TVERC achieves accreditation

Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre has become the latest Local Environmental Records Centre (LERC) to become accredited. 

LERC accreditation is administered by the Association of Local Environmental Records Centres (ALERC) and was developed with resources from Natural England.  The purpose of LERC accreditation is to give LERCs an opportunity to demonstrate that they meet a minimum set of standards for organisation, data custodianship and services.  The benefits of doing this are two fold; firstly it means that LERCs are able to manifestly show to their partners, potential partners and data providers that they perform to a recognised standard.  Secondly, LERCs benefit internally from the introspection, internal review and self examination that is required in order make sure the LERC can provide evidence it matches the accreditation criteria.

Describing accreditation from TVERC’s point of view, their director, Camilla Burrow said, “I took up the post of TVERC Director in January 2012, and the ALERC accreditation criteria provided me with useful guidance on what I should be aiming for. The accreditation process itself gave me the opportunity to check that the processes TVERC followed were fully documented. Where TVERC didn’t fully meet a criterion I was able to seek advice and best practice examples from other LERCs in the London and south-east region. I think that ALERC accreditation assures our data providers and data users that TVERC is a professional and responsible organisation.”

LERC Accreditation is a continuous process and doesn’t end simply with a successful assessment of an LERC.  Even if successfully accredited, LERCs are given actions for further improvement and it is hoped that, at some point in the future, they will consider working towards advanced accreditation; a higher level of accreditation where the criteria are harder to pass and is aimed at the most developed LERCs.

There are two more LERCs who have accreditation assessments scheduled for 2013, but there is space in the calendar for more.  LERCs are encouraged to register their interest in becoming accredited as soon as possible, although it is understood that for many it is a large undertaking and time is needed to get it right.

North and East Yorkshire Ecological Data Centre (NEYEDC), based in York, was the first LERC to become accredited after the pilot in 2011 and you can read more about that here.

Tom Hunt – ALERC National Coordinator

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