SRA addresses concerns on training reforms, saying they will not be the end of the training contract

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has announced that it will reconsider the scope of its proposed training reforms, which could have seen the traditional training contract - or “period of workplace training” - abolished.

Consultations are ongoing on the proposals for a new Solicitors Qualifying Examination that all prospective solicitors would have to take at the point of qualifying, whichever pathway they have taken into the legal profession. Among the discussion points was a proposal that workplace training would not need to be over a period of time, but would be assessed purely on outcomes. However, as Legal Futures reports, the SRA’s chief executive Paul Philip has said that the period of workplace training which so many see as an essential part of the process of becoming a competent solicitor will continue. Speaking at the SRA Innovate conference in London on 22 March, Philip said assured his audience that the SRA would not rush ahead with reforms without listening to lawyers and firms, who responded in great numbers to the consultation and raised various criticisms and doubts about the proposals.

Philip said: “There will be something that looks like a training contract. It will be based in the workplace and assessed in the workplace. Maintaining high professional standards is absolutely paramount. We’re not going to just plough on with our educational reforms unless we feel it is the right thing to do. We will pause and consider all the consultation responses, to make sure people feel they’ve been heard. There may be a slight hiatus while we do that …[but] we feel it is right to make clear that workplace assessment will continue to be part of the model.”