Victim Support Europe has developed minimum standards for victim support organisations around the European Union and beyond. These standards can serve both as a guideline to accreditation to become a VSE Member organisation and, more broadly, to assist victim support organisations in setting up and evaluating their services.
These minimum standards can be a useful tool to guide victim support organisations in developing high quality, effective, efficient and consistent services. Minimum standards can reduce the risk of services harming victims and wasting scarce resources. Moreover, minimum standards give VSE confidence in its Members and help protect VSE’s reputation. This confidence is also likely to be reflected in national institutions and victims’ attitudes towards those services. Finally, such standards can guide organisations and governments around the world who are developing and improving victim support services.
The standards for accreditation are based on the following premises:
- These are minimum standards, to be complied with by all full members which deliver services for victims of crime;
- Standards are adopted with the presumption that all full members will be accredited as soon as possible: until accreditation is achieved, their status as full members will not be affected whatsoever;
- Standards are set to help members develop their systems and services and are not established as an obstacle to membership.
