ANCOR | About ANCOR: Position on Accreditation of Services and Supports for People with Disabilities

ANCOR Position Statement: Accreditation of Services and Supports for People with Disabilities

The American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR) recognizes and endorses the role of voluntary national and international accreditation organizations in improving the quality of services and supports provided to citizens with disabilities.

ANCOR endorses nationally recognized standards of best practice and quality and believes that accreditation is a statement to payers, people with disabilities and the communities that an organization has complied with nationally recognized standards of best practice and quality.

In advocating for the continued growth and responsiveness of voluntary accreditation, ANCOR will continue to actively collaborate with CARF, the Council, and The Council on Accreditation (COA) in order to assure that the standards and practices promulgated by these and other accrediting bodies promote the highest level of service, supports and professional practice possible. In addition, ANCOR encourages its members to participate in programs of voluntary accreditation.

ANCOR seeks to forge partnerships with critical stakeholders committed to continuous quality improvement in order to develop:

A framework that will sustain contemporary values of quality over time, in services and supports for people with disabilities, with the result that the people being supported will be pleased with their lives and less dependent upon others
Services and supports which will not allow people to suffer abuse, neglect, mistreatment, exploitation, or unsafe conditions
Stakeholder roles in the context of an outcome-oriented process emphasizing easy access by each person to services and supports with:
- Preference for training and technical assistance, rather than sanctions to enhance quality
- A focus on person-centered, rather than facility-based, inputs and processes
- A focus on personal outcomes, rather than provider inputs and processes
- Respect for personal choice of services, supports and providers
- Recognition of personal satisfaction as a measure of quality, which will
  - (1) assure mutual feedback among partners
  - (2) be different for different people at different times and places
  - (3) be an effective and efficient use of resources

ANCOR shall develop a major partnership related to quality improvement with national accreditation/quality improvement organizations whose standards and principles are compatible with ANCOR's and whose purposes and activities reflect ANCOR's concerns about the quality of effort in community services and supports for people with disabilities. As deemed appropriate by the ANCOR Board of Directors, formal affiliation with such organizations may be approved or denied on an ongoing basis.