Bermuda National Standards Accreditation
The Bermuda National Standards Committee [BNSC] today [July 15] announced the awarding of this year’s accreditation and certification status to government and private organizations.
These organizations were publicly recognized for their great accomplishments with a presentation of a plaque by the Minister of Community, Culture and Sports Patricia Gordon- Pamplin.
Minister Gordon-Pamplin said, “These private and public organizations have demonstrated that they are operating at an international level of best practice in all areas and will continue to report on their success and growth to the BNSC each year over the span of the next four years. I wish to congratulate them for completing the process of accreditation and certification.”
Left to right: Martha Dismont, Family Centre; Sherrie Walker, Bermuda Youth Counseling Services; Kennette Robinson, Department of Child and Family Services; Lisa Howie, Bermuda National Gallery; David Lang, Chair of BNSC; Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin; Erwin Adderley, Age Concern; Judith Burgess and Truell Landy, PRIDE Bermuda and Kimberley Jackson, Mirrors
Mirrors Programme, a government organization, was accredited for the first time and Bermuda Youth Counselling Services which is under the Government Department of Child & Family Services was re-accredited.
Family Centre and PRIDE Bermuda were re-accredited. Both were the first two organizations to participate in the BNSC accreditation process and achieved accreditation in 2007. Since then they have maintained their accreditation status.
Chairman of BNSC, David Lang explained, “For those charities that do not provide a direct prevention or intervention service that requires accreditation but still desire a vehicle for demonstrating accountability and validating the high quality of their work, BNSC offers the certification process.
“This year Age Concern and The Bermuda National Gallery were re-certified by the BNSC and will continue to report on its success and growth to the BNSC each year over the span of the next four years.
“The Bermuda National Standards Committee is delighted that charities and human service groups in Bermuda are choosing to participate in these demanding processes to ensure that the quality of care and responsible use of resources in our community are accountable and effective.”
The BNSC is a public-private partnership who believes that Bermuda must address growing social challenges collaboratively, ensure quality outcomes and make the most of limited resources especially in these economic times.
The BNSC offers accreditation and certification to non-profit organizations and government services to create opportunities to strengthen their operations and programs in order to demonstrate that they are operating at an international level of best practice and strengthening sustainability.
In 2005 the BNSC established a memorandum of understanding with the Council on Accreditation [COA] in New York to operate the first international COA accrediting process.
The agreement includes a commitment to preserve the international standards and use international reviewers while maintaining a less expensive and more culturally relevant Bermuda operation. Bermuda was the first country to forge such a partnership and several countries have since sought to make similar agreements with the COA.
To date, the BNSC has provided internationally recognised accreditation status to twelve organizations in Bermuda that provide prevention and intervention programming in the field of human services. Eight of these organizations are under the remit of Government Departments. The other four are Bermuda Charities. On the other hand, a total of twelve charities are now certified through BNSC.
Six organizations that comprise of Government and Charity sectors have already committed to the accreditation and certification process ending 2015 and the Bermuda National Standards Committee is welcoming more applicants for next year. For more about BNSC email nadine@prevention.bm or call 336-2821.
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Accreditation while being an ideal can be incredibly costly and time consuming.
How much of the monies raised by these charities goes on administration for things such as accreditation?
In other countries the % of monies actually going to the people or animals or disadvantaged group is publicized.
In this economy charities and community groups are struggling for less $$ to go around as it is.
A substantial amount of time and effort goes into attaining and maintaining BNSC accreditation, and while a step up from no accreditation whatosever, it completely ignores already implemented governance unless it suits the BNSC standards, putting organizations to significant work to create and maintain parallel and mostly irrelevant governance to satisfy BNSC. Despite the statements above, it has no international recognition, and the accrediting teams, while lovely people, do not have the breadth of experience necessary to add relevant insight to the organizations being accredited, which you would normally expect of an accreditation process within specific service fields in other parts of the world. Finally, the donor community do not seem to pay any notice of whether an organization is accredited or not, in responding to grant requests.
So…I’m pre approved?