What a Year 2018 Has Been
By Becky Roberts, Communications and Members Lead for the Male Survivors Partnership
As we come to the end of 2018 we thought we would take the opportunity to reflect on our year of achievements with the Quality Standards For Services Supporting Male Victims/Survivors of Sexual Violence.
January saw the launch of the Quality Standards at the House of Lords supported by officials from NHS England, the Home Office, Ministry of Justice and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners.
The response to Quality Standards was overwhelmingly positive and they have been downloaded by more than 150 organisations since the launch.
Also in January we opened the application process for the Independent Accreditation, Monitoring & Support Programme. This is a pilot of an accreditation process, and was our key activity for the second year of funding.
Not surprising but by the end of February 2018 we had received applications from almost thirty services. This was three times the number we could fund. Services were selected to have the maximum impact on the quality of support available for male victims/survivors and selection criteria included geography, number of clients supported, services offered as well as the service’s self-assessment against the standards.
Since then, all services have participated in teleconferences, and submitted documentary evidence against the Quality Standards. Many services had more work to do to enable them to provide additional evidence that they meet the standards, but as the year comes to a close so too does this process. The first site visits have now taken place, and looking ahead into 2019 we expect to see all pilot services completing the process. This will be the first accreditation of services meeting the Quality Standards and application of a quality mark which will be a hugely exciting time for everyone involved and will also represent a significant landmark in this whole process.
But the programme doesn’t end here. Following the award of additional funding by the Home Office, the application process for the next wave of service providers who support male survivors of unwanted sexual violence has been opened for a new cohort to start this process in February next year.
The Independent Accreditation Programme is operated by LimeCulture CIC. In addition to LimeCulture’s work with the pilot services, and our new applicants they continue to work with providers and commissioners interested in implementing the standards and accreditation. At the time of writing no less than three regions within NHS England, working in partnership with OPCC, have approved business cases to fund accreditation of all commissioned services.
Truly exciting times for everyone involved and we cannot wait to continue this journey over the next 12 months!