The Housing Justice Quality Mark is an accreditation scheme for night shelter projects.
What is the Quality Mark?
The Housing Justice Quality Mark is widely recognised by government, local authorities, commissioned services, funders and even insurers as the kitemark for winter night shelter projects.
For night shelter trustees, staff, volunteers, key stakeholders and potential funders, the Quality Mark equips projects to give the best possible service to guests and offers third party validation that the night shelter is a safe place. A place offering a service that is truly valuable to the people in it, not just a place of respite or somewhere that helps sustains life on the street.
In addition to providing independent external validation, the Quality Mark offers the opportunity to celebrate best practice and drive continuous improvement to further increase the impact that projects have on the lives of their guests.
In 2023/24, we are running a pilot of the new Quality Mark, which has received external input from a consultant, and we invite projects providing Emergency Accommodation in single room settings to get in touch with us to discuss being part of it.
What is the accreditation process?
The Quality Mark accreditation process provides support, not censure, to enable projects to offer the best possible practice.
It starts with an agreement that sets out what is expected of the project and of Housing Justice, a framework to shape the process. You will also receive our Quality Mark self-assessment document, which you are required to fill out and send back together with a list of key documents, policies and procedures. This forms the basis for the assessor’s desktop exercise.
Afterwards the assessor and the project manager meet online to ask further questions, discuss the self-assessment and probe the documents submitted. A meeting with at least one trustee takes place either at the same time or separately. This culminates with a visit in person to see the project in action and validate the criteria in the assessment through observations of the environment and conversations with guests, volunteers and staff.
The visit may be followed up by further requests for clarification, and then the assessors score all the criteria and provide evidence for the scoring and recommendations or suggestions for improvements. An internal verification process at Housing Justice then ensures that the assessment captures best practice and recommendations for improvement, and awards the project one of the categories: Gold, Silver or Bronze.
Accredited projects receive further support to implement any recommendations, and as part of the pilot project we ask you to provide us with feedback.
What you need to know
The Quality Mark accreditation is a lengthy process lasting between 4 and 6 months on average. During that period, a dedicated assessor and other supporting members of staff devote much of their time and resources to the assessment, including travelling to see the project.
For this reason, the Quality Mark costs £1,000 for the accreditation. However, the accreditation is free for paid members of the WNS Network (£395 per annum).
Quality Mark accreditation certificates are valid for 3 seasons/years, starting on the year the accreditation or re-accreditation takes place.
That means to maintain a Quality Mark accreditation without any period of expiry, re-accreditation should occur every three years, with two off seasons between each re-accreditation season.
Re-accreditation is free for members of the WNS Network.
For projects that run all year round, the year period runs from 1st April to 31st March.
31 night shelter projects have been accredited to date.
If you would like to find out more, or you are interested in becoming accredited, please email us.
What people say about the Quality Mark
“There were some things [In the Quality Mark Recommendations] that I already wanted to either add or update a little and some things I had not realised needed adding. It was also good to find out about one or two things that I need to make clear to volunteers.”
– Night Shelter Coordinator
“Although the feedback and our practice seems to be of a good standard there were recommendations and discussions that Housing Justice has been able to advise on that will provide guidance and support as we continue to grow as a service in partnership with other churches.”
– Night Shelter Coordinator
“After spending some unnecessary anxious time worrying about the QM inspection, it was a pleasant surprise to review my work and to receive some positive and helpful advice and encouragement.”
– Night Shelter Coordinator
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