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Outcomes-based CPD scheme for legal executives wins regulatory approval

The Legal Services Board has approved proposals to introduce an ‘outcomes-based’ CPD scheme for chartered legal executives.

ILEX Professional Standards (IPS) said the new scheme – which also applies to associate prosecutors and other members of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives – would go ahead in September 2013.

The scheme is to be phased in over a three-year period. It will include a new professionalism module covering matters such as ethics and client care.

IPS chair Alan Kershaw said: “The outcomes-focused 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.”

Vicky Purtill, Education Standards Manager for IPS, said the organisation had given itself a year to show members how the new scheme would benefit them as practitioners, the clients they serve and their employers.

She added: “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.”

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