Who does the peer review?

Peer review is carried out by a team of trained peer reviewers with current specialist knowledge, skills and experience appropriate to the topic area they are assessing.

Peer reviewers assess the quality of advice given in a sample of your agency’s case-files. They then write a report about the quality of the advice that is evidenced in those case-files and this report is submitted to a quarterly Moderation Committee meeting.

The compliance mark for peer review in each topic is 75%. If your agency does not achieve a mark of at least 75% in an advice topic your case-files will be double-marked by another peer reviewer, unless you are awarded a mark of 50% or lower.  If this happens, your case-files will not be double-marked and only one peer review report will be submitted to the Moderation Committee. Double-marked reports will be submitted to the Moderation Committee with the original peer review report.

The Moderation Committee is made up of at least three subject specialists members (at least one in each of the topics of Housing, Welfare Benefits and Money/Debt)  working in the advice sector and at least one lay member with expertise in quality assurance, with our staff chairing the Committee, providing quality assurance input and secretariat.

The Moderation Committee meet once a quarter and make the final decision on the outcome of an agency’s peer review.