Our Quality Accreditations help you to:
Both accreditations are independently assessed, then awarded by NAVCA.
We think Quality Accreditation is great, but don’t just take our word for it. We spoke to accredited organisations to hear what they found most valuable about the LIQA and VCQA.
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“LIQA provides some much-needed positivity at a time when there is bleak news around funding and general understanding of the work we do. It provides confidence that what we deliver is of a high standard apparent to others outside of our organisation.”
- Jess Sumner, CEO, Brighton and Hove Community Works
"[The LIQA] is very worthwhile, both in terms of external recognition and validation but also in terms of identifying internally where you’re hitting the mark and where there are areas for development.”
- Liz Windsor-Welsh, CEO, Action Together
“The LIQA award is a powerful validation of our team's hard work, dedication, and unwavering commitment to supporting the voluntary and community sector in our region. More importantly, it reinforces our promise to our members that they can rely on us for high-quality support that truly makes a difference.”
Karen Loftus, CEO, Community Action Network (CAN)
- Hear from Helen Tomlinson, CEO at Bury VCFA, about their experience with the LIQA.
- Hear from Garry Jones, CEO at Support Staffordshire, about their experience with the LIQA.
Every community should have access to high quality local infrastructure and volunteer centre support.
This means that volunteers, charities and community groups can be equipped with the resources they need to contribute to a flourishing voluntary sector and thriving communities.
That’s why we offer the LIQA (Local Infrastructure Quality Accreditation), and the VCQA (Volunteer Centre Quality Accreditation), providing organisations with the opportunity to assess, reflect on, develop and promote their work locally.
You can choose from the two accreditations based on what’s most relevant to your organisation’s purpose and focus.
The LIQA is designed for local VCSE infrastructure provision, and assesses NAVCA members across the four functions of infrastructure.
The VCQA is designed for volunteer centres, and is open to both NAVCA members and non-members providing volunteer centre services in their local communities. It assesses organisations across the five functions of volunteer centres.
Leadership and advocacy
Partnerships and collaborations
Capacity building
Volunteering
Strategic development of volunteering
Good practice development
Developing volunteering opportunities
Brokerage
Voice of volunteering
For both Accreditations, applicants submit a portfolio of evidence demonstrating their delivery against the assessment criteria. Types of evidence could include strategies, business plans, policies and procedures, alongside evidence of service delivery and local impact. In the application guidance, you will find ideas of what your evidence should show and some examples of what types of evidence might be submitted.
An assessment is undertaken by an independent assessor who reviews the evidence, and holds interviews with the organisation’s personnel and key stakeholders to explore and audit the information provided.
The quality accreditation process takes approximately six months to complete. The majority of this is for you to collate and submit your portfolio of evidence.
All accredited organisations receive a certificate to celebrate your accreditation, and digital assets to use on your website or other platforms. We also write to your local partners and funders to let them know about your achievement.
We’re always happy to have a chat about which accreditation is right for you, so contact us using the button below and we will be in touch.
The starting point for LIQA is the LIQA Foundations Workbook, which all organisations receive on receipt of a LIQA deposit payment.
Foundations enables LIOs to use the LIQA criteria to self-assess their performance and impact, and reflect on their strengths and areas for growth. It offers LIOs the opportunity to gauge how ready they are for a full assessment. Submission of a completed LIQA Foundations Workbook is an essential part of full assessment. However, if on completing the Foundations self-assessment, you feel you need a little more time to prepare for full submission, there is the opportunity to do this. Equally, if you complete Foundations and choose not to progress to full accreditation, that’s fine too.
Completing Foundations will provide you with a clear benchmark for how you can develop your organisation further.
(You will need to have completed full assessment reviewed by an independent assessor, and met the criteria, in order to be LIQA accredited and to use the LIQA brand)
We’re always happy to have a chat about which option is right for you, so contact us using the button below and we will be in touch.
