Getting certified
So you’ve got your management system in place and now you want to take it to the next level? Here we outline the certification process so you know what to expect.
Once your organization has established a management system, IPC will work with you to schedule your first assessment with one of our team. Certification can be issued once your organization has successfully completed “Initial Certification”, this is comprised of two distinct stages:
Stage 1
An IPC assessor will use this first assessment to understand your organization and its’ processes, they will conduct a review of your management system documents and supporting records, their aim is to verify that you have viable management system relevant to your chosen scope and standard. If your system is found to be insufficient the assessor will provide feedback in the form of “Opportunities for Improvement” and agree an appropriate Stage 2 assessment date.
Stage 2
An IPC assessor will conduct a full process based assessment of the practical / “real world” application of your management system within your organization. The assessor will witness processes being performed whilst interviewing staff and reviewing supporting documents and records as they do so; information gathered will be used to produce a report. If anything is observed that does not satisfy the requirements of the chosen ISO standard, the assessor will issue a Non-Conformance Report “NCR”. On completion of the assessment the assessor will record their certification recommendation in their report; if any major NCRs are identified during the assessment, these will need to be amended with “corrective actions” before the assessor can positively recommend certification.
It’s important to stress that your IPC assessor is not actively looking for Non-Conformities rather, they are seeking to verify conformity with the elected standard and bring added value to your organization.Certification
With the Initial certification stages successfully complete, the reports from both assessments will be submitted for technical review, during this review another independent assessor will review the reports to verify that all the required information is present and the findings are coherent with the elected standard. This process is usually complete within 10 business days whereby a certificate can then be issued to you.
Certification Cycle
Certificates issued are usually valid for a period of three years subject to annual surveillance assessments, we refer to this period as the certification cycle. Annual surveillance visits will be conducted each year in the first two years to sample a select area of the management system and verify continued conformity to the elected standard followed, this is followed by a recertification assessment every third year in preparation for the next certification cycle; a Recertification assessment is a full assessment of all processes critical to the scope of certification.
Initial Certification and Certification Cycle
