National Initiatives

National Settlement Service and Standards Framework

Executive Summary

This discussion document is the result of efforts of National Voluntary Sector Initiative (VSI) Working Group IV on Settlement Standards, Professionalization, and Accountability. The Working Group’s objective is to explore and further develop settlement sector standards in order to enhance services to immigrants and refugees.

This document discusses a range of significant settlement issues and presents a national settlement service and standards framework. Standards are generally agreed-upon norms that form a basis of judgement or comparison. This document divides standards into three broad categories: program standards, agency standards, and the core competencies of a settlement counsellor (job standards).

• Program standards relate to settlement services that are provided to newcomers. These are minimum acceptable quality standards that services should attain for a minimum acceptable level of service to clients, government funders or professional bodies.
  
• Agency (or organizational) standards concern the management and governance of settlement agencies, and also include organizational structure.
  
• Core competencies (or job standards) describe the knowledge, skills, personal aptitude and qualities that settlement counsellors should possess.

This document was developed through a consultation process that included a literature review, a survey of settlement agencies across Canada, and ongoing feedback from Working Group IV. Sixty-nine agencies from all provinces and one territory responded to the survey.

Section I clarifies what we mean by the terms “settlement service sector,” “settlement services” and “settlement” itself. It also looks at the values and principles that underpin our work.

Section II presents a theoretical framework for measuring settlement outcomes and includes definitions of key results-based management terminology. Current evaluation activities are also described, with an emphasis on the British Colombia model.

Section III describes the importance of having agency, or organizational standards, and lists the characteristics of competent governance and management standards. It also touches on the importance of appropriate agency structure and processes.

Section IV itemizes core competencies for settlement practitioners and settlement counsellors, and presents a code of ethics for settlement practitioners.

Section V briefly addresses the importance of having the settlement sector recognized, and explores the implications of establishing a national settlement body.

A number of practical documents are included as appendices to this document, including a model job description, a model performance appraisal and development plan, and various competency profiles.

Within the settlement sector, a dialogue on standards currently serves to create a commitment to common values and principles and a common vocabulary, and increase overall coherence. It is appropriate for standards to be adopted on a voluntary basis, or used as a tool to enhance the operations of settlement agencies, as well as to create common language and a greater consistency in the sector.

Among the concrete actions that can be undertaken by the settlement service sector in the near future are the following:

• Establish immediate, medium-term, and long-term outcome indicators of settlement, which can be measured and evaluated with the selection criteria in the document;
  
• Discuss the training, human resource, and financial implications of establishing minimum core competencies for settlement counsellors;
  
• Discuss core competencies of other key positions in the settlement sector, as categorized in Appendix C; and
  
• Conduct a feasibility study for the establishment of minimum service standards for settlement services across Canada, including but not limited to, human resource and financial implications, organization capacity building, case loads, time ratio to be spent in direct and administrative service, and a clients’ code of rights to access settlement services.

We hope to stimulate a meaningful dialogue about settlement services and standards, and to identify common priorities, linkages, and directions for actions that will lead to increased accountability, greater recognition, and better understanding of the settlement sector and its practitioners.

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