Professional Standards Schemes

Why apply for a Professional Standards Scheme?

One of the key advantages of operating under a Professional Standards Scheme is that it distinguishes your association and its members as a recognised profession.

In a competitive market, this is critical – because it’s increasingly difficult for consumers, governments and even aspiring professionals to be able to tell the genuinely professional from the growing field of people claiming to be professional.

For consumers of your members’ services, this makes it very difficult to know who to trust. They should be able to be confident that:

• Their service provider has formal professional standards they must uphold
• There’s a body of professionals to make sure their service provider upholds them
• If anything does go wrong, there will be insurance or assets available to pay damages awarded by the court.

By successfully applying for a Professional Standards Scheme, your association would be able to show consumers that your participating members satisfy all of the above – and that you’re participating in an initiative to deliver ongoing improvements in professional standards and consumer protection. Learn more about Professional Standards Schemes.

What Professional Standards Schemes can do for your members

In return for these commitments, professionals that take part in an approved Professional Standards Scheme have their civil liability limited. This has two major benefits:

• It ensures a maximum level of compensation is available to consumers if a claim is made and the court awards damages.
• It allows for predictability and improvement in the affordability and availability of professional indemnity insurance.

Learn more about the benefits of having a Professional Standards Scheme.

We’re here to help

Applying for a Professional Standards Scheme is an intensive process. And for most associations, having a Professional Standards Scheme will require a significant step up in their professional standards systems and self-regulatory capacity.

Contact us about applying for a scheme and we’ll assign a dedicated Professional Standards Scheme Manager to your association. He or she will work with you to:

• Determine if a Professional Standards Scheme is right for you
• Guide you through the application process
• Help you meet your ongoing commitments if your application is approved.