Introduction

4.1     Assuring the competence of legal services providers is, axiomatically, a core function of LSET. Whilst new technologies, new ways of working and greater competition all have the potential to bring benefits to consumers, the pace of change, pressures on funding, and risks of de-professionalisation also potentially threaten standards. The sector needs to ensure it has sensible and robust standards in place to counter those risks.

4.2     Competence must be demonstrably identified, attained, signalled and assured. This chapter focuses on the ways in which competence may be identified and attained through a system of competencies and standards, which prescribe outcomes and processes of learning. Chapter 5 goes on to address how competence is signalled to consumers and others through titles and systems of accreditation, and assured through quality assurance mechanisms applied to institutions offering LSET in the classroom, and to legal services providers educating in the workplace.