Green Light for innovative CPD Scheme

31 July 2013

ILEX Professional Standards (IPS) is pleased the Legal Services Board (LSB) has given the green light to its proposals for an outcomes based CPD scheme. Following approval of the necessary rule changes by the LSB, arrangements to introduce the scheme for Chartered Legal Executives, Associate Prosecutors, and other CILEx members will go ahead in September 2013.

IPS Chair Alan Kershaw said: “The outcomes focussed approach we have developed, and which the LSB has now endorsed, will strengthen the assurance that Chartered Legal Executives are maintaining their expertise as specialist lawyers. This is a significant development in CPD for the legal sector. It is consistent with recommendations made by the recent Legal Education and Training Review and marks a decisive move away from an hours-based (inputs) system to one based on professionals identifying their own development needs and meeting them year by year.”

Introduction of the new scheme will be phased in over the next three years, with eligible CILEx members able to complete a new professionalism module covering matters such as ethics and client care using the new outcomes methodology.

Chartered Institute of Legal Executives CEO, Diane Burleigh OBE, welcomed the announcement, saying; “CILEx is fully behind this new CPD system. It shows that our profession remains ahead of the game when it comes to outcomes focused regulation, and we will be on hand to support our members as the system is rolled out.”

Vicky Purtill, Education Standards Manager for IPS said: “The cyclical approach to professional development is commonplace in commerce and industry. The testing we carried out earlier this year showed that once members get over the ‘shock of the new’ they can see the scheme is both useful and do-able. We’ve given ourselves a year to show members how the new scheme will benefit them as practitioners, the clients they serve and their employers. We will make sure the scheme is understood, provide a supportive toolkit and set up administrative arrangements for CILEx members in the first instance. We will then roll out the scheme to other member grades.”

ENDS