The process of accreditation in more detail

The mechanism by which we assess a teaching institution as meeting the Board’s standards are briefly described under 'About Us' in the section headed , 'How we Acccredit' i.e. submission of documentary evidence, scrutiny of this by a committee, a team visit to the institution, then consideration of the team’s recommendations by the Committee and final decision by the Board.

While this is the process – supported throughout by the Accreditation Officers the need for institutions to continually develop their courses and provision means that, initially, accreditation is a staged process. For students this is important, as the earlier an institution is in the stages of accreditation, the less scrutiny the course will have been subject to. While some institutions complete the Stages of accreditation progressively, others may have more challenges to meet the Board’s requirements. At any stage of accreditation, there may be conditions to be met or recommendations for further development. This section describes these stages of accreditation in more detail but for full information please see the Board’s Accreditation Handbook, the BAcC’s Guidelines for Acupuncture Education, the BAcC’s Professional Code of Conduct and Code of Safe Practice and the BAcC’s Standards for the Practice of Acupuncture.

Notification of intention to develop a course to meet the Board’s requirements:
This is the first formal part of the process. Institutions submit a brief outline of what they are doing, or are planning to do, and commit themselves to thenecessary development. This commitment is based on their understanding of the Board’s requirements (in the Accreditation Handbook) and a discussion with Board officers. From the point of acceptance of their Notification, the Board (in an advisory capacity) will support the institution in their development of the course, the resources and infrastructure. From this point also the institutions will be required to pay the Board’s annual fee which is inclusive of all Board planned visits – details are available from the BAAB office.

Stage One (Provisional) Accreditation.
Within a year or two of the Notification being accepted, the institution will submit full details of the proposed programme, the policies on which it is based, the way it is to be managed and the resources that will be made available.  These documents will be scrutinised by the Accreditation Committee, and normally a visit is arranged for these to be discussed with the course team, and with students if the course has already commenced. A report of this visit is discussed by the Accreditation Committee and forwarded with a recommendation, to the Board which has the final say on whether Stage One (Provisional) Accreditation is awarded. Stage One (Provisional) Accreditation will only be granted if the institution has demonstrated that it has the potential to meet the requirements of the Board. Stage One (Provisional) may be awarded either to a course that has already commenced or to a course that is planned to commence shortly.
Graduates of courses that are in Notification or have achieved Stage One (Provisional) Accreditation only, are not eligible for direct entry to the BAcC, as the Board has not yet had sufficient evidence that the course that is being delivered is substantially meeting the Board’s requirements.

Stage Two Accreditation
Once the teaching clinic is up and running and the first cohort of students are in their second year, the institution may submit documentation for Stage Two accreditation. The documentation expected is normally a thorough annual critical course review. The visit will be longer and will involve observation of teaching in the clinic and the classroom, scrutiny of minutes of meetings, policies and course work as well as discussion with staff and students. It will also involve a clinic visit to ensure that the clinic is complying with the BAcC Code of Safe Practice. Graduates of courses that have achieved Stage Two accreditation are eligible for direct entry to BAcC membership.

Stage Three (Full) Accreditation
This can take place once the first cohort of students has graduated. Stage Three ensures that the standards achieved by the graduates are appropriate for independent primary health care professional practice.
From this point institutions can claim that they are fully accredited so long as they continue to demonstrate that they are meeting the requirements of the Board. This is achieved through annual reports, annual visits by the Accreditation Officers and intermittent renewed accreditation visits by a team. The period which can elapse before renewed accreditation will be specified at the time of full accreditation and will depend on the robustness of the course management and the overall quality of the course provision, and may be up to 6 years.