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Assessment format
The assessment visit’s purpose is to verify your project’s self-assessment and action plan and to assess the key management and operational areas that underpin the effectiveness of any mentoring and befriending project.
The assessment visit will be carried out by one of our APS assessors. They will liaise with you both to make the necessary arrangements and set up a suitable time and date (a minimum of half a day is typically needed depending on the size and scale of your project).
The assessors have a range of questions they’ll ask so they can explore how your project complies with the APS detailed guidance. They’ll meet and talk to your service-users and volunteers to assess your project’s impact.
The assessment is informal and it’s important to stress to your volunteers and service-users that there are no right or wrong answers; the assessor just wants to explore and understand their experiences of mentoring and befriending.
You’ll need to ask your volunteers and service-users to attend the assessment so that the assessor can talk with them about their experiences with the project. To accommodate people’s different needs the interviews don’t always have to be conducted face-to-face. Let us know in advance if any of the interviewees have any access, communication or mobility issues.
The assessor will need to speak to a minimum of two volunteers, two service-users, the project’s co-ordinator/manager and their line manager. Here’s an example timetable of how you can arrange this:
| Interview the project’s co-ordinator | 1 hour |
| Interview the senior manager (if appropriate) | 20 – 30 mins |
| Interview mentor/s or befriender/s | 20 – 30 mins each |
| Interview service-users | 20 – 30 mins each |
| Feedback with the project’s co-ordinator/manager | 30 mins |
| Questions and answers (if needed) | 15 – 20 mins |
In addition to the interviews you’ve got the opportunity to showcase your project’s other items such as media coverage, photographs, videos, and the like.
Feedback
The assessor will summarise their findings and give you some verbal feedback that will include how your project matches up against the APS criteria and any development points. They’ll be able to indicate the recommended outcome which won’t be final until we’ve verified the assessor’s report. This is carried out by a member of our staff not involved in the original assessment and we’ll let you know the outcome by email normally within 14 days of the assessment date.
