FOCUS Accreditation Standards

The Foundation of High Quality Services

FOCUS Accreditation organizational standards are reviewed and updated regularly to ensure that we – and you – are up-to-date with the most current research, best practices and methodologies.

We use a consensus approach to developing and updating standards, that includes a review of current literature, legislation, and writings on quality in the community-based human services sectors, as well as an extensive, comparative analysis of similar standards. While this process is labour intensive, as an organization we strongly feel this approach is best, because it directly involves the people and groups who have the highest stakes in the quality of services provided:

• People using services and their family members where appropriate,
• People directly providing services,
• Representatives from funding bodies,
• Professionals in the sectors,
• and, others as necessary.

The purpose of the standards is to improve the quality of services being provided to the people who use them.  They reflect current stakeholder expectations, research, accepted sector successful practices, as well as relevant legislation related to human services. They are written in a manner that allows organizations to maintain and protect their unique culture, offerings and approaches, while fostering a culture of learning, development and growth.

We’ve organized these standards by domains – there are eleven “core” domains that apply to all organizations, regardless of the type of services they provide, and six “service-specific” domains with standards that are unique to specific service sectors – one, some or all may apply to an organization depending on the services they offer.

FOCUS is pleased to support the improvement of service quality for organizations of all sizes, by making a sample of our standards available free to organizations who request a quote for our services – click here to request a quote or call us at 1.866.805.2600.

Organizations who choose to register with us and begin the accreditation process are given a complete set of our standards as a part of our ongoing commitment to transparency.

“Going through the accreditation process and preparing for the last three years allowed us to review every area of our organization. It challenged us to take an in-depth look at what we do and how we do it to ensure we are providing quality service. As a result, there were a number of modifications needed to streamline some aspects of service as well as areas that needed to be developed…Moving forward with our Quality Improvement Plan and a focus on the identified area for improvement will assist us in reaching our vision of being the leader in providing Independent Living Services.”

Sandi Bench, Director of Client Services, Cheshire Homes (Hastings – Prince Edward)