Sustainable test drive

Planning, 26 June 2009

Council planners have been told that there is nothing to fear from a competency test for sustainable skills being piloted around the country.

The national competency framework for planners will be introduced at four local authorities next month - Leeds City Council, the London Borough of Haringey, Lincolnshire County Council and North Kesteven District Council. If it proves successful over the next 12 months, the DCLG will decide whether it will be rolled out to all local authorities.

Funding has been secured from the DCLG and the project has been set up with the help of Oakleigh Consulting. It forms part of the Delivering Better Skills for Better Places action plan, which was launched by the Housing and Communities Agency Academy (HCAA) last week (Planning, 19 June, p1).

Billed as accelerating the development of the sustainable communities workforce, it sets out to raise the profile and range of planning-related learning programmes in the sector. Its promoters cite the development of a competency framework for planners as a key test measure.

The Planning Officers Society, a partner in the framework scheme, refutes notions that it will result in more paperwork for councils. "It would be unfair to say that this is a box-ticking exercise. The project has been agreed with a lot of organisations. It is about modernising planning and ensuring that people are equipped to deal with the challenges presented by climate change," says spokesman John Silvester.

The RTPI is also a project partner along with CABE, RICS, the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) and the Planning Advisory Service. "We are not looking at adding burdens," insists RTPI professional services director Sue Percy. She believes that the framework will complement the institute's own assessment of professional competence for planners working towards chartered membership.

"It would sit alongside current staff development and supplement and extend professional programmes. It would draw out key skills and knowledge that planners need to acquire. Depending on career grading, these could include development economics, climate change or project management," says Percy.

The action plan also confirms the extension of the diploma in construction and the built environment for 14 to 19-year-olds to cover planning, housing, surveying and valuation skills. The diplomas are a government qualification initiative available through the schools system under the auspices of exam boards Edexcel and AQA.

Other elements of the package include planning apprenticeships in conjunction with Asset Skills, the sector skills council for housing, property and planning, confirmation of 176 bursaries for postgraduate planning courses and plans to develop and promote an online distance learning package in urban design.

"The skills needed to deliver the homes and sustainable communities of the future will only be provided through partnership working and breaking down the silo mentality among some of the key stakeholders in both the public and the private sector," argues TCPA chief executive Gideon Amos.

The collective aim, asserts HCAA chief executive Gill Taylor, is no less than to transform the way that communities in this country are planned, built and maintained. But the action plan has been a long time coming for the planning sector.

The project follows on from the academy's 2007 Mind the Skills Gap report, which found a significant shortage of qualified professionals with the expertise needed to deliver sustainable communities. This message was reinforced by last summer's findings from the Commons communities and local government committee (Planning, 25 July 2008, p1).

The MPs voiced concern that the shortage of planners identified as long ago as the late 1990s has been allowed to get worse. In response, 23 organisations have now put their weight behind the action plan to target regeneration, housing, planning, construction, economic development, architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, local government, property, surveying, civil engineering and sustainability.

The main objectives are to attract new entrants and retain existing staff in the sustainable communities sector and develop generic skills in areas such as low-carbon building, climate change, community cohesion, negotiation, place leadership and partnership working. The plan also seeks to ensure that technical and specialist skills in planning and urban design are updated in line with changing standards, legislation and economic conditions.

"No single profession or organisation can solve the skills problems hindering the delivery of better places," says Taylor. "This action plan sees organisations pulling together, identifying gaps and duplication and co-ordinating initiatives. We will tackle urgent priorities such as climate change and reduce long-term skills gaps and workforce imbalances."

The action plan seems a genuine attempt to update planners' climate change skills. But it is also an insurance policy taken out by the academy to safeguard its existence. The select committee had its sights firmly set on the Academy for Sustainable Communities, as the HCAA was known, last summer. The success of this latest initiative will be the acid test of whether the body has responded to its scrutiny.