What does accreditation actually mean? How does it work? Does accreditation mean an organisation has everything figured out? (Quick spoiler alert: it doesn’t!) What does it tell us about an organisation’s commitment to welcoming and belonging, and what does the process look like in practice?
As Welcoming Australia’s Accreditation framework continues to grow across the breadth of our work, and more local government organisations and universities are becoming accredited through their relevant Standard, these are questions we’re hearing more often.
To help demystify the process, we sat down with the people who help shape, implement and assess the Standard every day: CEO Aleem Ali, COO Niyati Acharya, Senior Research Analyst Olga Cherniak, Welcoming Universities Coordinator Trisnasari Fraser, and Welcoming Cities Manager Sebastian Geers and Coordinator Bel Schenk.
Together, they shared insights into why Welcoming Australia’s accreditation process was developed, what it does (and doesn’t) assess, common misconceptions, and how organisations across different sectors are using the framework to strengthen their welcoming, inclusion and belonging work in practice.
Why accreditation?
At its core, accreditation recognises and celebrates an organisation’s commitment to creating welcoming and inclusive environments.
We know that many organisations want to create environments where everyone belongs and thrives. The challenge is often knowing what good practice looks like, how to measure progress and where to focus their efforts.
As Aleem explains; “Standards and accreditation help an organisation benchmark what success might look like. Sometimes it’s a case of ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’, and organisations often consider the Standard to get a sense of how they’re progressing and also things they may not have considered. It’s about continuous learning and improvement.”
For Niyati, the Standard provides both structure and accountability; “Encouraging good practice is important, but encouragement alone does not create consistency, accountability or shared expectations. The Standard works as both a toolkit and a roadmap, providing tangible outcomes for organisations that want to strengthen their practice.”
Both emphasise that welcoming and belonging cannot simply exist as aspirations, but need to be embedded within operations, decision-making, resource allocation and importantly how success is measured and celebrated.
Aleem explains that Welcoming Australia’s Standard helps organisations make the shift from tick-box DEI to the application of welcoming, inclusion, and belonging as core business practices:
“Our friend Mark Yettica-Paulson talks about symbol and substance. Both are important, but it’s not enough to fly the flag (symbol) or communicate a commitment to welcoming, inclusion and belonging. That narrative is a statement of vision and intent, but you also need to do the work (substance). Doing the work is a daily practice of seeking to embed welcoming, inclusion and belonging for all in and across everything an institution says and does. Stories of Welcome (publication) tells the story of the work.”
What does accreditation actually involve?
The process begins with support. Organisations work alongside Welcoming Australia to understand the Standard, the evidence requirements and expectations before preparing their application for accreditation.
Applications are then assessed against the indicators within the accreditation framework using two broad categories of evidence: policy and implementation.
Policy evidence demonstrates an organisation’s commitment and intent and may include action plans, policies, procedures, frameworks, reports, and other formal documents.
Implementation evidence demonstrates how these commitments are being translated into practice and may include meeting minutes, attendance records, consultation outcomes, evaluation reports, communications and public announcements and examples of activities delivered on the ground.
“Together, these two forms of evidence help demonstrate not only what an organisation says it will do, but also what it is actually doing”, Olga explains.
For Advanced and Excelling level applications, focus groups are typically conducted with staff, community members, students, or other stakeholders. These conversations help validate the evidence provided, identify achievements, and provide an opportunity for participants to raise concerns or highlight areas for improvement.
Throughout the process, the emphasis remains on evidence, reflection and learning.
What accreditation is – and isn’t
Perhaps the most important thing to understand is what accreditation does and does not represent.
One of the most common misconceptions about accreditation is that accreditation means an organisation has achieved perfection.
However, that’s not the case. As Olga explains; “In reality, accreditation recognises progress, commitment, and demonstrated practice. It acknowledges where an organisation is on its journey and the work it has undertaken to create more welcoming and inclusive environments.
The goal is not perfection, but progress.”
That distinction matters because we know that organisations are complex. Challenges can coexist alongside strong practice, and meaningful change takes time.
“In an ideal world, every organisation would fully achieve every indicator and continuously improve over time. However, creating welcoming and inclusive environments is a complex and ongoing process. Accreditation recognises organisations that can demonstrate genuine commitment, meaningful action, and measurable progress, while also encouraging them to continue developing and strengthening their practice into the future.”
Accreditation recognises organisations that can demonstrate commitment, action and measurable progress while encouraging continued growth and improvement. Accredited organisations are committed to the ongoing work of creating places where everyone belongs and thrives.
What do organisations discover through accreditation?
One of the most consistent pieces of feedback from organisations is that accreditation helps them better understand themselves. Many accredited organisations are surprised by the amount of work already taking place across different departments, teams and business units.
Olga shares that “Accreditation often uncovers initiatives, partnerships and practices that individual teams were not aware of.”
This experience is reflected across sectors. In universities, Trisnasari has seen accreditation help institutions bring together work that is often dispersed across large and complex organisations.
“One of the universities undergoing accreditation reported that the accreditation process was a very useful exercise in benchmarking, collating information into one place, seeing where the gaps are and creating a workplan to improve going forward. This is particularly useful for large complex institutions which are often siloed between schools/departments,” she shares.
For local government, Bel sees a similar pattern:
“Many councils are already doing excellent work, but accreditation helps them understand the full picture. Often, councils don’t realise how much is happening across different departments, or where there may be gaps and opportunities for improvement. We regularly hear from community development or multicultural officers who discover that colleagues in areas such as planning, customer service or economic development are already implementing practices that support inclusion and participation.
Conversely, if they know that they are not, the process helps them to implement new measures.”
Across both sectors, accreditation helps organisations identify strengths, connect existing work and create a clearer pathway forward for improvement.
What does welcoming look like in practice?
The realities of welcoming and belonging look different across different sectors.
Universities are navigating tensions around academic freedom, safety, racism and participation within increasingly complex environments. As Trisnasari reflects, “External world events have been linked to patterns of heightened risk of racism at universities. Another challenge is that universities are such large complex institutions where good practice can coexist with areas requiring improvement.”
Local governments are also balancing competing priorities, budget constraints and growing community expectations while playing an important role in community wellbeing, inclusion and social cohesion.
Both Bel and Trisnasari point to a common lesson: When welcoming practices become part of everyday business rather than a standalone project, organisations are better positioned to meet the needs of all community members.
Bel points to small but meaningful changes that can remove barriers to participation:
“Sometimes small changes can have a significant impact. For example, reviewing forms, websites, communications and customer service processes through the lens of accessibility and inclusion can remove barriers that many people experience every day. We’ve seen councils such as the City of Greater Bendigo make subtle but important changes to improve accessibility and participation, and they won the Welcoming Cities Award for Change for this.
Inclusion doesn’t always require a large new program; often it’s about making existing systems easier for people to navigate and engage with.”
Trisnasari highlights initiatives that create opportunities for participation and belonging, including Victoria University’s New Horizons project creating employment pathways for refugee and asylum-seeking students and University of Melbourne’s Truth and Justice Project, a signature project of Murmuk Djerring, the University’s current Indigenous strategy.
In both university and local government context, the focus is not simply on the programs itself, but on their impact on advancing places where everyone belongs, thrives and shapes our shared future.
Aleem emphasises that “we prioritise systems transformation and institutional change because they are where we can have the greatest long-term impact. It’s rarely glamorous and is slow, patient work, but it’s a privilege to walk alongside organisations and communities across the country that are committed to positive change.”
Looking ahead – what does success look like?
For Welcoming Australia, accreditation is not the end point, but a tool that helps organisations reflect, learn and strengthen their practice over time.
As more organisations undertake that journey, the impact extends beyond individual institutions and on the broader society.
As Niyati explains: “Our vision will only be realised when welcoming and belonging are embedded in the systems, structures and cultures of the organisations that shape people’s daily lives.”
And as Aleem puts it:
“Welcoming, inclusion and belonging as core business in our local councils, sports clubs and codes, universities and workplaces would realise our vision of communities where everyone belongs.”
Read a summary of the Welcoming Universities Standard
Learn more about accreditation and assessment
Contact universities@welcoming.org.au for more information.