IRMS Accreditation Framework
Development
An Accreditation Sub-committee was formed in 2008 by the Information and Records Management Society (IRMS) Executive Committee and tasked with setting up an accreditation scheme for individual (including student and affiliated) members, as specified in the IRMS constitution. The scheme was intended to be inclusive and the first step in taking a young society into the realms of setting professional standards for its peers and providing a basis for further development.
The members of the Accreditation Sub-committee came (and indeed continue to do so) from a variety of backgrounds, reflecting the diverse nature of the IRMS. They looked at a wide range of existing accreditation and registration schemes including RMAA, ARMA, CILIP and ARA (SoA) in the information world, through to others in completely different types of organisations such as the Geological Society. The ARA also gave a presentation on their scheme to the Sub-committee.
These organisations' schemes formed the basis for determining what type of accreditation was in keeping with the society ethos and results received from a membership survey in 2009. It was decided that any scheme adopted would have to be:
- Inclusive - Inclusive in being able to cover the wide membership of the IRMS
- Realistic - Realistic in the way it would be applied and the time scales involved
- Affordable - Affordable for both the members and also for the IRMS itself
- Manageable - Manageable for the current membership to implement
- Achievable - Achievable for both the individual and the IRMS
- Sustainable - Sustainable into the future, to allow growth and further development
Most of the schemes examined, relied on a much larger membership base than the IRMS enjoys and had a number of different classes of certified or accredited membership. Many started at a very basic level which relied on knowledge but not necessarily practice, but then had significantly higher levels which required a considerable amount of experience, qualifications, peer review and additional costs, which were reflected in higher membership fees. The Sub-committee also looked at how some of these organisations had developed their schemes over time and how they had made the transition from simple membership, to fully fledged Fellows.
The Accreditation Sub-committee's recommendation to the IRMS was to develop a scheme which did not solely rely on qualification or experience at the highest level, but one which showed that an individual was working, learning, developing and actively participating in the wider Information and Records Management profession. They were then tasked to design the scheme, putting considerable effort into drafting and trialling, drawing on the experiences and documentation from other societies, as well as their own skills and work experience. They also had invaluable feedback and comments from the Executive, the Validators, and fellow members of the IRMS.
Aims
The ensuing accreditation scheme was incorporated into the constitution of the IRMS to offer professional recognition to any individual member working in the fields of records management, information management, information governance, knowledge management and any other allied profession. Successful applicants are entitled to use the post-nominal AMIRMS - Accredited Member of the Information and Records Management Society.
Accreditation was designed to be inclusive, aimed at individual members of the IRMS who can provide evidence and reflection on a variety of on-the-job practical skills and experience, academic training, project work, professional development, strategic input and policy- making within the profession. A lack of any one of these elements will not necessarily preclude accreditation, because different levels of involvement will count as points towards designated accreditation criteria.
Benefits
Being awarded accreditation, represents formal recognition that professionalism, knowledge, skills and commitment to the field of IRM and their associated disciplines, have been assessed by a panel of peers and judged according to specific criteria as being worthy of merit. It will also demonstrate to external partners that an organisation employs high calibre, knowledgeable practitioners of IRM. Organisations may like to record and publicise that their staff have professional qualifications as it shows both corporate dedication to staff learning and development and the value they place on professionalism.
Governance
The scheme will be run by an Accreditation Board, consisting of a pool of previously accredited members and an Accreditation Officer. The holder of this latter role will be co-opted onto the IRMS Executive Committee in a non-executive capacity, and will be responsible for:
- implementing the accreditation process through the Accreditation Board;
- monitoring and quality assurance of the process;
- future development of the accreditation scheme by the Accreditation Sub-Committee.
Corporate Accreditation
As with all societies, individual accreditation is what it says - awarded to individuals and not the organisation. Accreditation of organisations to show that they are meeting a set of standards is a very different process and involves different criteria. Given the diverse membership of the IRMS this will need to be considered carefully and was not part of the Accreditation Sub-committee's remit at this time or included in the IRMS constitution. The intention is to re-assess this decision in future.
Course Accreditation
The committee also examined the accreditation of courses at the start of its work, but it was considered that this was dealt with by other bodies and would be difficult and expensive for the IRMS to administrate. There could also be potential financial and legal difficulties. This again is possibly something for future development.