Assessment

When registering interest an organisation is asked to complete the registration form which provides all the necessary background information to assist us in determining the number of Assessor days and cost involved.

Only once an organisation has agreed cost, will the process formally start.

Registering interest on the website is in no way binding. It provides VDS with an organisations' contact details and sufficient information to calculate the appropriate assessment fee. If an organisation chooses not to continue towards IiV accreditation, the registration can be deleted and the organisation can reregister at a later date.

Once you have registered, and the fee is agreed and paid, you will be assigned a quality approved Assessor who will contact you to arrange an introductory workshop for your staff and volunteers at your premises. This assessor will remain with you throughout the assessment process.

We recommend that the process from registration to final assessment take no more than 12 months. However, various factors will affect how long it will take you to achieve the award: the level of good practice you already have in place; how much staff time is allocated to completing the work; how supportive your whole organisation is to reviewing and implementing good practice etc. There may be an extra cost if you take longer than 12 months; please discuss this with the IiV Manager or your Assessor if you think this might be an issue for you.

For a small organisation with one or two locations, an Assessor will spend three days with the organisation. This includes the following:

• Introductory workshop
• Feedback on self-assessment
• Feedback on development plan
• Final assessment visit - interviews with staff and volunteers
• Written final report

For larger organisations, additional workshops might be necessary to cover all regions. The number of final assessment days would also increase accordingly.