Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy

 

Practice Assurance

Welcome to the homepage for the CIPFA Practice Assurance scheme.
This provides information for CIPFA members who hold Practising Certificates. It also assists members who think they may need to apply for a Practising Certificate.

What is Practice Assurance?
Practice Assurance is a scheme of practice review which applies to UK members in practice. It is a framework of quality assurance principles to help members to assess and develop their practices, offering practical support and advice.

Practice Assurance has been designed to demonstrate to the business community and the wider public the Institute's commitment to upholding and developing public standards that command public confidence.

Why have CIPFA introduced this requirement for some members?
CIPFA have introduced the scheme for 3 reasons. It is important that CIPFA continues to meet the high standards expected of the profession. We were the only CCAB body that did not operate a Practising Certificate or quality assurance process for members. We are also members of IFAC (International Federation of Accountants) and one of our membership obligations is to provide a quality assurance scheme. Finally the introduction of new money laundering regulations by the Treasury has led us to adopt a scheme that enables us to supervise our members who would be affected by these regulations, and comply with the Treasury's standards.

More information on Money Laundering is included on the Money Laundering page.

Who needs to hold a Practising Certificate?
CIPFA has prepared a Council Statement on Public Practice which states which members are required to hold a Practising Certificate. If you are self employed or the partner / director in a practice or company, you should review the statement and consider if you work in any of the areas of work included. Primarily if you provide audit or accounting services to a third party then it is likely that you will be required to hold a Practising Certificate.

What does the scheme involve?
You need to apply for a Practising Certificate and register for the Practice Assurance Scheme. A certificate will be issued. Each year, some members will be selected to have a Practice Assurance meeting with an assessor. A member should expect to have a meeting approximately every 6 years.

The meeting is intended to quality assure procedures such as client engagement/disengagement and compliance with a range of requirements such as anti-money laundering roles, professional indemnity insurance, and continuing professional development. It is not intended as a check on the technical quality of members’ work. A more detailed list of matters covered by the review is available as a ‘compliance checklist’ which is located in the secure members area within the CIPFA Learning Centre at http://learning.cipfa.org.uk/.

The Practice Assurance regulations set out more detailed operational arrangements.

In order to comply with the scheme there are key areas that all members in practice need to consider. Specific guidance is available to support members in these requirements in the Members in Practice Handbook.

What are the fees?
There is a one off Practising Certificate Fee of £75 and an annual fee, which for 2012 is £245.