MONEY ADVICE SERVICE

The Money Advice Service believes it is important for clients who seek debt advice to have assurance that both the organisation they approach, and the adviser they engage with, operate to the highest standards.

The Organisational Framework

Overview

Defined under three high level areas of quality: Meeting Clients’ Needs; Well Governed; A Learning Organisation, the requirements of the Organisational Framework provide the foundation for raising both quality and consistency in the delivery of debt advice through the standards and quality systems that organisations adhere to. The framework covers organisational systems, governance, adviser skills and competence and outcomes for clients.

In addition to assessing alignment against the Money Advice Service Quality Framework for Organisations, the assessment process also considers the frequency, rigour and measures of third party assessment processes.

Holding a quality standard or membership code that is accredited to the MAS Quality Framework is compulsory for those organisations that are grant funded by MAS. It is further recommended to non-funded agencies as an independent measure of quality assurance and consistency, and to gain entry for free to client services into the MAS debt advice locator tool.

Initial Assessment

Application documents to enable you to make an application for accreditation against the MAS Quality Framework for Organisations can be downloaded from here. Recognising Excellence is on hand to support you with your application and any queries in the first instance should be made to: Lucie Rainford - lucie.rainford@recognisingexcellence.co.uk or via telephone :

Upon formal confirmation of MAS accreditation, accreditation will be a valid for a period of three years, subject to re assessments during this period in the event of changes made to the content, materials or delivery approach of an accredited programme or qualification. See post accreditation supporting documentation in this instance

Document Downloads Available

Application Form

Self Assessment Checklist

Application Guidance

Post Accreditation

Congratulations, your quality standard/membership code has now achieved accreditation against the Money Advice Service Quality Framework.

Accreditation is valid for a period of three years following your award date and will be subject to reassessment in the event of a change being made to either to the Quality Framework itself [hyperlink required here], or to the requirements of your Quality Standard/Membership Code and any associated scheme documentation [hyperlink required here].

This document identifies the conditions of accreditation and details the various components and levels of interaction that you can expect during the life of the accreditation award. The expectations of you, as a quality standard/membership code owner are set out in the matrix below.

A robust post-accreditation process assures the integrity of the Money Advice Service Quality Framework by ensuring clear and regular communication, transparency of requirements, and fostering effective relationships between all parties.

Introduction Document Matrix

Document Matrix

	Guidance	Tools/templates	Timeframes & Frequency
Promotion	Promotion fact sheet
Communication Strategy	Communications fact sheet	Customer satisfaction survey Annual feedback survey	Communications fact sheet
Conditions of Accreditation	Reassessment application	[see below]	Reassessment application
Organisational data submission	Organisational data submission fact sheet	Organisation data submission template	Organisational data submission fact sheet
Audit report assessment	Audit report assessment fact sheet		Audit report assessment fact sheet
Following change to standard code	Reassessment application guide	Reassessment application	Service level fact sheet Communications fact sheet
End of award cycle	End of award cycle fact sheet	Reassessment application	Service level fact sheet End of award fact sheet Accreditation certificate
Change to quality framework	Change to Quality Framework fact sheet	Reassessment application	Service level fact sheet Communications fact sheet
Accreditation Withdrawal	Withdrawal fact sheet		Withdrawal fact sheet