be readily available in all organisations.The process has been designed to be as light touch as possible but it is acknowledged that some additional work will be inevitable. Assessors will discuss with you at the diagnostic visit how the assessment can be carried out in a way that is proportionate and appropriate to the scale, scope and style of your organisation. It is intended that this work should have positive benefits for all participants by clarifying and developing organisational good practice.
The acquA accreditation has been drawn up in consultation with the principal funders and commissioners of health and social care services in Herefordshire, who have re-inforced their commitment to acquA and the Register of Approved Providers in direct correspondence with provider organisations. The Alliance will continue to work with these bodies to ensure the effective and consistent operation of the process.
The accreditation is not being imposed by funders.The impetus for the introduction of an accreditation process came as much from voluntary sector organisations that wished to have a method by which they could demonstrate their competence to deliver services. Funders in the area welcomed this development and have worked with The Alliance to invest in develop the process so that it meets their needs as well. As a result, funders and voluntary, community and not-for-profit providers together should be in a position to demonstrate to central government that the sector is in a strong position to deliver effective services.