The Accreditation Providers’ Forum [APF] is a membership group which enables organisations to share learning on accrediting quality in the voluntary and community sector. The Forum was originally set up and serviced by CES [Charities Evaluation Services] with a grant from the Big Lottery. Since October 2010 when that grant finished, the APF has been managed on a collaborative basis by its members.

Although diverse, the providers are all leaders in particular parts of the voluntary and community sector. Promoting continuous improvement is a feature of the expertise and support they provide to front-line voluntary and community organisations through the development of bespoke Quality Standards relevant to their members. These Standards have been developed in response to the needs of front-line organisations where more generic frameworks are seen to have limited relevance, requiring disproportionate time and resources.