SRA’s new approach to CPD focuses on continuing competence and is built around compliance with Principle 5 of the SRA Handbook which stipulates that solicitors must ‘provide a proper standard of service to your clients’.
The aim of the new scheme is to provide solicitors with the freedom and flexibility to decide for themselves what training and development they need to undertake in order to perform their role effectively and thereby maintain their continuing competence.
The SRA has identified a core set of competencies that are common to all solicitors regardless of their role, practice area or level of experience and have set these out within their Competence Statement. The statement has been divided into the following 4 domains:
1. Ethics, professionalism and judgement
2. Technical legal practice
3. Managing yourself and your work
4. Working with other people
Solicitors will be expected to reflect on the quality of their practice, with reference to the SRA’s Competence Statement and the domains detailed above, in order to determine whether they are competent or whether they require any training in order to maintain their continuing competence.
If a solicitor identifies a learning and development need, they will be expected to set themselves training targets each year and then record if and how this target has been achieved. Solicitors will be required to reflect on how they have put any new knowledge which they have gained into practice and how this has assisted them achieve continuing competence.
The SRA hope to encourage solicitors to continually monitor their competence, identify training needs as they arise and ensure that they are addressed in a timely fashion, as opposed to the usually rush to complete training which occurs towards the end of the CPD year in September and October.
To assist solicitors manage their training needs and thereby ensure their continuing competence, Datalaw offer a number of flexible training options which include:
- Competitively priced individual courses which can be viewed on demand 24/7
- Discounted course bundles in a single area of law e.g. regulatory & compliance
- Firm wide memberships in multiple areas of law
- Access all Areas membership which includes all specialist, regulatory and management courses
- Bespoke training courses, including in-house delivery and based on your firm’s training needs
All purchases will also include access to our SRA Self-Assessment to assist practitioners determine what training they require and a bespoke learning management platform which will evidence your training and reflection.