Welsh Women’s Aid are delighted to launch the 2022 Edition of the National Quality Service Standards (NQSS)
The National Quality Service Standards form a set of accredited criteria against which Welsh specialist domestic abuse services are assessed, to ensure they provide the type of holistic, safe, high-quality and effective service provision necessary to enable survivors of domestic abuse to cope with and recover from their experiences of abuse. Organisations that apply for accreditation are required to complete a robust formal accreditation process to show that they have met the standards. The 2022 Edition of the standards has been updated to reflect current best practice, and was produced in consultation with survivors and incorporating recommendations from Race Council Cymru.
Welsh Women’s Aid CEO Sara Kirkpatrick said: “Ensuring that survivors get the right support at the right time is of the utmost importance. These standards serve as a benchmark for what holistic, high-quality, needs-led, strengths-based and gender-responsive services should look like. We are thrilled to launch them today and look forward to celebrating the excellence of specialist services across Wales who are awarded the NQSS quality mark.”
For this 2022 Edition work was also undertaken to align the standards to Welsh Government’s Information and Advice Quality Framework (IAQF), ensuring that Welsh Women’s Aid became an IAQF Approved Accrediting Body. Consequently, specialist domestic abuse services who apply for and are eventually awarded the NQSS quality mark will have also demonstrated they meet the criteria to be simultaneously awarded the IAQF Quality Mark.
The Minister for Social Justice Jane Hutt said: “I am pleased that Welsh Women’s Aid have secured IAQF Accrediting Body Status, this is a positive example of their commitment to ensuring survivors in Wales are served by the best quality information and advice services”
The launch has been warmly welcomed across the VAWDASV sector.
Dame Vera Baird QC, Victims Commissioner for England and Wales said: “Every survivor of domestic abuse must be able to access the right specialist support for them, at the right time, irrespective of where they live. The 2022 Edition of Welsh Women’s Aid National Quality Service Standards is vital to help ensure that services are provided to the highest level regardless of location and commissioned based on recognised standards and accreditation frameworks. This will ensure that all survivors consistently have access to holistic, high-quality, and needs-led specialist support, they so vitally need.”
You can find more information about the standards here: National Quality Service Standards (NQSS) – Welsh Women’s Aid (welshwomensaid.org.uk)