Slides from Green Shoots Legal Learning update lunch from Dec 2014

1. SRA LEGAL LEARNING
UPDATE
The Start of the Journey ……..

2. Introduction
 The Legal Education Review began in 2011
 It had involvement from SRA, BSB and IPS
 Most substantial review of legal education
since the ‘Ormrod Report’ in 1971
 Primary objective – to ensure that England
& Wales legal education & training system
delivers more than the regulatory objectives
in LSA 2007
 To ensure an independent, strong, diverse &
effective legal profession.
 Final report was delivered June 2013

3. Key Findings
Broken down into 3 key areas:-
 Quality
 Access and mobility
 Flexibility

4. Quality
Strengthen requirements for training in
following areas:-
 legal ethics
 values & professionalism
 develop management skills
 communication skills
 equality & diversity

5. Access and mobility
 Establish professional standards for
internships & work experience
 Increase opportunities for career
progression within paralegal work, by
encouraging bodies to work together to
create a common set of standards
 Provide greater information on the range of
legal careers and the realities
 Support & monitor higher apprenticeships
as a non-graduate pathway

6. Flexibility
 Encourage regulators to co-operate in
setting outcomes to ensure baseline
standards
 Clarify systems for accreditation of prior
learning and how to transfer between
professional routes to avoid unnecessary
barriers
 Remove training requirements which restrict
innovative and flexible pathways to
qualification

7. SRA’s Reaction
Charles Plant, Chair of the Board, said:
"Our programme of reforms to education and training will
be driven by three overarching aims:
that clients and the public should have the highest
confidence in the quality and integrity of legal services;
that organisations providing legal services should be able
to employ lawyers with the skills needed to deliver those
services;
and that people with the ability to practise law, whatever
their background, should be able to obtain the education
and training they need in a way which encourages
excellence and diversity."

9. The next step …..
SRA released the “Training for Tomorrow” report in Oct 2013 and
began a consultation process. The key objectives being;
Rigorous - to ensure that those subject to it uphold the highest
ethical standards and have the necessary competence to deliver
safe, ethical, good quality legal services
Relevant - to produce lawyers with the right skills to deliver
those services
Flexible - to recognise the range of backgrounds and
experiences of the individuals subject to it and to enable legal
education and training to respond to the fast pace of change in
legal services markets, and
Inspires the confidence of consumers, the public, the courts
and employers

10. CPD Requirements – 3 Options
1. Shift from set hours to rely on provisions in the
handbook in relation to training and supervision
2. Replace current CPD scheme with mandatory
requirement to reflect on practice and start using
development plans without mandatory hours
3. Retain current requirement to do a minimum
number of hours but relate it to legal area and a
wider range of development activities

11.  May 2014 SRA release “Training for Tomorrow : A new
approach to continuing competence”

12. Competency Statement
 Released Oct 2014
 ethical behaviour
 technical skills (drafting, negotiating, researching),
 management of work (planning, prioritising, record
keeping)
 working and communicating with other people

14. Have your say ….
 Consultation period on the Competency Statement
ends 12 January 2015
 http://www.sra.org.uk/sra/policy/training-for-
tomorrow/Resources/cpd-position-statement-q-
a.page

15. Things to Think About
 Firms & Solicitors need to show they have
considered learning and development needs
 Training Needs Analysis considering the 4 areas
 Show they have taken appropriate steps to address
them
 Keeping records – CPD reflective log / firm-wide
system for recording should you have an audit

17. Timescales
1 November 2014 We will cease to recognise accredited training
Spring 2015 Publication of a toolkit outlining good practice in learning and
development and a Competence Statement defining the competences
practising solicitors are required to maintain
1 April 2015  Solicitors can move to the new approach to continuing
competence
 Changes to the Handbook to embed the Competence Statement
as one requirement for solicitors for compliance with Principle 5
(providing a proper standard of service)
October 2015 Practising Certificate Renewal Exercise for the 2013/14 CPD year
1 November 2016 The current CPD Regulations will be removed from the SRA's Handbook
and the Handbook will be amended to reflect the new approach to
continuing competence. Solicitors must move to the new approach

18. Thanks for coming