OACCS Member Agency Accreditation

Why is Accreditation important?

Accreditation helps bring a standardized level of competence, professionalism and accountability to the field of credit counselling.

It is an assurance of quality for our clients and their creditors.

Ask yourself:

• Would you choose to send your son or daughter to a college or university that was not accredited?
• Would you seek medical care from a professional who was not accredited?
• Why then would you choose to hand your financial future over to someone who was not accredited?

What the OACCS accreditation certificate means:

Any credit counselling agency bearing the OACCS logo

Has passed a stringent set of standards required for membership in the Association. All agencies are mandated to adhere to these standards.

Examples of Standards:

The OACCS has standards of practice for governance, administration, general programme and delivery of service.

Specifically a few of these standards mandate that

• The Agency must possess a certificate of charitable registration
• The Agency must be bonded and insured
• Board composition maintains balanced representation so that no one interest group has greater than 40 percent representation
• The agency has policies and procedures for protection of financial resources and a risk management plan.
• An independent audit of operating and trust accounts is performed annually
• Counselling staff have a minimum bachelor’s degree and a Bankruptcy counselling designation.
• Debt management plans include a detailed review of income and financial obligations. The plan represents the client’s best effort to ensure the payment of all debts on the programme, and assures that all lines of credit are closed.
• All funds are disbursed within thirty days of receipt
• Debt Management plans are discontinued after two months of missed payments and creditors are notified within ten days.
• Clients files are confidential and the information contained in them can only be released upon the clients signed consent.
  

The Accreditation Process

Accreditation reviews are done every five years. The Agency demonstrates compliance with standards through a self-study followed by an on-site review. If the agency is found to be deficient in even one of the mandatory standards it will not pass accreditation. A reasonable period of time is given for the agency to make the required changes to bring it into compliance with accreditation standards.

Scope of the evaluation
There are over four hundred standards, of which two hundred and fifty are mandatory.

Mission and Vision: examines whether the design and delivery of service is guided by the needs of the client.

Governance and Administration: Assesses whether the Agency is governed by sound principles of management and ethical practice and meets all its legal obligations.

Human Resources ensures that the agency personnel are given an environment conducive to the efficient, effective delivery of service to clients.

Financial management: Ensures that an organization manages its fiscal affairs according to sound financial practices and applicable statutory and professional requirements.

Professional Practices: Determines whether services are conducted with due regard to ethical and professional requirements and protects confidential information regarding clients

Service Delivery: Ensures that the Agency focuses its services on identifying the needs and the problems of clients.

These standards

• Assure clients and creditors that they can have confidence in the Agency
• Identify which Agency is worthy of funding support
• Protect agencies against the pressure to lower standards
• Provide a solid risk management strategy
• Demonstrate accountability in management of resources