Quality assurance and accreditation overview| Leading Lights accreditation

MARAC quality assurance

What is quality assurance?

The CAADA quality assurance process is designed to promote good and consistent practice in and around the Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) to ensure that victims of domestic violence receive a consistent, safety-focused service wherever they are based whilst allowing for local differences in practice.

Over the last three years, CAADA has supported the implementation of nearly 200 MARACs. Drawing on the experience accumulated through our interactions with hundreds of MARAC practitioners, a set of 10 principles have been established, which we believe incorporate all of the key elements for a safe and effective MARAC. These principles are outlined in our MARAC Guide 2010 - From Principles to Practice, and are available to download individually below.

At the core of each principle is the safety of the victim, which needs to be considered at all stages of the MARAC process from referral to information sharing, and from action planning to administration. Ensuring that the victim has a clear voice and is supported by the MARAC is crucial to achieving safety and reducing repeat victimisation.

The quality assurance process is an opportunity for areas to review their practice in and around the MARAC based around these 10 principles. While the principles cannot answer all the issues that practitioners face, particularly in relation to resources, they do provide a solid analysis of the process of running a MARAC. We hope that this will help you identify both the strengths of your MARAC and those areas that could be developed.

When will my area participate in quality assurance?

We will always give you several months to prepare for quality assurance and areas participating in quality assurance will receive a resource pack. MARAC areas are offered the opportunity to participate in quality assurance based on when they received their first and second visits from CAADA. If you want to find out when your MARAC is due to receive the quality assurance element of the implementation programme please contact us.

There are some key documents that inform the quality assurance process which can be downloaded below. These include the Principles themselves, as well as the evidence grids which explain why the principle is important and the sub-principles that CAADA will use to assess these. Using these grids, areas have to submit evidence to demonstrate how they meet the 10 Principles.

Support

If you have any questions about the CAADA MARAC quality assurance process you can contact the team by email on qualityassurance@caada.org.uk or by telephone at 0207 922 7891.