The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) have recently confirmed a change to the accreditation period for their Specialist Quality Mark (SQM).
The SQM accreditation period has been increased from 3 years to 5, meaning that SQM holders will not have to be audited as often in order to maintain accreditation status. This change has been applied to all audit activity where the onsite audit takes place on or after 1st October 2025. Once the audit activity has been completed in full, (including any period of corrective action), a certificate of accreditation will be issued, which will remain in place for a 5-year period.
Existing SQM holders will remain on their 3-year cycle until the expiry date of the current accreditation certificate, at which point, if the on-site visit takes place on or after 1st October 2025, they will move into the new 5-year cycle.
Note: For all audits where site visits took place prior to 30th September 2025, and a corrective action period was applied, the period of accreditation will remain as 3-years. In this instance, providers will transition into the 5-year cycle at their next SQM audit.
Further information is available within the SQM Application Preparation Guidance available on our website.
Our central team look forward to continuing to support with your SQM accreditation requirements and will continue to send out reminders of renewal anniversaries at regular interviews which will include an invitation to renew your accreditation.
If there are any immediate questions arising, please do get in touch with our central helpdesk
Email: sqm@recognisingexcellence.co.uk
Telephone:01452 688357