A new approach to continuing competence

Why we regulate The purpose of our regulation is to: protect consumers of legal services support the operation of the rule of law and the proper administration of justice

No guarantee of competence Wrong sort of learning and development behaviour – Compliance not competence Blanket requirement New approaches to learning and development Why change 16 hours?

Principle 5: “You must provide a proper standard of service to your clients” For a solicitor, an integral part of providing a proper standard of service will be to comply with the Competence Statement for solicitors Regulatory obligation

Removes requirement for solicitors to undertake 16 hours per year of CPD Focuses instead on individual training needs, making sure training is relevant and useful Reflect on practice Identify learning and development needs Plan and address needs Record and evaluate Make an annual declaration What does it involve?

1 November 2014, no requirement to undertake accredited training Stop authorising external and internal providers from 1 November April 2015, no requirement to undertake Management Course Stage 1 We will no longer award hours for our events Other changes

Learning and development can be tailored to individual, role and learning style Freedom and flexibility to determine learning carried out Competence Statement clarifies what we mean by a proper standard of service Benefits

Describes the core skills the public should be able to expect from solicitors: ethics, professionalism and judgement technical legal practice working with other people managing yourself and your work Competence statement

From 1 April October 2016, solicitors have been able to choose either to follow existing CPD requirements or to adopt the new approach From 1 November 2016, all solicitors must move to the new approach What does this mean for you

2016 PCRE Either: 16-hours declaration or new declaration if adopted new approach in 2014/15 CPD year 2017 PCRE All solicitors will make the new declaration PCRE

All solicitors that adopt the new approach will need to make an annual declaration Declaration made through PCRE by individual solicitor or on behalf of individual solicitor Have you / Has the individual reflected on their practice and addressed any identified learning and development needs or completed 16 hours of CPD training in the year to 31 October 2015 Annual Declaration 2016

What is reflection? Reflection means creating opportunities to step back from your practice to consider: How you think you are performing What you think you have learned from your experience What you might do differently next t ime Does not need to be time consuming

What is reflection?

Other sources Appraisal and performance reviews Client feedback File review Competence Statement Output of reflection is a learning and development need

The Toolkit

What is planning? To help you plan, you may want to think about: what you need to do why you need to it when you need to do it how you will do it prioritising your learning and development needs Record information Review regularly

The Toolkit

Development Plan

Addressing needs Any approach is valid as long as you can demonstrate how it contributes to you delivering a proper standard of service Tailor to suit learning and development needs It is important to turn learning into doing something differently in your job

Record and evaluate Record the activity you have undertaken: what you did how it was related to ensuring your competence what you learnt when the activity was completed Evaluate whether the activity addressed your learning and development need(s)

The Toolkit

Spring 2016 survey How have you adopted the new approach?

Spring 2016 survey How long did it take you?

Spring 2016 survey Have much did it cost you to adopt the new approach?

Further support Tool kit Blogs Video case studies Webinars Engagement events