Accreditation Guidelines
For
Children’s Advocacy Centers
Updated 2012
Table of Contents
Introduction3
Membership Categories4
Membership Benefits5
Standards as the Base for Accreditation9
NCA National Standards for Accreditation13
NCA Accreditation Procedures42
Recommendation Options for Applying CACs44
Appeals Process47
CAC Resources47
Tips for Applying CACs49
NCA Statistical Form 50
Name and Logo Usage52
Affidavit of Standards Compliance53
Critical Incident Report Form54
Investigation of Third Party Claims56
Introduction
National Children's Alliance (NCA) is a professional membership organization that equips local children’s advocacy centers, multidisciplinary teams and child abuse professionals with the support and technical assistance to respond appropriately and effectively to allegations of child abuse or neglect. By facilitating coordinated investigations and intervention services through the multidisciplinary team approach and through local children’s advocacy centers, NCA helps communities ensure that children are not re-victimized by the very system designed to protect them.
National Children's Alliancewas founded in 1987 by former Congressman Bud Cramer, then District Attorney of Madison County Alabama, in response to the needs of a growing number of facility-based child abuse intervention programs and the demand for guidance from grassroots organizations working with child victims.
Today, NCA is a membership organization providing accreditation and grants services to more than 750 children’s advocacy centers across the United States, as well asnumerous developing centers, multidisciplinary teams and child abuse professionals.
National Children's Allianceprovides guidance on all levels – from funding, accreditation and facilitation at the local level to policy leadership and advocacy on the national level. By supporting NCA, you support the heart of a national movement to help those who cannot help themselves.
For more information on NCA:
National Children’s Alliance
516 C Street NE
Washington, DC20002
800/239-9950
Membership Categories
NCA offers four different levels of membership, designed to meet the individual needs of local communities and children's advocacy centers, but offers the same outstanding leadership and guidance to all.
- Accredited Membership
Children’s Advocacy Centers that meet all 10Standards for Accreditation, including the Essential components and the Rated criteria, established by the NCA Board of Directors may be granted accredited member status.
After five years of accredited membership, sites and Chapters will repeat the application for membership and the site visit process. At the 1998 Membership Meeting in Washington, D.C., one of the strongest recommendations from the membership was that of agency “re-evaluation,” to ensure programs’ continued compliance with national standards and fairness of funding.
For further information about the requirements to become an accredited member with NCA, please see the details of this document. Information about benefits of this membership level and the application package, please visit
- Associate/Developing Center Membership
Children’s Advocacy Centers that are working toward but have not yet achieved implementation of all standards for accreditation may be granted Associate/Developing CAC status.A center may remain in the Associate/Developing membership level for up to five years.
For further information about the requirements to become an Associate/Developing member with NCA, information about benefits of this membership level, and the application package, please visit
- Affiliate Membership
Affiliate membership is offered to multidisciplinary teams that are working to improve services for abused children through a collaborative approach to intervention.
For further information about the requirements to become an Affiliate member with NCA, information about benefits of this membership level, and the application package, please visit
- Support/Individual Membership
Individuals or organizations wishing to make a difference in the lives of children by supporting the work of NCA may become Support Members through their contributions.
For further information about the requirements to become a Support/Individual member with NCA, information about benefits of this membership level, and the application package, please visit
Membership Benefits
Membership with National Children’s Alliance has always provided a wide range of benefits, from financial support, to educational resources, to the collective strength of being part of a national accreditation system. NCA’s accreditation process provides value and credibility when approaching legislatures, local government bodies, non-profit and community sources for funding support.
The following benefits are provided to NCA members:
a) CACs that have met national accreditation standards are recognized as having achieved a level of multidisciplinary collaboration and coordinated service delivery that significantly improves the experience and well being of children who are subject to child abuse intervention. CACs are seen as experts in child abuse matters and serve to educate the community about the problem of child abuse.
b) Member CACs receive support and incentives to organize on a statewide or regional basis to network, educate partner agency systems, legislatures and local communities on the importance of a coordinated response to child abuse intervention to promote the CAC model and support its growth and sustainability.
c) Member CACs have the ability to nominate, vote and or serve on the NCA Board of Directors and Board Committees to influence the development of the model, standards for Accreditation and promote visibility at the national level for the important work of local CACs and Chapters.
d) NCA membership provides access to information and resources for program innovation, quality assurance and empirical cumulative data. This provides opportunities for research about the efficacy of the model, program components and outcomes for children served.
e) The CAC model is premised on the benefit of collaboration over parallel process. As local partner agencies come together to improve their practice through collective effort, CACs within a state or jurisdiction form Chapter organizations which have a larger impact at the state level. Chapters in turn come together with the national organization to promote and support larger systems change. Member CACs and Chapters realize this benefit by use of the NCA logo and membership designation.
f) Eligibility for financial support through competitive and non-competitive grant processes in collaboration with USDOJ/OJJDP.
g) Subscription in NCA/trak, a national data collection system developed specifically for CACs. This system provides a state of the art, custom designed and upgraded, competitively priced data collection and reporting system that continues to build a national data archive providing opportunities for research on model efficacy and consumer outcomes.
h) Member forums including the member listserv and member only section of the NCA website is maintained to facilitate communication among programs across the country to exchange information, resources, strategies and collective problem-solving forums. These benefits not only move the field forward but provide education and technical assistance for professionals entering the field on a continuous basis.
i) Member CACs and Chapters benefit from services and activities developed through partnerships created among the National Children’s Alliance, the National Children’s Advocacy Center, the four Regional Child Advocacy Training and Technical Assistance Centers (RCACs), and OJJDP.
These benefits include:
1) Access to CALio, an electronic library of child abuse related books, periodicals, journals, research papers with search function established by a partnership between National Children’s Advocacy Center and University of Alabama.
2) Access to NCA/n.e.t., a video teleconferencing and webstreaming resource created through the leadership of MRCAC in collaboration with National Children’s Alliance and the four RCACs. This benefit provides current, affordable and frequent training opportunities for CACs and their multidisciplinary partners to access education calls, peer review for forensic medical providers and forensic interviewers as well as MDT Case collaboration calls.
Additional Information on New Benefits for NCA Members:
TeleHealth Institute for Child Maltreatment:
In the revised Standards for Accreditation, which become effective in 2010, NCA places a renewed emphasis on improving both access to and the quality of medical evaluations through children’s advocacy centers. For many centers, meeting the standard of care criteria for photodocumentation of exams and peer review of findings can be challenging, to say the least. The TeleHealth Institute for Child Maltreatment (THICM) makes child sexual abuse expertise available to all child advocacy centers medical providers throughout the United States, through advanced training and mentoring.
As confirmed by those centers already participating in THICM, the services provided are of the highest quality and are extremely useful. As Jay Wood, Executive Director of the Missouri Network of Child Advocacy Centers noted:TeleHealth was like a gift out of the blue. We had been trying to figureout how to support our medical providers statewide with a system of peerreview. The TeleHealth system has figured out all the issues and provided areadymade resource at a very low cost. We have been so excited toparticipate!
THICM's services include:
Expert Peer Review: By registering for expert peer review, advocacy centers can utilize high quality, cutting edge technology to ensure quality viewing of cases entered into the system and get anonymously connected to a nationally recognized expert peer reviewer, who will be assigned to review cases uploaded in to the system. Participants can expect to obtain a response within 48 hours of submission and are given the opportunity to give feedback about the review and the reviewer.
Mentoring: THICM has the capability to provide mentoring. Participating medical providers seeking mentors will be assigned to an expert medical professional who will provide one-on-one guidance, advice and education to assist in accurate and efficient diagnosis of child sexual abuse.
Distance Learning and Group Webinars: Similar to mentoring, THICM offers Distance Learning and Group Webinars as a means to mentor and educate groups of medical professionals, and offers CME credits for its classes.
NCA knows that the cost of services is always a consideration. To help defray the cost for this particular program, NCA is compensating the medical consultants, as a benefit of your membership. Additionally, the Regional Children's Advocacy Centers have underwritten the cost of hardware and the initial configuration. VisualShare has donated the underlying technology and software. However, as you might imagine, there are ongoing expenses for administration. Registration for THICM is free of charge. However, a $25/per case fee is assessed for each case uploaded into the THICM system; payment is prompted after a participant signs-in to the secure THICM website. Payment can be made via credit card or Paypal. Please keep in mind that generally this sort of medical expertise bills, on the low end, for $125 per hour. So, your total cost of $25 per case is a steeply discounted bargain made possible by the financial investment of NCA and the RCACs.
To begin the registration process, please visit complete a pre-registration survey. Once you complete the survey, a THICM administrator will contact you with further information.
THICM was spearheaded by the Midwest Regional Children’s Advocacy Center, and NCA thanks their leadership and staff for making this opportunity possible and available to cac’s throughout the country. In addition, NCA thanks the child sexual abuse medical experts from around the country who have agreed to consult on this project and conduct the peer reviews.
NCA encourages you to take advantage of this terrific resource as you continue to improve the care provided to children you serve and as you strive to achieve the revised standards for accreditation. For more information on THICM, please visit their website at
Background Check Services:
At NCA, we know that safety is one of your primary concerns – safety of the kids that we serve, but also for our centers, our staff and our supporters. A critical component of safety is background screening for employees and volunteers within children’s advocacy centers.
In the Revised Standards for Accreditation, NCA has placed a renewed emphasis on the importance of background screening, and the Standards read as follows:
The CAC has, and demonstrates compliance with, written screening policies for staff that include criminal background and child abuse registry checks and provides training and supervision.
The CAC has, and demonstrates compliance with, written screening policies for on-site volunteers that include criminal background and child abuse registry checks and provides training and supervision.
In addition, though it is not required, NCA strongly encourages its members to establish the same policies with regard to Board Members, if for no other reason than as a matter of due diligence and to model compliance to others.
NCA has devoted considerable time and resources to finding an efficient and effective resource for member centers to use for background screening. After surveying a wide panel of service providers, NCA determined that the services provided by the Safe Volunteers Project, a program provided by First Advantage Corporation that covers both employee and volunteer screening, best suit the needs of NCA and its member centers. First Advantage Corporation is a nationwide provider of background check and personnel screening services. The Safe Volunteers Project currently serves over 2,000 non-profit and volunteer locations across the U.S. for employment and volunteer screening and provides customized, cost-effective options for non-profit organizations in all 50 states.
Please note that NCA does not require centers to use a particular provider, and makes this recommendation for the sole purpose of assisting centers in finding a cost-effective, efficient and convenient provider for these services. To that end, NCA has negotiated pricing for First Advantage’s services on behalf of our members. We highly recommend their user-friendly, secure, internet-based program. To sign up for this service, please visit First Advantage’s website at or contact:
Teddi Cox
First Advantage - Safe Advantage Services
214-217-4065
This is just another way in which NCA is helping our members to protect our children.
Comprehensive Insurance Coverage:
NCA understands that one of the great challenges facing advocacy center directors is finding appropriate, comprehensive and affordable insurance coverage. Too often, advocacy centers face gaps in coverage because insurance providers simply don’t understand the nature of the services advocacy centers provide, or they have an unrealistic view of the risks associated with it.
While NCA does not endorse any one insurance broker, insurance package or underwriter, we do want to direct our members’ attention to CACip, the Children’s Advocacy Center insurance program. This program is designed to provide specific insurance protection and is available exclusively to qualifying children’s advocacy center programs.
CACip was created by a team of professionals from both the insurance industry and children’s advocacy center programs – including a member of the National Children’s Advocacy Center training faculty. Together they created a program that addresses the specific insurance needs of advocacy centers with a single carrier for all types of coverage. Types of coverage include:
· Property
· General Liability
· Professional Liability
· Vicarious Liability
· Sexual Misconduct/Physical Abuse
· Crime
· Automobile
· Directors and Officers
· Employment Practices Liability
· Workers Compensation
· Umbrella
CACip is designed to meet the NCA Standards for Accreditation.
While NCA expects its members to thoroughly research all of their insurance options, we did meet with the principals of CACip in order to present members with this option. The principals, David Harbarger and John Myatt, demonstrated a clear understanding of the nature of insuring advocacy centers, as well as several examples of recently underwritten centers who had save money on premiums and/or significantly improved the quality of their coverage.
For more information on CACip, please contact:
David E. Harbarger, CIC
256-428-1014 direct phone
256-428-1114 direct fax
Standards as the Base for Accreditation
Standards Formulation
In 1996, the Long-Range Planning Committee of National Children’s Alliance (then known as the National Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers) charged its Standards for Membership Committee with the responsibility to “present clear standards and pragmatic guidelines to help communities work toward becoming full member programs of the National Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers.”
Setting standards and improving practice in all Children’s Advocacy Centers has been a major goal of National Children’s Alliance since its inception. Setting this goal in the long-range plan in 1996 re-affirmed the organization’s commitment to learn more about the essential components of community based, multidisciplinary responses to child abuse.
The standards were revised to better meet the needs of child abuse victims in 2008. The new standards went into effect on January 1, 2010.The audit requirement for Standard 9, criterion d was revised in 2011 to allow CACs with budgets equal to or less than $200,000 to have a financial review; while still requiring Chapters and those CACs with budgets in excess of $200,000 to have a financial audit.
National Children’s Alliance Standards for Accredited Members
The purpose of Children’s Advocacy Centers is to provide a comprehensive, culturally competent, multidisciplinary team response to allegations of child abuse in a dedicated, child-friendly setting. A child appropriate/child-friendly setting and a multidisciplinary team are essential for accomplishment of the mission of Children’s Advocacy Centers and for accredited membership in National Children’s Alliance.
The team response to allegations of child abuse includes forensic interviews, medical evaluations, therapeutic intervention, victim support/advocacy, case review, and case tracking. These components may be provided by children’s advocacy center staff or by other members of the multidisciplinary team. To the maximum extent possible, components of the team response are provided at the CAC (Children’s AdvocacyCenter) in order to promote a sense of safety and consistency to the child and family.