Volunteer Centre Newcastle

Volunteer Centre Quality Accreditation

Volunteer Centre Quality Accreditation is a set of standards to show that a Volunteer Centre delivers six important functions that are deemed essential to providing a comprehensive service to its service users.

Unlike some other volunteer brokers, Volunteer Centres deliver a service which is open to people of all ages and backgrounds, including people who are employed, unemployed, or studying full time. Accredited Volunteer Centres work with groups and individuals within their geographic area on volunteer related issues.

Volunteer Centre Newcastle is an accredited Volunteer Centre. There are other accredited Volunteer Centres throughout Tyne and Wear and the North East.

The VCQA standard is set by Volunteering England, who ask that we deliver services to a professional standard set by them in the following area:

1 brokerage

2 marketing volunteering

3 good practice development

4 developing volunteering opportunities

5 policy response and campaigning

6 strategic development of volunteering

The assessment process for Volunteer Centre Quality Accreditation examines the activity of a Volunteer Centre in delivering the six core functions of volunteering infrastructure. The accreditation process is based on assessment of a paper based portfolio of evidence demonstrating provision of the six core functions. Accreditation lasts for three years. The most recent submission for most Volunteer Centres in the North East is February 2010.

Demonstrating that we have met this standard requires quite a lot of work on top of the core services we deliver. It helps us maintain the quality of our services and that we do not focus only on certain aspects of our roles.