Ensuring a Fair Scheme

On this page:

Ensuring a fair scheme
Initial Impact Assessment
Response
Focus groups for barristers
Solicitor advocates
Developing a Final Scheme

Ensuring a fair scheme

A common agenda for all involved throughout development was the desire to ensure that any quality assurance scheme supports, and if possible promotes, opportunities for more diverse and inclusive advocacy professions. Approaching QAA in this way required considerable interaction with advocates but provided a solid foundation for development.

Throughout development we have worked closely with the profession and diversity groups to inform each stage of work. The project team has met with representatives from diversity groups to:

raise awareness of developments in the Quality Assurance for Advocates scheme
brief them on issues arising from joint Bar Council / LSC survey of practising barristers
seek their input and feedback to identify potential impacts on specific groups.

Initial Impact Assessment

An initial Impact Assessment accompanied the first consultation paper published in June 2007. It highlighted the lack of available data on many areas relevant to determining the likely impact of the scheme on the profession. In conjunction with the Bar Council, the LSC conducted a detailed data survey covering all practicing barristers in England and Wales. The purpose was to get important information on the personal demographics of employed and self-employed bar including:

categories and volumes of work
proportion of time spent and income derived from legal aid practice
career breaks and caring responsibilities
education

Response

5,260 barristers (34.7%) responded to the survey providing us, for the first time, with comprehensive data on the demographics of the Bar (including info on gender, ethnicity, earnings etc). The survey did however, highlight issues that required further exploration. We were able to identify groups of barristers for whom QAA may have a greater impact and we needed to explore reasons why, together with the ways in which a scheme could be reasonably designed or modified to minimise that differential impact.

Focus groups for barristers

In order to understand more about the issues identified in the survey we ran focus groups for women and barristers from black and minority ethnic groups. In partnership with the Bar Council we ran focus groups in London and Manchester. We held a similar focus group for barristers of up to 10 years call in partnership with the Young Barristers’ Committee.

Barristers who attended were asked to share their experience about:

barriers and opportunities encountered in their practice
potential barriers or opportunities the Quality Assurance for Advocates scheme might create or exacerbate
how we might meaningfully address these in the Quality Assurance for Advocates pilot.

Solicitor advocates

The project also engaged with The Law Society, Solicitors Regulation Authority and Solicitors’ Association of Higher Court Advocates (SAHCA), to understand the impact the scheme may have on solicitors and solicitor advocates.

Developing a Final Scheme

The feedback gained from this programme of work should be considered in conjunction with the detailed evaluation from Cardiff Law School. These findings, together with other data and reports produced throughout the life of the QAA development programme should be fully considered by the Joint Advocacy Group and used to shape their proposals for an operational scheme.

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Last updated: 15 February 2010