"We thought we had a pretty good scheme beforehand and had always had good feedback from participants, but going through the process has really made us examine our procedures, monitoring, evaluation and feedback processes to ensure that we are not just compliant to the latest regulations but go beyond the regulationsto ensure a quality mentoring experience for all participants and systems for continual development and improvement"

Annette Baxter, Careers Adviser, Sheffield Hallam University

Approved Provider Standard

The Approved Provider Standard (APS) has undergone a review which is now complete. MBF would like to thank all those who participated in the consultation. APS has been updated to ensure that it remains current and relevant to all sizes and types of organisations that operate mentoring and befriending projects.

The practical benefits of achieving the APS include:

• External recognition for safe and effective practice in mentoring and befriending
• APS is an accepted benchmark by government departments and other funding bodies that will help with your funding applications
• Increased public confidence in your mentoring or befriending programmes to help promote your programme to potential service users and volunteers
• Provides a ‘health check’ of your project to ensure that you are operating in a professional way
• Entry onto the online APS directory of Approved Providers to allow practitioners to network and share good practice and potential volunteers and service users to contact your project
• Entitlement to MBF membership whilst ‘Working Towards’ APS offering:
• Complimentary copy of Rapport magazine
• Discounted registration fees for our national training programme
• Resources and research available at a discounted rate
• Discounted registration fee for the MBF national conference
• Certification and use of the ‘Approved Provider Standard’ logo, to help promote and raise the profile of your project

Find out what funders and projects have to say about the benefits of achieving APS in this short promotional film: 'Talking quality standards'.

You can get an overview of the new format of APS by reading the Approved Provider Standard leaflet.

For more details about the changes please read the APS Journey which provides a detailed step-by-step approach to the revised standard.

You can also attend a FREE APS awareness workshop which will tell you everything you need to know about APS and how to apply.