Governance & Firm Assurance
From continuing competence activity to effective organisational oversight
Helping firms understand, manage and review their continuing competence arrangements.
Continuing competence is an individual professional responsibility, but law firms also have responsibilities for the arrangements through which they support and oversee professional standards.
Providing training and maintaining records are important elements of those arrangements.
However, effective governance requires a broader view.
Firms need to understand whether appropriate processes are in place, whether those processes are being followed and how matters requiring attention are addressed.
Unity: Solicitor helps connect individual professional development with organisational governance.
Individual responsibility and firm-wide oversight
The SRA’s continuing competence approach places responsibility on solicitors to maintain their competence and take appropriate steps to address their development needs.
Firms need arrangements that support those responsibilities and are proportionate to their circumstances.
Unity: Solicitor is designed to support both aspects.
It provides solicitors with a structured development process while giving authorised management users information relevant to the operation of the firm’s governance arrangements.
The objective is not to transfer responsibility for competence from the individual to the software or the L&D team.
It is to make the arrangements supporting professional development more visible, consistent and manageable.
A structured governance process
Establish expectations
Firms can define appropriate continuing competence processes, responsibilities and governance requirements.
These provide the framework within which individual development activity is managed.
Monitor the position
Management dashboards and status information help authorised users understand progress and identify outstanding requirements.
Identify exceptions
Exception reporting highlights matters requiring attention, allowing the firm to focus resources where follow-up may be needed.
Take appropriate action
Responsibility for follow-up can be assigned and relevant actions recorded.
Not every exception indicates a competence problem. Some may be administrative or require clarification rather than intervention.
Review outcomes
The firm can monitor whether identified matters have been addressed and use the resulting information to review its arrangements.
Management by exception
Proportionate oversight without unnecessary intrusion.
Effective governance does not require management to read every professional reflection or scrutinise every learning decision.
Most solicitors should be able to take responsibility for their development within an appropriate organisational framework.
Unity: Solicitor helps firms identify exceptions to agreed processes and focus attention on the matters that warrant it.
This supports a proportionate approach, balancing individual professional responsibility with organisational oversight.
Meaningful management information
For L&D teams, relevant information can support day-to-day administration and targeted intervention.
For firm leadership and those responsible for risk and compliance, it can provide a clearer picture of how the firm’s continuing competence arrangements are operating.
This may include information about participation, outstanding requirements, exception management and recorded governance actions.
The purpose is to support informed management judgement, not to substitute automated reporting for professional assessment.
Respecting professional reflection
Reflection is a valuable part of professional development because it encourages individuals to consider their own practice, capabilities and needs.
It may also involve sensitive personal assessments.
Unity: Solicitor distinguishes the information required for legitimate governance from individual reflective content, using appropriate permissions and access arrangements.
This helps firms maintain oversight while respecting the professional nature of reflection.
Supporting regulatory confidence
A firm should be able to explain its approach to supporting continuing competence and demonstrate how its arrangements operate.
Unity: Solicitor helps maintain structured information about development processes, monitoring and follow-up.
This can support internal assurance, management review and the firm’s ability to explain its governance arrangements when required.
Unity: Solicitor does not certify individual competence or guarantee regulatory compliance. It supports the processes, information and oversight through which firms discharge their own responsibilities.
