The Steering Group has now met three times and has looked in depth at the Review produced for the New Business Model Working Group in 2007. The Group next meets in September 2008. Following that meeting the Steering Group produces its final report for CILIP Council later the same month, so that any operational changes can be properly phased in from January 2009.
Many of the recommendations in the review have already being acted upon, such as the appointment of a Corporate Database Manager (recommendation 13) and improvements to the Mentor Register (Recommendation 11).
Work is continuing on the following key themes of the review:
• The application of ICT to the business processes of FOQA: recommendations for online access and e-enabling the submission and circulation of documents, in particular candidate portfolios, have been prepared and are now being looked at by the ICT team at CILIP. (Recommendations 6 and 7)
• Employer engagement strategy: the Steering Group will present a draft strategy to Council in September. This will be a major outcome of the review and is likely to influence CILIP's activities across a number of fronts over the foreseeable future. (Recommendation 1)
At their July meeting Council approved recommendations on two significant areas of the review.
The first related to the assessment processes and mechanism, which the original review recommended be consolidated into a single distributed network of assessors. Since the original report the network of CILIP Assessment Panels (CAPs) has been streamlined to a single CAP assessing ACLIP and Revalidation applications. In the light of the significant savings already achieved and the closer working relationship between the Accreditation and Chartership Boards, it has been decided there would be no improvement in efficiency in adopting Recommendations 3,4 and 5 of the Report and that there would be a significant risk to CILIP's authority and reputation if the distinctiveness and expertise of the different Panel and Board members were lost.
The second set of decisions relate to the often misunderstood Revalidation scheme introduced in 2008. The Steering Group made a number of recommendations to Council aimed at improving the current Revalidation scheme, and of making it more attractive to members. Council agreed that a Task and Finish Group should be established to oversee the design and implementation of the new scheme. The four principle features are:
1. that the scheme is e-enabled, although it may initially be a paper-based system, pending the introduction of appropriate ICT
2. that it is re-launched as the CILIP CPD scheme: as this is a more frequently used term and is better understood by members and by employers
3. that it will be a ‘light touch’ scheme as recommended in the review, which will be more straightforward to complete
4. that the current voluntary scheme will migrate to a mandatory scheme over a period of time. The timetable has yet to be determined by the Steering Group and members will be given plenty of time and support to help them make this transition that will put CILIP on an equal footing with many other highly regarded professional bodies
Summary of the 19 recommendations in the EfC/Acumen report with link to a new page containing:
full text (PDF) - member only access
Membership of the Steering Group is:
Carol Barker, CDG Candidate Support Network
Linda Ferguson, PTEG Mentor Support Network
Isabel Hood, Trustee (Chair)
Dr Ian Lovecy, Chair CILIP Accreditation Board
Muriel Mitchell, Affiliated Members National Committee
Judy Broady-Preston, Trustee
Keith Wilson, Chair, CILIP Chartership Board
Contact: quals@cilip.org.uk