Occupational standards have been used for over five years in the business support and information sector. The current set of standards adopted by the Small Business Service i.e. the Standards of Professional Competence are aimed at those customer facing staff and contractors providing Business Link branded services.
These standards were introduced in September 2001 and have been widely used and accepted by Business Links and their staff and contractors.
They are a description of the skills and knowledge required by business advisers and information staff to provide a competent level of service to the customer. They are generic in nature and focus on building relationships with customers, providing the advice and information that clients need, and developing ones own ability as a business support professional.
The standards of professional competence are relevant to all people engaged in business support, whether that support in generalist or specialist in nature.
As well as describing competence in performance terms, the standards of professional competence also attempt to describe the knowledge areas required to underpin competent performance. The knowledge component of the standards is divided into two main areas:
- SME knowledge – general knowledge about small and medium sized businesses including factors such strategy, finance, people, operations, processes, technology and marketing.
- Operational knowledge – such as communication skills, ICT, Teamworking, problem solving, performance monitoring techniques etc.
The primary purpose of the standards of professional competence is to improve the performance and quality of the service of those who use them. The standards are most effective when they are used to drive personal and professional development. They are also used to recognise and confirm competence.
Assessment requirements against the Standards of Professional Competence.
Business Link Operators are expected to ensure that all customer facing staff and contractors that carry out any Business Link Branded service should be assessed against the relevant units within the standards within 12 months of recruitment.
Business Links are also expected to periodically re-assess customer facing staff against the standards of professional competence to ensure that a competent performance is maintained and that as the standards change over time, individuals show their levels of skills and knowledge keep pace with the changing requirements of their present and future roles.
The Professional Development Framework aims to put these requirements into practice in a structured and coordinated way. The framework builds on the experience of using the standards of professional competence for development and assessment purposes since their introduction in September 2001. The framework builds on the positive aspects of the standards and removes those negative components.
Key changes to how assessment and development can lead to benefits within the Business Link network.
- All staff and contractors who provide business link branded services should be part of the BLU professional development framework. There will be no exceptions.
- All new staff and contractors will be required to be assessed against the standards of professional competence within 12 months of employment/engagement.
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There is no longer any prescription as to which units within the standards of professional competence individuals must be assessed against. This is decided by the individual and their line manager. These details will be recorded in the individual’s professional development plan. (This is discussed in more detail later)
- The initial assessment of new customer facing staff and contractors must include observed assessments where the individual deals with two separate clients, as opposed to three.
- The purpose of the initial assessment is to ensure that the individual staff member or contractor has a relevant professional development plan and journal in place. (These documents are described in more detail later)
- BLOs can chose who they wish to carry out formative assessment activities such as observations of performance in front of clients. BLOs may to continue with existing suppliers, or utilise internal staff who has gained appropriate assessor skills. There will be a quality assurance requirement that all first line assessors should be qualified and show continued compliance to the assessor standards A1. BLOs can use members of the BLU standards support team to carry out these assessment activities.
- There will be a named member of the Standards Support Team associated with each Business Link Operator. These people will be referred to as Local SST members. These individuals will be used to carry out second level, or summative assessment activities of customer facing staff and contractors. This means that they will be required to make assessment decisions by considering a range of evidence presented by the individual. Such evidence will include observation reports carried out by first line assessors. The Local SST member will agree competence against the standards of professional competence at unit level and this will result in formal recognition in the form of certification from the BLU.
- The BLO will nominate a representative to liase with and work closely with the Local SST member. It is expected, that wherever possible the BLO representative will be a senior HR professional.
- The initial assessment activities are intended to ensure that the individual has completed their professional development plan and journal for the first time and that they are actively engaged in the professional development framework. The BLO will be asked to ensure that all individuals update their professional development plans and journals on a quarterly and that these plans and journals are reviewed by relevant members of staff, or contractors. The Professional Development Plans will have assessment components detailing what aspects of the standards of professional competence they are seeking assessment/re-assessment in.
- The Local SST member will work with the BLO representative to produce an organisational development plan and journal on a quarterly basis. This plan and journal will draw on the previous quarter’s cpd and assessment activities. It will quantify what activities have been undertaken and review their effectiveness in terms of impact of key services. The plan will also articulate what then next quarter’s activities will be and where additional support at a regional or national level will be required.
Continuous Professional Development – and standards of professional competence.
One key objective of the BLU is to support the professional development of business support staff and contractors. In additional the BLU seeks to recognise business support as a profession in its own right and to reward and recognise the efforts of those professionals in their ongoing achievement and improvements.
The BLU is proposing a Professional Development Framework for all customer facing staff and contractors. The standards of professional competence will be used to underpin the framework.
The Professional Development Framework will consist of the following components at an individual level:
At an individual level, there is a requirement for:
- all new customer facing staff and contractors to be assessed against relevant components of the standards of professional competence in order to produce relevant professional development plans
- all customer facing staff and contractors to undergo learning and development activities against their personal development plans
- all learning and development activities to be recorded and reviewed by the individual and their organisation in a professional development journal
- all customer facing staff and contractors to regularly review and update their professional development plan and to evaluate the impact of their professional development
- periodic re-assessment of their knowledge and skills against the standards of professional competence
At an organisational level there is a requirement for:
- Line managers to be involved in the development and review of professional development plans
- An analysis and articulation of professional development requirements
- Plans to meet professional development requirements including details of support required at an internal level, BLU level and external level
- An analysis of the organisational impact of professional development activities
At a regional/national level there is a requirement for:
- A response to BLOs to provide support against identified professional development needs
- Feedback on professional development opportunities provided
- An analysis of regional and national professional development needs
- Prioritising resources to meet regional/national needs
- An evaluation of services/support provided
- Recognition of achievement at individual and organisational level
- Up to date data on learners, development activities undergone and achievements
- A regional/national analysis of the impact of professional development activities
The BLU Standards Support Team
The BLU has taken measures to enable the activities above to be achieved. A Standards Support Team has been selected and is shown at Appendix 1. The Standards Support Team has been carefully selected from the 500 assessors that were originally utilised when the standards of professional competence were introduced in September 2001.
The team has been selected on the basis of their assessment experience and knowledge and their understanding of how the standards of professional competence can be used to support the professional development framework.
In addition, each applicant to the Standards Support Team was required to be sponsored by a Business Link Operator. Details of the sponsors are also shown in Appendix 1.
At an individual level, SST members can carry the following:
- Assist individuals carry out a self-analysis of their skills and knowledge against the standards of professional competence and prepare for initial assessment
- Carry out initial assessments of new customer facing staff by observing then in the workplace and assisting individuals and their organisation produce meaningful professional development plans
- Validating internal formative assessment activities
- Making summative assessment decisions on the competence of customer facing staff and contractors against the standards of professional competence and ensuring that meaningful professional development plans have been produced
- Advise individuals as to how they can access learning and development opportunities as identified in the professional development plans
- Ensuring that the individual’s line manager has been involved in the production of professional development plans
- Assist in the review and amendment of professional development plans and assist individuals and their line managers evaluate the impact of professional development activities
- Gather data from individuals on learning and development activities planned and undertaken
- Gather data from individuals on the impact of their learning and development activities recorded in their professional learning journals
At an organisational level SST members can:
- Assist the organisation to ensure that any internal assessment activities are consistent and accurate
- Validate the accuracy and consistency of internal assessment activities
- Advise the organisation on the use of the standards of professional competence for human resource activities such as recruitment, appraisal, succession planning etc.
- Collect data at an organisational level on agreed professional development plans of customer facing staff and professionals
- Enable individual’s to receive relevant BLU and external accreditation of their competence
- Advise BLOs on the use of other relevant competence frameworks such as IiP, Customer First, ISO and EFQM
- Articulate professional development needs to the organisation and gather information as to how they might be met
- Assist BLOs measure the impact of the professional development activities undertaken
At a regional/national level SST members can:
- Articulate specific regional requirements of BLOs to regional stakeholders
- Articulate data at a regional level on individual’s achievement
- Articulate data at a regional level of the make-up of customer facing staff and contractors providing Business Link Branded services
- Share good practice between BLOs in a region
- Articulate to the BLU where regional and national development requirements lie
- Help to quantify the impact of professional development activities undertaken at a regional and national level
- Suggest modifications needed to the standards of professional competence to ensure that they represent the best framework for the continued professional development of customer facing staff and contractors
How will this happen?
The activities of the Standards Support team will be operated at a local, regional and national level.
Operations at a local level
Each Business Link Operator will have a named Standards Support Team member (Local SST) associated with it. In addition, each BLO will nominate a named individual who will liase with the Local SST. Wherever possible it is expected that the BLO representative will be a Human Resources Professional. The details of these individuals will be completed on the form shown at Appendix 2.
The SST member associated with a BLO will do the following as a minimum in association with the named BLO representative:
- Collect details on the assessment and development activities within the BLO on a quarterly basis. This information will include:
- Numbers of new customer facing staff and contractors who have undertaken initial assessment and an analysis of the professional development plans produced
- Numbers of individuals assessed and to receive formal recognition of their achievement from the BLU and any external bodies
- CPD activities undertaken as recorded in individual’s professional development journals
- Impact analysis on the last quarters activities
- Plans for the next quarter
- Support received internally, locally, regionally and nationally
- Support needed internally, locally, regionally and nationally
- Support received from SST members
- Evaluation of support received from SST members
- Collect details on other quality initiatives undertaken such as:
- Customer first
- IiP
- EFQM
- ISO
In order to collect the above information, it is expected that the Local SST should spend a minimum of one day at the BLO working with the BLO representative to gather the above information and complete the relevant documentation.
The Local SST will be responsible for ensuring that any certification claims to recognise the competences of individuals are based against accurate assessments. If they have not been directly involved in the assessment activities, they will be responsible for deciding if the assessments are accurate and consistent. BLOs may utilise other resources to carry out formative assessment activities such as direct observations, case-studies, questioning or off-the-job simulations. However the Local SST must make the final decision as to whether the evidence presented is sufficient and relevant enough to allow for BLU or external recognition to be given.
The Local SST associated with a BLO cannot be an employee or provide any other contracted Business Link branded service for the BLO.
The document at Appendix 3 illustrates the forms that are completed within this Professional Development system.
Operations at a regional level
Each region will have a SST regional representative who will ensure that all of the above information is collected at a local level and articulated at a regional level. It is proposed that there will be quarterly regional meetings. These will involve the SST BLO representatives for each of the BLOs in the region plus any of the BLO representatives that wish to attend. In addition, regional stakeholders will be invited to attend. This may include RDA representatives, LSC representatives and
The information to be discussed at regional level will include all of the information collected at a local level, together with an analysis of the regional implications in terms of support required and delivered. The regional forum can make suggestions/recommendations to the national level as to how the BLU might best respond to regional requirements. The regional forum can also identify where BLOs might be in need of additional support to maximise their continuous professional development activities.
Costs to BLOs
It is proposed that all Standards Support team activities will be charged at a rate of £60 per hour plus VAT and travel, where applicable.
Standards Support Team members may be engaged to:
- Assist BLOs in preparing newly appointed staff and contractors prepare for their initial assessment. This may include helping them investigate the standards of professional competence and identify which are relevant to their present and possible future roles and when and how they will be assessed against them.
- Carry out formative/first line assessment activities such as live observations. This will include completing the relevant paperwork.
- Carry out summative/second line assessment activities. These will be carried out by the Local SST members, i.e. that member associated with a particular Business Link. These assessments are required for formal recognition of achievement by the BLU and relevant external bodies.
- Carry out quality assurance/verification activities where the BLO has used the Local SST for all fist line and second line assessment activities.
- Support BLOs on other standards initiatives such as Customer First, IiP, EFQM and ISO.
- Work with the BLO representative to agree local development plans and journals on a quarterly basis.
Items 5 and 7 are a mandatory component of the Professional Development Component.
Costs to SBS
Local SST members will be involved in quarterly regional meetings in order to develop regional plans and reviews. The numbers involved will depend on the numbers of BLOs per region.
Regional SST members will be involved in quarterly national meetings to develop national plans and reviews
Regional SST members will be involved in ensuring Local SST members continue to comply with the national standard A2
National SST will be involved in ensuring the quality of Regional SST members