Accreditation is a supportive process involving self-assessment and external peer assessment against accreditation standards, to establish and promote a culture of continual quality improvement. In order to gain accreditation, services follow the below pathway.
Stage one: self-assessment
The service undertakes an online self-assessment to identify areas for improvement. The service undergoes a self-led program of quality improvement, collates evidence and prepares for assessment.
Stage two: remote assessment
The assessment team review the evidence remotely and provide feedback to the service. The service responds to the assessors remotely and provides additional evidence if required.
Stage two: site assessment
The assessors visit the service, tour the facilities, meet the staff and review the evidence with the service.
Services are either deferred or accredited. Deferred services are given up to three months to provide additional evidence against identified key areas.
Stage three: annual renewal
The service is accredited for five years subject to an annual renewal of accreditation. The annual renewal is designed to assess the service’s continued compliance with the standards.
Stage four: reaccreditation
After the fourth year annual renewal assessment, the service will begin building their evidence for assessment, as per stage one. Services remain accredited throughout this stage. Further guidance on the reaccreditation process can be found here