Accreditation

The Canadian Family Services Accreditation Program (CFSAP) is designed to provide an evaluation of the quality of services offered to families and individuals through the non-profit sector. It promotes quality assurance among family serving organizations in Canada by providing an evaluation of a service provider's Governance and Administration, and an evaluation of the following service programs:

• Family Counselling
• Family Life Education
• Community Support Services
• Employee Assistance Program
• Families and Schools Together

Designation as an accredited agency tells consumers, funders, donors and other human service professionals that the organization's services and operating structure have been reviewed and evaluated as having met established standards and as being worthy of their use and support.

The CFSAP is a national program operated and managed by Family Service Ontario. The Ontario Association of Credit Counselling Services (OACCS) is a partner in operating this program.

ACCREDITATION PROCESS

The accreditation process includes the following steps:

a formal application
a self-study completed by the agency
survey of personnel, board, volunteers and community
an on-site review completed by a review team 
a review team report on the agency's compliance with the standards
review of the report and recommendation by the FSO Accreditation Committee
approval for accreditation by the FSO Board of Directors 
re-accreditation every five years with annual monitoring assessment. 

REVIEWER QUALIFICATIONS

Accreditation reviewers are:  individuals with extensive experience as board or professional staff in the family services network, in other health or social service agencies or in the education field, carefully selected on the basis of their expertise and experience in health and social services and for their ability to make confidential, objective assessments, specifically trained on how to rate compliance with the standards and on how to conduct on-site reviews. 

ACCREDITATION PROGRAM MANAGEMENT

The Accreditation Program is managed at the offices of Family Service Ontario, and is carefully monitored and supported to ensure that: 

the standards for accreditation are continuously updated 
accreditation reviewers are well-selected and trained 
policies and procedures are current and relevant. 

ACCREDITATION COST

Accredited agencies pay an annual fee based on the size of their budget up to a maximum of $2,300 per year. Agencies outside Ontario pay a small annual surcharge to reflect the additional costs associated with their on-site reviews.