The accreditation process
Millie's Mark accreditation is a comprehensive process. It requires settings to have 100% of staff working directly with children qualified in paediatric first aid - but involves much more than this. In order to be awarded, childcare settings must demonstrate that the learning is kept alive and in the forefront of practitioners’ minds, so they are confident, ready and capable should an emergency occur.
When you sign up to Millie’s Mark you are signing up to a three to six month process of accreditation, involving:
Step one
You get access to the team of Millie's Mark Mentors, who are available to support you throughout the process.
Step two
The mentors can help you check your processes and procedures are up to the standard required through:
- A setting audit – this audit looks at your paediatric first aid processes and procedures. The audit requires evidence of: staff deployment; due diligence process; staffing and ongoing paediatric first aid training during the Millie’s Mark three year cycle; partnership with parents and external stakeholders; and documentation - policies and assessments and using these to inform improvement
- Staff confidence audit
- Staff training matrix
- Floor plan review.
Step three
If areas for improvement are identified, they can work with you to develop an action plan to support improvement.
Step four
When all the above steps are complete you upload the evidence to the Millie’s Mark website. An assessor is allocated when you have completed this and carries out a full online assessment and additional checks to ensure that you have met all the criteria for Millie’s Mark.
Quality control
A percentage of settings that have been assessed online will be subject to a spot check assessment on site and notified the day before the visit. This method of assessment keeps costs to a minimum for settings while ensuring the quality and integrity of the assessment process.
Further Support
Throughout the six months, you can access your mentor to discuss any areas where you are unsure if you fully meet the criteria and evidence requirements. You can also access IT support from us. Where improvement has been identified the setting is required to implement actions.
Final steps
To manage quality of the assessment process, internal verification is carried out on all assessors to ensure the decision making process is standardised. A detailed summary on both assessment and internal verification is then reviewed by the Millie’s Mark Panel who ultimately decide from all the evidence submitted whether to award or if further information is required to fully meet the criteria. This panel is in place to maintain the quality and integrity of the process and maintain the standard of Millie’s Mark.
Settings awarded Millie’s Mark will be promoted on the Millie’s Mark website.