Accreditation
What is accreditation?
Accreditation is a comprehensive self-assessment and evaluation model that enables organizations to examine past, current, and future service levels and internal performance allowing agencies to compare themselves to industry best practices. This process leads to improved service delivery for Southlake residents and business owners.
Who administers the accreditation program?
Based in the United States, CSPE (Center for Public Safety Excellence) is a credentialing and accreditation entity. It validates emergency responders’ continuous improvement in fire service agencies. CPSE developed a process using National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) criteria to allow public safety officials to improve their organizations while working to earn and maintain the public trust.
CPSE's Accreditation Program, administered by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI) allows fire and emergency service agencies to compare their performance to industry best practices in order to:
- Determine community risk and safety needs and develop community-specific Standards of Cover.
- Evaluate the performance of the department.
- Establish a method for achieving continuous organizational improvement.
Local government executives face increasing pressure to "do more with less" and justify their expenditures by demonstrating a direct link to improved or expanded services. Particularly for emergency services, local officials need criteria to assess professional performance and efficiency. The CFAI accreditation process provides a well-defined, internationally-recognized benchmark system to measure the quality of fire and emergency services.
What is the value of accreditation?
Accreditation through CFAI provides our agency the accreditation model, various accreditation publications, training and access to experienced peer assessors. By utilizing these tools our department ensures strict adherence to the highest level of standards. Accreditation benefits residents and businesses by:
- Ensures our departments' dedication to excellence
- Ensures an agency-wide culture of continuous improvement
- Ensures our department in communicating consistent leadership philosophies
- Ensures our department receives independent verification and validation of our operations
- Ensures tangible data to our stakeholders