The Professional Guardianship Scheme has been running for a number of years now. In 2019 we carried out an engagement exercise with the Nominated Scheme Owners (NSO) at each of the member firms to find out more about the user experience.
The feedback gained from this exercise along with our own insight has provided valuable information to help improve the scheme for the user and for OPG. We have been working with this information over the past few months and as a result the following
improvements will be implemented in October 2021.
So what’s new?
1. Terms and Conditions these have been drafted to
help with the management of the scheme and to outline the responsibilities of the Scheme to Scheme members.
2. Designated contact at OPG – each NSO and firm will be allocated a designated member of OPG staff. Our Review Officers will be in contact with NSOs over the next few weeks to introduce themselves and to outline their role, which is primarily,
to give guidance to firms to maintain the 90% clean standard and to provide feedback about the firm’s performance in relation to the clean standard.
3. Updated
professional account declaration form has been updated to enable key information to be provided.
In addition to the above we are in the process of developing an online training course to replace the mandatory training workshop. The online course will be available to NSOs joining the Scheme as well as their staff. Existing NSOs and their staff may
also access the course to refresh their knowledge etc. It is anticipated that the course will be available at the end of the year.