On 14 March 2005 the ICT Training Unit of the Avon and Somerset Constabulary was granted Internal Training Department Accreditation by the Learning and Performance Institute (LPI), formerly the Institute of IT Training. In March 2007 this accreditation was upgraded from Standard to Gold and Avon and Somerset Constabulary was one of the first police forces in the UK to receive this accreditation. This accreditation gives the ICT Training Unit enhanced recognition within the organisation and demonstrates that an independent assessment of the unit's key processes have been carried out, ensuring the quality of service provision by an independent auditing body.

The LPI is dedicated to increasing IT skills within today's workforce and promoting the importance of those skills at the highest business and government levels. They believe that with IT's increasing strategic importance, the need for today's organisations to have access to the best possible IT skills has never been keener and that, however wonderful technology is, it is not technology alone that delivers business benefits – it is the people who use that technology.

The unit had to undergo a rigorous and exhaustive accreditation procedure. It was assessed against highly defined criteria and there are many organisations that are not successful.

There are two reasons why the accreditation of this unit is of value:

• Firstly, unit personnel recognise that they are operating in an organisation where they must provide value and it is extremely useful for the unit to be benchmarked against industry in general so that the force can be confident that the unit's services match or exceed that which is commercially available.
• Secondly, it is very helpful for us to demonstrate to management that we are committed to quality and to provide a professional service to the organisation.

Acceptance as an accredited internal training department signals to the organisation that high-quality, effective ICT training is being delivered, contributing to the efficiency and effectiveness of the organisation and making a direct contribution to force objectives. It also gives assurance that the unit conforms to a professional Code of Practice administered by IT's professional body giving customers confidence in the quality of service provision, delivers objectives-specific training and provides support and back-up to the training to ensure that the stated learning objectives are achieved.

This also identifies the force as a forward-thinking organisation which is seeking to achieve quality solutions in implementing IT to reduce crime and make our communities safer.

The ICT Training Unit has also recently gained further accreditation from the LPI as a Learning Facilities Provider (LFAP). This latter accreditation recognises the importance of creating the right environment for learning and best practice in the provision of learning facilities to our customers, both internal and external, to provide differentiation and a mark of assurance. The Institute’s LFAP is emerging as the de-facto standard in the IT training industry today and is becoming a requirement for the majority of training tenders in Government and blue-chip corporations.