Bar regulator launches 'Future Bar Training'

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has issued an invitation to members of the Bar to engage in a new programme of reform aimed at reshaping legal education and training over the next three years.

The programme, entitled 'Future Bar Training', will focus training regulation on what is demonstrably required for professional practice; ensure the regulatory structure does not restrict access to the Bar; align regulation of education and training with a widely targeted and proportionate approach; and maintain standards for authorisation to practise in a changing market.

Commenting on the launch of the BSB's new programme, the director of education and training, Simon Thornton-Wood, said: "'Future Bar Training'" is a real opportunity for the Bar, the public, and the regulator to work together to shape a new era of legal education and training. We are committed to ensuring the Bar remains in a strong position to deliver to its fullest potential in a constantly evolving legal services landscape. We will only meet these needs by working closely with the Bar, consumers and all the users of its services."

'Future Bar Training' consists of several 'work streams'. These include defining the benchmark for the knowledge and skills that all newly-qualified barristers should possess on entering practice; making the BSB rules covering education and training less prescriptive and ensuring that they are proportionate and transparent; establishing a more flexible approach to continuing professional development (CPD); reviewing how the BSB manages and shares data; improving access routes to the profession; and reassessing regulation of the academic stage of qualification.

Over the next three years, the BSB will undertake a number of open consultations on different work streams, all of which will be published on the BSB's website. The BSB is encouraging barristers to look for ways in which they can be involved.

Thornton-Wood continued: "We will provide plenty of opportunities for the Bar to contribute to the process, as we try to articulate better the knowledge and skills required of a barrister for the future and redefine our approach to training. We will be looking closely at the current qualifying degree requirements, considering the future of the Bar Professional Training Course, seeking to improve the experience of pupillage for all involved, and introducing a new approach to CPD."

Last autumn, the BSB outlined a framework for the development of a new approach to legal education and training, following the publication of the Legal Education & Training Review (LETR) report in June 2013.