Minister congratulates accredited agencies

Statement by Minister of Community, Culture and Sports Wayne Scott

Good morning and thank you for coming.

I am pleased to announce that the Bermuda National Standards Committee has completed another successful year with accreditation of four human service providers and certification of one charity effective January 1st, 2014. These private and public agencies have demonstrated that they are operating at an international level of best practice in all areas and will continue to report on their success and growth to the BNSC each year over the span of the next four years.

The agencies that were accredited by BNSC were:

Employee Assistance Programme of Bermuda

The Cross Ministry Intervention Team under the Government Department of Child & Family Services.

Also two agencies were re-accredited,

Foster Care Services

Child Protection Services

Both agencies fall under the remit of the Bermuda Government’s Department of Child & Family Services and now all of the sections under the Department of Child and Family Services have now achieved accreditation through the BNSC.  This is great news and I wish to congratulate the team at the Department of Child and Family Services for their hard work and perseverance.

For those charities that do not provide a direct prevention or intervention service but still desire a vehicle for demonstrating accountability and validating the high quality of their work, BNSC offers the certification process.  This year the Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre was certified by the BNSC and will continue to report on its success and growth to the BNSC each year over the span of the next four years.

In 2004, private donors, government representatives, and human service professionals formed BNSC.  Their overall objective is to ensure that Bermuda addresses our growing social challenges collaboratively, demonstrate quality outcomes and make the most of limited resources especially in these economic times. The BNSC offers accreditation and certification to non-profit organizations and government services to create opportunities to strengthen their operations and programs in order to demonstrate that they are operating at an international level of best practice.

In 2005 the BNSC established a memorandum of understanding with the Council on Accreditation (COA) in New York to operate the first international COA accrediting process. The agreement includes a commitment to preserve the international standards and use international reviewers while maintaining a less expensive and more culturally relevant Bermuda operation. Bermuda was the first country to forge such a partnership.

I wish to congratulate the Bermuda National Standards Committee for their commitment to safeguard the practices and delivery of services for our human service agencies in Bermuda.  BNSC has assisted public, private and charitable agencies to set the standard of international excellence and the result is immensely important for our community. 

I would encourage local charities and human service groups in Bermuda to continue to participate in this demanding process of accreditation and certification to ensure that the level of care in our community is on par with international standards of quality of care.

Now I’d like to ask Mr. David Lang Chairman of Bermuda National Standards Committee to make a few brief remarks. 

Chairman of BNSC, David Lang said, “BNSC has since 2005, provided internationally recognised accreditation status to eleven agencies in Bermuda that provide prevention and intervention programming in the field of human services. Six of those agencies make up the Government Department of Child and Family Services. The other five are Bermuda Charities. A total of twelve charities are now certified through BNSC. Ten agencies that comprise of Government and Charity sectors have already committed to the accreditation and certification process ending 2014 and the Bermuda National Standards Committee is welcoming more applicants for next year.”