Supporting People
Accreditation Procedure
Scope
All providers of Supporting People services will need to have
met the accreditation tests fully before any contract renewal.
This accreditation fully meets the original ODPM criteria to
ensure fitness of contracted parties, and builds on the lighter
touch interim accreditation completed during 2002-3 for legacy
contracts.
In line with guidance issued by ODPM in April 2005,
Accreditation Lite will be applied to providers whose services have
been assessed using the QAF Lite. The guidance from
ODPM attempts to draw a reasonable balance between, on the one
hand, providing adequate risk management for commissioning bodies
and not erecting too high a hurdle for small providers on the
other.
Purpose
The broad purpose of accreditation is to ensure that
organisations wishing to contract with Bath and North East Somerset
Council to provide Supporting People services are fit business
partners. A number of criteria have been adopted to ensure
comprehensive checks fulfil this purpose. Thus organisations
must:
- Be financially viable
- Have competent administrative procedures
- Have effective employment policies
- Have robust management procedures
- Be able to demonstrate a track record or competence to deliver
services
The Accreditation Workbook
This is designed for Organisations to identify and self assess
their evidence in a similar way to the Quality Assessment
Framework, with an accompanying column for validation by the
Administering Authority.
Exemptions from providing evidence for some sections can be
achieved via a “Passport” gained through compliance with similar
checks carried out by other agencies already engaged with the
organisation. These options are indicated at the beginning of each
section, which if accepted by the Supporting People Team saves the
need for further evidence.
However, the Council will need to be satisfied that the passport
being requested is in relation to the same type of service as the
provider intends to offer.
The workbook scrutinises the Accreditation Criteria in detail
for example:
Section A – Financial Viability
- Covers Business Planning
- Financial risk assessment
- Audited accounts
Section B – Competent Administration Procedures
- Covers an organisations fitness to handle and account for
Supporting People Grant
- Governance arrangements
Section C – Effective Employment Policies
- Covers staff recruitment, development and supervision
- All Health and Safety aspects of the service for staff
- Equal Opportunities Policy
Section D – Robust Management Procedures
- Covers capability of actually providing Supporting People
Services
- Governance arrangements
- Organisational structure
Section E – Competence and Track Record
- Covers the providers understanding of the needs of service
users
- Fits into B&NES Supporting People Strategy and direction of
travel
Accreditation Lite
A scaled down version of the workbook will be used in relation
to those Providers who were assessed using the QAF Lite. The
5 criteria (Section A to E), will be examined with reference
to the standards and evidence requirements devised by the
ODPM.
Passports
The table below outlines which standards enable the Organisation
to be exempt from providing evidence for the particular
Accreditation Criteria. Where Organisations must provide evidence
that they have achieved the standards listed below in order to be
passported.
|
Passported as Exempt from each section |
Section
A |
Section
B |
Section
C |
Section
D |
Section
E |
|
Abbeyfield Standard |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|
Centre for Sheltered Housing Studies (CSHS) Code of
Practice |
|
|
X |
|
x |
|
Community Legal Services |
|
X |
X |
X |
x |
|
Foyer Federation |
X |
X |
X |
X |
x |
|
Housing Corporation |
X |
X |
|
X |
|
|
Investors in People |
|
|
X |
X |
|
|
Commission for Social Care Inspection |
X |
|
X |
|
X |
|
Service Review assessment achieved minimum standard of Level
C |
|
|
|
|
X |
In addition to this providers that have been accredited by
any other local authority in the South West region can be
passported on all criteria except that of financial viability. Bath
and North East Somerset Council will assess the providers financial
viability unless they are passported on this criteria through
either the Abbeyfield Standard, Housing Corporation or Foyer
Federation.
Procedure
The excel workbook has been adapted for use in Bath and North
East Somerset with clear statements that describe the evidence
requirements for each section of the accreditation. The scaled-down
workbook will be used for those providers who were assessed under
QAF Lite. Provider Organisations will need to assess which
evidence they are able to provide, and to what degree it fully
meets the criteria. Where criteria are less than fully met, actions
stating how this will be planned to be met in full will need to
accompany this to enable an accreditation to be completed.
Organisations will need to complete the workbook and explicitly
state their evidence and reference this to paper copies.
Submission of this prior to, or during review will enable the
Supporting People team to validate the evidence and ensure that it
satisfactorily meets the criteria listed.
Successful completion of this exercise will lead to issue of an
Accreditation Certificate. This should be signed by the Chair of
the Commissioning Body and will have a three year validity from the
date of the signature. It will also need to be specific in relation
to the types of service that the Provider Organisation has been
accredited to provide.
If the Organisation fails to meet the accreditation criteria
they will not be issued with an Accreditation Certificate. The
Supporting People team will work with the Organisation for a fixed
period of time to support them to achieve the accreditation
standards. Non accreditation means that B&NES Supporting People
programme will not contract with the Organisation and they will not
be included on the Supporting People list of Accredited Providers
for future commissioning. Organisations have the right to appeal
this decision and must follow the Appeals Procedure upon doing
this.
