Written evidence from the Chartered Management
Institute and Institute of Business Consulting (CMI and IBC)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
— This is a submission from the Chartered
Management Institute (CMI) and the Institute of Business Consulting
(IBC), leading professional bodies dedicated to raising standards
of management, leadership and consultancy across all regions and
sectors of the UK. Our focus in responding is how the arrangements
for Local Enterprise Partnerships can offer new ways for providing
effective local business support networks, which can play a critical
role in improving management capability and driving local economic
performance. — To drive up the effectiveness and reputation
of business support, we believe that quality assurance frameworks
for business support and advisory services are best led nationally.
In previous years, the Regional Development Agencies have invested
in developing their own structures and processes, creating complex
regional differences with very mixed results.
— The reduction of any duplication of publicly-funded
business support is strongly supported by the CMI and IBC. We
welcome the stronger involvement of local authorities and stated
commitment to work with universities and further education colleges
and look forward to the role that professional bodies can contribute
through their local and regional networks.
— The professions have strong communications
channels to local business communities which can be harnessed
to provide guidance and support that may have previously have
been delivered through Government's own communications budget.
— Professional bodies can play a key role
in raising national standards by providing greater access to their
existing quality assurance frameworks. A key example is the IBC's
National Register of Business Support Professionals. This free,
online Register provides the opportunity for all business support
agencies to commit to common quality standards. All registered
advisers and consultants are committed to maintaining clear standards
of business delivery, competence and professionalism.
— By enabling businesses to access quality
support services, the Register meets the needs of businesses requiring
specialist resources for growth or improvement projects as the
Government moves away from a grant culture towards one that is
based on repayable loans. This model is already being adopted
by the Welsh Assembly in the wake of its new Economic Renewal
Programme.
— We believe that business support services
and activities should reach those who are most in need, are cost
effective, and deliver improved business performance. For businesses
seeking external support the quality of advice is paramount, and
professional bodies can provide national quality assurance frameworks
and guidance.
OVERVIEW OF
CMI AND IBC
As UK-wide professional bodies which engage
with many thousands of employers to support both their skills
and business development needs, we believe that the future delivery
of business support can be better served by the use of national
quality standards which will help ensure that support is easily
understood, accessible and offer value for money.
The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) is
the only chartered professional body dedicated to management and
leadership, with some 88,000 individual members across the UK.
Our members are employed at all levels of management within business
and public sector organisations.
The Institute of Business Consulting (IBC) is
an Institute within CMI. It was launched in April 2007 following
the merger of the Institute of Business Advisers and the Institute
of Management Consultants and thereby brought together business
advisers and management consultants into one profession, "business
consulting".
Business consulting is primarily about improving
business practice and performance, in all types and sizes of organisation.
It includes individuals in all sizes of practice, from those working
independently through to very large firms of consultants. It serves
all types of organisations: start-up businesses and small, medium
or large organisations in private, public and voluntary sectors.
It therefore touches on all areas of the UK economy. IBC is the
professional body for all professionals engaged in this way and
has been established to raise standards of professional practice
in support of better business performance. It provides a recognised
career and development path for the profession supported by a
qualification route with multiple entry routes.
HOW CAN
LOCAL ENTERPRISE
PARTNERSHIPS (LEPS)
WORK WITH
PROFESSIONAL BODIES?
The creation of the LEPs creates an opportunity
for closer partnership working with the professional bodies. The
professional bodies boast substantial memberships across local
employers. Both CMI and IBC have branch networks across the country—which
provide communication channels and networks for sharing knowledge
and good practice between management professionals. These networks
enjoy strong local relationships with other professional bodies
and institutions. These communication channels to professional
bodies' members, which collectively add up to a significant proportion
of the workforce, can provide an alternative route to providing
new guidance at a time when Government is significantly reducing
its communications budgets.
While it appears that the Government is determined
not to be prescriptive about the structures of the LEPs, it would
be a missed opportunity to ignore the under-utilised potential
of the professional bodies as local partners and stakeholders.
We hope the Committee will recommend that the Government encourages
LEPs to develop links with the professional bodies in their areas.
CMI has a track record of working in partnership
with the RDAs. In 2009 the Northwest Regional Development Agency
(NWDA) supported a pilot to help improve employer access to the
professional bodies through the skills brokerage community in
the North West. It included the development of new online resources
for the business support community in the region to help signpost
to the management and leadership development opportunities provided
by the leading professional bodies. We hope that, whether responsibility
for business support is centralised or devolved to certain LEPs
as the Secretary of State has hinted, that there will be chances
to build on this work and the tools developed during this process.
REFORMING BUSINESS
SUPPORT: CURRENT
ISSUES
We have received significant feedback from IBC
members reflecting their dissatisfaction at the processes which
have been used by the RDAs and Business Links to demonstrate that
the business advisers they work with are currently competent.
The current process requires the business adviser to be assessed
against the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Business
Support. The NOS are set by the Small Firms Enterprise Development
Initiative (SFEDI), which is the UK Standards Setting Body for
Business Support and Business Enterprise. However, many RDAs have
failed to recognise that the assessments can be validated by several
awarding bodies, who provide such validation through a range of
endorsed awards and qualifications and who use an assessment procedure
set against the NOS. All such awarding bodies are regulated by
Ofqual.
Restrictive practices which compel business
support professionals to register with each region have also led
to confusion about how different accreditation requirements might
be implemented. Some accreditation requirements have also been
costly—while other less expensive, but equally rigorous,
alternatives in the marketplace have not been accepted.
We propose that under the new arrangements Government
centrally adopts a clear quality framework which sets out a range
of accepted quality standards and accreditation routes for business
advisers and consultants. This would maintain standards but would
reduce the high costs currently incurred through the adoption
of a very prescriptive approach determined by regional or local
agencies.
THE NATIONAL
REGISTER OF
BUSINESS SUPPORT
PROFESSIONALS
The National Register of Business Support Professionals
(hereafter "the National Register") already exists to
give easy identification of individuals who can demonstrate competence
in business support. It provides National Common Standards for
business advisers or brokers and a single point of contact for
anyone wanting support for their business.
Created in 2007, the National Register is open
to all practising business advisers and consultants who wish to
go on it (it is not restricted to members of any specific organisation).
The person registering can list their qualifications and highlight
their experience as business advisers or consultants and they
are required to state what evidence they have which demonstrates
current competence from a list of acceptable qualifications.
The National Register was given widespread backing
upon its creation. It was approved by the Business Support as
a Profession Advisory Group (BSAPAG) which was compromised of
representatives from a wide range of groups including the Department
for Business Enterprise Regulatory and Reform (BERR), Department
for Innovation Universities and Skills (DIUS), East Midlands Development
Agency (EMDA), Life long Learning UK (LLUK), Learning and Skills
Council (LSC), Management Standards Centre (MSC), National Federation
of Enterprise Agencies (NFEA), SFEDI (which sets the standards
for small business learning and support) and Social Enterprise
and UK Trade and Investment (UKTI).
With the introduction of the LEPs, we hope to
see the Government introduce a level playing field which removes
the current prescriptive practices which favours individual accreditation
routes and recognises the alternative value provided by the National
Register of Business Support Professionals. Using the National
Register would not only ensure that standards of business support
are maintained, but it would do so at no cost to the LEPs. This
offers a huge cost reduction without compromising on quality.
BENEFITS OF
THE NATIONAL
REGISTER
A new website is currently being developed to
enable improved search facilities which will incorporate a quality
control feedback and rating from clients. As well as essential
biographical information and detail on their services, areas of
expertise and qualifications, the site will include details of
past engagements. This aspect will include client reviews, thereby
providing improved market intelligence about each professional,
and peer group reviews. It will be searchable by factors including
geography and could therefore be directly aligned to the needs
of LEPs.
This level of transparency will help to drive
high standards and would enable LEPs to use members of the National
Register as their preferred suppliers. The additional information
would empower clients and help them make better decisions about
which business advisers and consultants could assist them. This
simplified process would also eliminate the cost to the LEPs of
maintaining a register of qualified people, which has currently
been borne by the RDAs.
CONCLUSION
The proposed changes create an opportunity for
Government to reform how business support is delivered and to
draw on the knowledge, expertise and networks of the professional
bodies and their members.
It is also a chance for the Government to make
small changes to allow business support professionals to better
demonstrate their competence, with the potential to create a win-win
situation for providers of business support and for business support
professionals, which in turn can only result in benefits for businesses
across the country.
We believe that business consulting professionals
can play a bigger role in supporting business growth. The abolition
of the RDAs and creation of the LEPs offers the opportunity to
reform the rules regarding business support which are restrictive,
costly, and have arguably weakened business's trust in the support
that they can obtain. By promoting greater usage of the National
Register of Business Support Professionals, which is run independently
and managed by IBC, there is an opportunity to improve the delivery
of business advice and remove the current costly restrictions
which are imposed on business support professionals.
3 September 2010
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