Portfolio Holder:
Patrick Bligh-Cheesman Independent Board Member
consumer and stakeholder engagement
Key Objective: • To consult with consumers of legal services and other stakeholders to inform policy development • To work closely with the Legal Services Consumer Panel and LeO, learning from their research, plans and/or processes to support and inform CILEx members and entities
• To implement the consumer engagement plan
As a regulator of Chartered Legal Executives and others who are, for the most part, employed in firms regulated by other approved regulators, it has been a challenge for IPS to engage directly with consumers. However we have continued to develop our understanding of consumer needs through a range of activities – surveys, literature review, research and engagement with other regulators and stakeholders. This work has been enhanced during the year by the appointment of a new officer, Sue Chandler, with specific responsibility for consumer issues. The literature review undertaken early in the year demonstrated not only how much research and development is being carried out on consumer engagement issues, but also the importance of consolidating it into coherent themes, which can be translated into meaningful activities for consumer and practitioner benefit. This work was certainly helpful in framing the approach followed in the rights applications, including the development of consumer outcomes mirroring the requirements of the CILEx practitioners’ Code of Conduct.
The annual CILEx members survey on service complaints showed high levels of compliance with the first tier complaints handling requirements. Delay, costs issues and failure to advise (appropriately) generated most of the service complaints, which occurred in the mainstream areas of practice. As part of our work with self-employed CILEx members providing non- reserved legal services, we continued to advise on the information which should be given to clients on instruction and encouraged them to refer clients to the consumers’ survey on the IPS web-site.
Memoranda of Understanding with the OISC, LeO and the CPS were reviewed. The CPS one was signed off, whilst the other two are close to agreement. During the year we engaged with the first meeting of the Regulators’ Forum proposed by IPS and organised by the LSCP. It was a useful meeting and IPS has now taken over responsibility for organising it during 2014. The Forum provides an opportunity for complaints handling and consumer issues to be discussed openly. A joint MoU on information sharing is being discussed by the members of the Forum.
The Legal Choices web-site (formerly Legal Voices) made headway during the year under the leadership of the SRA. IPS signed up to it and contributed
10
to the development of the content. We will continue to play an active part in the development of the site, which is aimed at providing information on legal services to consumers, all in one place. The consumers’ survey has been added to the IPS section of the site.
During the year we were required to update the LSB on the progress we made against their action points relating to first tier complaints handling issues. We were able to draw attention to the significant efforts we have made in this important area for regulators. As we move to regulating authorised entities in 2015, we will be able to engage more directly with consumers, feeding the information we collect back into our regulatory arrangements and helping authorised practitioners meet the expectations of their clients. We will keep our consumer engagement strategy under review and develop the consumer–facing area of the IPS web site. With other regulatory bodies on the Regulators’ Forum, we also expect to be looking again at the development of price and service comparison web- sites, to see to what extent they can assist consumers to access effective and competitive legal services.
28%
1% 2%
8% 5% 1% 18% 8% 7% 1% 1%
Costs excessive Cost information deficient Data protection Delay Failure to advise Failure to comply with agreed remedy Failure to follow instructions
Professional standards for specialist lawyers 7% 1%
Failure to investigate complaint internally Failure to keep client informed Failure to keep papers safe Failure to progress Failure to reply Potential misconduct Other
12%
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