How long will it take a service to become accredited?

The time it takes for services to gain accreditation varies, and depends on the amount of work required to meet the standards and the resources available to enable this.

Some time frames which services should consider are:

> service must be operational for at least 12 months before it can be eligible for accreditation

> the time between requesting an assessment and the site assessment is a minimum of 12 weeks

> for services who have had their accreditation recommended by the assessment team following a site assessment, the time between the site assessment and having accreditation confirmed is typically 6 weeks

> for services who have had their accreditation deferred by the assessment team following a site assessment, the service has up to 6 month to meet the standards and sign off their deferral reassessment. If the service can be accredited, the time to having accreditation confirmed is typically 4 weeks from signing off the deferral assessment.