legislative changes. You have no one to confer with on a daily basis, no readily available yardstick against which to measure yourself and your work. But in the two days over which the monitoring visit took place, I probably learned as much from the inspector (who displayed a level of technical knowledge that can only be described as scary!) as I would have done in half a dozen or more CPD courses. Trust me – in almost all cases, the real beneficiary will be you – the firm being inspected. This is aside altogether from the consideration that it is infinitely preferable to have errors and breaches in your work pointed out by a member of CARB (who, believe it or not, is actually on your side) and then be given an opportunity to take corrective action, than have them raked over by some hotshot barrister across a courtroom when you are staring down the barrel of a negligence lawsuit.


So then, what advice would I give to anyone who opens the post and finds a letter from CARB informing them that their firm has been selected for a visit? The following may not be relevant to all practitioners, but I would suggest at least these steps;


1. Don’t panic 2. Don’t forget step 1 3. Set yourself a ‘work programme’ to review all files in good time for the visit. (known in the profession as CARBo loading!)


4. At an early stage, engage the services of an independent third party to help with the preparation for the visit. Having an outsider review your files can be especially useful at picking up on things that may have been missed. The Institute’s Practice Consultant


14 Survival Guide to CPD


Service (who are completely independent of CARB), and other CPD providers, offer comprehensive practice review services and will happily assist.


5. Ensure as far as possible that all matters on the audit file are fully documented. On more than one occasion during my visit, the inspector asked how or why I had reached certain conclusions and when told that ‘the director told me’ or ‘I inspected the relevant document’, asked ‘then why isn’t it fully documented? – where is the evidence?’ Remember that your audit file must ‘stand alone’ It must contain sufficient reliable relevant evidence to support any conclusions reached, and unless all items are documented as fully as is reasonably possible, your file may not stand up to scrutiny.


6. Try to view the monitoring visit in a positive light. Not easy, I know, but concentrating on the potential benefits will go a long way towards minimising the trauma of a monitoring visit.


The day after the conclusion of my monitoring visit, I met up with none other than Heather Briers, head of CARB, at the annual conference in Dublin. I was in a dark place and had retired to the 4th floor bar. I decided to drink heavily. Heather, fair play to her, managed to talk me back in off the window ledge and, in the course of a very friendly conversation, convinced me that CARB was a force for good and in the long run, I would come to realise that. I don’t know whether it was down to her powers of persuasion, the fact that I was already two thirds of the way through a decent bottle of claret, or a combination of both, but I found myself in total agreement with her. Who would have thought it?


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