Leading Lights accreditation process

Leading Lights accreditation eligibility

You can apply for Leading Lights if you can meet all, or most of the following criteria.

Your service:

• Has been up and running for at least a year.
• Has a committed manager with sufficient time to dedicate to the accreditation process
• Has a SafeLives qualified Service Manager or have a manager willing to undertake this training with sufficient time to dedicate to it.
• Has a lead working at governance or strategic level who is committed to the Leading Lights programme.
• Systematically risk assess all referrals to the service.
• Attends and participates in a local Marac (or is involved in the process of establishing a Marac in the local area).
• Regularly collects data.

Key criteria and set of standards

The Leading Lights standards are designed to provide detailed guidance towards meeting the Leading Lights quality assurance accreditation for domestic abuse service provision.

The standards are split into four main sections:

• Service provision.
• Multi-agency working.
• Human resources.
• Governance.

Together, these four standards represent practice that is effective, sustainable and – above all – safe.

View Leading Lights key criteria and standards

Leading Lights accreditation costs

Services must complete accredited service managers training before undertaking Leading Lights accreditation. The costs of these are priced as two distinct elements (service managers training and Leading Lights accreditation) and are available below.

Voluntary service (income under £1 million)

• Service Managers training – £550 (limited spaces available)
• Leading Lights accreditation (for services with up to 10 front line staff) – £1,250
• Statutory and voluntary (income over £1 million)

Service Managers training – £422.50

Leading Lights accreditation (for services with up to 10 front line staff) – £3,000
The basic Leading Lights fee above is for a one day on site/remote assessment for services with up to 10 frontline staff. For every additional 10 staff a further day is required and is charged at an additional £500 per day.

There is a tired costing system if reassessment is require dependant on what level of assessment is required:

• Standard reassessment, (if some compliance points are not met), fee is £500.
• Enhanced reassessment (if a significant number of compliance points are not met), fee is £1000.

Statutory or voluntary?

Places for those paying the voluntary fee are only available to charities with an annual income of less than £1m. Once the limited voluntary fee places are allocated, we still welcome applications from voluntary and charitable organisations at the standard fee rate.

SafeLives is a registered charity and all of our programmes are run on a not-for-profit basis.

Training only

If you are not able to commit to the Leading Lights programme but wish to learn how to make your service more effective and sustainable you can still apply for SafeLives Accredited Training for Service Managers

How to apply for Leading Lights accreditation

Please complete the below form to register your interest for Leading Lights Accreditation for your service, and we will be in touch once we have reopened applications from new services:

Click here to register your interest

If you are an existing Leading Lights service and due for re-accreditation in 2024, or you would like to know more general information on the Leading Lights process, please refer to the FAQ document below or email the Leading Lights Team

Email the Leading Lights Team

Further resources about the Leading Lights accreditation process

• FAQs about Leading Lights 
• Leading Lights key criteria and standards
• Leading Lights Complaints Policy