Reaccreditation
Seven months before your Quality Award is due to expire, you will receive a reminder email from us that it’s soon time for your Reaccreditation. You should aim to complete this process before your current Award expires.
The Reaccreditation process is quicker than the full Award process, as hopefully a lot will have remained the same for your service or will now be even better. We still advise that you give yourself six months for the process – if you complete it earlier, your new Award will still begin at the expiry date of your previous Award.
Reaccreditation will be evaluated via:
- Uploading evidence for 25 indicators
- Interviews with 2 of your volunteers, 2 of your befriendees and 1 staff member.
- A site/remote visit to review progress on the recommendations made in your previous Quality Award and a further 7 indicators.
If you are already holding the Excellence award standard, you will be reaccredited at this level. If you decide you would like to work towards Excellence during Reaccreditation, please let us know so that we can discuss what this would involve. There is an additional fee for Excellence at any time after the full Award process, including at the stage of Reaccreditation.
Apply for Reaccreditation
Frequently Asked Questions
How many times can I be reaccredited?
Twice (year 3 and 6). At year 9 you will need to do the full Award again.
Why can I only be reaccredited twice?
At the end of your second Reaccreditation period, it will have been 9 years since your initial assessment. A lot will have changed in your organisation in that time, so we will need to revisit all indicators again at this point (ie full Award process).
What happens if we don’t have time to complete the reaccreditation process before our current award expires?
We may allow an extension of up to six months, providing that Reaccreditation is underway before the expiry date. The Reaccreditation will be dated from the original expiry date. Extensions are at the discretion of Befriending Networks.
What happens if our Award lapses and we then decide we would like to retain it?
If your Award has expired, and you have not started your Reaccreditation process before the expiry date, if you decide to apply for your Award again, it will need to be as a full Award rather than as a Reaccreditation. You will be emailed reminders from us 6 months prior to your Award expiry, so you will have time to decide.