Accreditation

Community Matters is committed to robust accreditation of its quality assurance programme Becoming Visible.

To ensure that accreditation has consistency and credibility, not least with local authorities and funding bodies, a number of internal protocols have been developed. An example would be that any member of Community Matters staff who has already had substantial involvement with an applicant organisation in a support capacity will not take on the role of Assessor for the same organisation.

Certificate of Commitment
Once an organisation has made a formal commitment to seek national recognition of their performance against the Becoming Visible standards through the accreditation programme, they may request in writing that Community Matters issue them a Certificate of Commitment. The certificate will be valid for 12 months. Any request for an extension to this period will only be considered in exceptional circumstances explaining the specific circumstances.

Stages of accreditation
1.         A Self Assessment is undertaken by the applicant organisation using the Becoming Visible workbook. Once the organisation considers that it has met the requirements and gathered its evidence it may request an external assessment from Community Matters.  

2.      Community Matters will then contact the organisation with information about timescale and assessors availability and an application form will be issued to the organisation. This should be completed and signed by the Chair or Senior staff member to verify that they have understood and will comply with the terms and conditions. It should then be submitted with either full payment or a date by which full payment will be made (please note that this should be at least 2 weeks prior to any scheduled pre-assessment work).

3.      The accreditation assessment will initially involve a pre-assessment of the       organisation's completed workbook together along with samples of evidence both of which will need to be submitted. This will be followed by a whole day visit to the organisation's premises where further evidence will be assessed and staff, trustees and other stakeholders will be interviewed. Finally, a report will be written and a recommendation made to a verification panel drawn from Community Matters board of Trustees.

4.      The verification panel will review the assessment and make a decision on whether to award the VISIBLE Communities™ kitemark. In doing so, they may call for further evidence from the applicant organisation.

5.      Once the external assessment has been verified, the Chair of Community Matters will formally advise the organisation whether they have achieved the required standard and a Visible Communities™ award can be made at that time.

6.      Applicant organisations will be advised that they have a right to appeal the outcome of their external assessment. It is anticipated that appeals will be exceptional, but in this case, an Appeal Panel will be established comprising a maximum of three people, at least one of whom will be external to Community Matters. The panel will review the decision of the verification panel and their judgement will be final.

Decisions
The following decisions may result from the assessment process:

1.      The organisation is considered ready for the Kitemark to be awarded and the Verifiers endorse the recommendation of the Assessors. The Chair writes to the organisation advising them of their success enclosing the certificate and the terms and conditions of the award. If the award is conditional, (for example a requirement to make minor changes within the organisation), the conditions and a deadline for their achievement will be stated in the letter. We will not normally schedule any further visits to verify this.

2.      The organisation receives a letter from the Chair informing them that further work is required before an award can be made. A timescale for this work is then agreed with the organisation. The work will need to be verified and provided that it is readily verifiable and is completed within the timescale then no further fee will be charged. Significant extra assessment or completion beyond the agreed timescale will incur some re-assessment fee based on a standard daily rate plus expenses.

3.      The organisation receives a letter from the Chair informing them that they have not achieved the required standard in certain areas to merit the award. The letter will outline the areas that need further work. Depending on the level of the shortcomings of the organisation's application it is for the Programme Manager to decide how the reassessment should take place and at what stage the organisation should re-submit. It is anticipated that such outright failure will be rare as Community Matters and its Licensed Agents and Supporters have support staff in place to assist and advise organisations on their readiness for accreditation.

Appeal Process
Any organisation whose application for accreditation has not been successful has the right to an appeal and will be notified of this right and the process in the Chair's letter.

Any organisation wishing to appeal against the Verifiers decision will need to put the reasons for their appeal in writing within 10 working days of receipt of the letter declining their award. The appeal should be addressed to the 'Chair of the Accreditation Appeal Panel'.

The Chair of the Appeal Panel will convene a meeting of the appeal panel (which is an independent body) as soon as is practically possible. The decision of the Appeal Panel is final. The chair of the Appeal Panel will write to the organisation informing them of their decision within 5 working days of the Appeal Panel meeting.

Accreditation fees
The basic charge for the accreditation programme is £1,650 + vat per organisation*

A reduction is offered to Community Matters members of £150 per organisation

A further reduction is offered to Licensed Agents of £100 per organisation assessed

Fees will therefore vary from £1,400+vat to £1,650+vat

* Please note that for very large organisations with multiple sites requiring additional assessment time, Community Matters reserves the right to make appropriate additional charges.

For independent community organisations with a low annual income and unable to meet these costs, Community Matters staff may be able to advise on relevant sources of funding.

To download this document click here

Terms and Conditions
For the terms and conditions of the VISIBLE award please click here