Reading Borough Council secures accreditation to deliver pupillages
Reading Borough Council will be able to offer pupillages after being given accreditation as an Authorised Education and Training Organisation (AETO) by the Bar Standards Board.
New recruits will train and work in-house dealing with a variety of local government legal issues including childcare proceedings, the Court of Protection, Tribunals, and prosecutions.
The council revealed that it will be exhibiting at the pupillage fair on 14 October, claiming it would be the first local authority to do so.
In April 2019, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) published an Authorisation Framework which sets out the standards that an organisation must meet in order to provide education and training for the Bar.
The majority of AETO's are independent chambers who offer pupillages for the independent Bar. However, there are some accredited organisations who offer pupillages for the employed Bar - whereby the pupils become employees and are paid a salary.
The council was given conditional approval in May, and unconditional approval to be an AETO earlier this month.
Anne Haycock, Advocacy Team Leader at Reading, said: “There are very few local authorities who offer pupillages and we have worked hard to meet the requirements to reach the high standard needed to provide them.
“Over the last two to three years, recruitment has been a challenge. We have a number of trainee solicitors but also wanted to look at developing advocates.”
She highlighted Reading’s role as host of the Joint Legal Team, which works for all six Berkshire unitary authorities. “With legal services covering all of the county’s authorities, this means there is a huge amount and varied advocacy work in areas such as childcare proceedings, Court of Protection, Tribunals as well as other areas.”
Haycock added: “The Bar Council is very committed to supporting budding barristers to train and is really encouraging different types of organisations to think about whether they can offer pupillages as well as traditional Chambers.”
Michael Graham, Reading’s Assistant Director for Legal and Democratic Services, said: “This is a hugely exciting opportunity for us to extend the capacity of our Advocacy Team even further. Our training and development programme for young lawyers is now well established and we have good numbers of trainee solicitors, legal executives and apprentices coming through the system.
“It was an obvious gap to attract pupil barristers given the tremendous quality and variety of work we do in local government, the number of cases generated by our shared service and the opportunity for pupils to get the same kind of responsibility and training that trainee solicitors have enjoyed in local government for generations.”
He added: “We feel Reading is well placed to attract aspiring barristers; we have strong links to the University of Reading, a successful internship programme and the size of our legal function means we can offer great career development opportunities.”
Lottie Winson