These are the questions most frequently asked about NCS and the linked LPQ legal qualifications.

1. What are National Competency Standards ("NCS")?

NCS are industry-approved competency standards that detail what the legal profession requires from staff in terms of knowledge and skill in a variety of areas from legal expertise through to team working and client care.

2. What NCS are available?

NCS reflect the reality of seniority in the workplace. Where appropriate there is more than one level. NCS currently available are:

      Legal Secretarial NCS introductory, intermediate and advanced levels  

      Paralegal NCS - introductory, intermediate and advanced levels (from July 2009)

      Legal assistant NCS (from July 2009)

      Conveyancing Paralegal NCS (from July 2009)

      Paralegal law firm management NCS (from July 2009)

3. What other NCS are you working on?

NCS For IT litigation support paralegals

4. Which NCS are appropriate for me?

It depends on your circumstances and if there are NCS relevant to your chosen career. Have a look at the Applicability page for more guidance.

5. How much do NCS cost?

All completed/draft NCS are free to download and use from this site.

However if you wish to:

- Automatically receive all updates, amendments, corrections and notices concerning that series and the standards in general

- Receive copies which have provision for you to mark individual standards as having been met, and which also allow  for a verifier to initial their confirmation

- Receive copies in Word 97-2003 format for easy editing/cutting and pasting

- Have the opportunity to speak with us about implementation of the standards

- Are eligible to be/register candidates for the LPQ qualifications (Legal Secretarial NCS only)

- Assist us to undertake further standards development work

- Assist us to create more National Awarding Body linked LPQ qualifications

Then you should consider subscribing to the standards each year at a cost of GBP £70 + VAT. See Subscribe for more information.

6. Are NCS designed for law firm staff only?

No. NCS only cover core skills and knowledge requirements. They are therefore relevant to most legal secretaries, paralegals etc regardless of whether they work in local government, commerce and industry etc.

7. Can NCS be used outside of the UK?

Yes, provided the relevant jurisdiction has roughly similar expectations of its legal secretaries, paralegals etc. The standards would be particularly effectively jurisdictions such as Hong Kong, Australia, the US states etc.

8. Do the paralegal NCS map against the trainee solicitor/training contract requirements contained in the Solicitors Regulation Authority work-based-learning pilot project?

Yes. They do not follow them entirely because the role of a senior paralegal is not the same as that of a trainee solicitor. However the matter as far as possible, and the paralegal NCS adopt the same terminology as the SRA pilot project. The intention is that they work together as seamlessly as possible.

9. Do the standards cover professional conduct obligations?

Yes they are all vetted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to ensure that they accurately reflect the main professional conduct obligations imposed upon staff ( e.g. duty of confidentiality).

10. Are National Competency Standards the same as National Occupational Standards?

No. National Occupational Standards (NOS) are generic government standards created for different sectors of the economy, primarily to support the creation of NVQ qualifications. The legal profession has not embraced either NVQs or NOS. There are a number of reasons why NOS, and the process by which they are created, have failed to elicit interest from the legal profession. National Competency Standards are the profession's own response for paralegals and legal support staff. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is considering creating National Competency Standards for solicitors.

11. Are the NCS laddered in any way?

Yes. For example a senior legal secretary who wishes to move out of secretarial work could either follow the clerical/administrative route and thus use the legal assistant NCS or become a fee-earning paralegal and work to the introductory level Paralegal NCS.

12. Do I have to create a portfolio to prove that I can meet all the standards at a particular level?

No. You can just use the NCS as a reference guide. However if you can show your employer, a potential employer, a legal recruiter or other interested person exactly which standards you can meet then it may be very beneficial for you. You can self-verify, but that may have limited credibility in the eyes of other people. Ideally you would get a credible independent third party to verify that you can comply with the standards. If you want to do this then you should be able to rely upon that third party verification instead of keeping copies of documents etc. If you want to obtain a Legal secretarial LPQ qualification then you and your designated verifier must be registered with the Institute, and one of you must be a subscriber to the relevant series of standards.

13. Does a secretary benchmarking against legal secretarial standards have to register to do the linked LPQ qualification?

No. The LPQ qualification is completely optional.

14. Does an employer who wants his/her staff to receive an LPQ qualification have to be a subscriber to the standards?

Either the employer or the individual secretarial candidate has to be a subscriber.

15. Do people working towards meeting NCS standards or LPQ candidates have to build a portfolio and will they be visited?

The answer is no to both questions in both cases.

People working towards complying with any of the standards will want to keep some form of record of their progress. If they wish to use that progress within work (e.g. to apply for promotion) or externally (e.g. to apply for a job) then they will probably need to have their compliance verified by an independent credible person (e.g. a legal recruitment company). This is not a requirement of the standards just a recognition that self-made claims of ability and competence are not always completely reliable!

If a candidate wishes to have a third-party verify his/her progress towards completion then that is a matter for them and the third-party. It does not involve the Institute. however the Institute will become involved if a person has signed up to be a candidate to receive an LPQ certificate. In that case, because the verifier is playing an important role, they have to be prior approved by the Institute.

16. Do I have to build a portfolio either to get an LPQ or just prove that I comply with the standards?

No. All the employers on the working party expressed concerns about potentially confidential information being stored by members of staff looking to prove compliance with the standards. It is to avoid the need to compile such proof that the LPQ works on the system of rolling verification of compliance by an approved vetting body. For the standards generally it is up to individuals and employers if they want to prove compliance with relevant standards. That is a personal decision that does not involve the Institute. But we recommend that a credible external verifier be used on a rolling basis to avoid the need to create a portfolio. This will also allow progression towards completion of standards to continue even if you change employer.

17. Where can I get more information?

Please feel free to download our explanatory notes on the legal secretarial standards and link LPQ qualifications.

To download the document in Microsoft Word 97-2003 format click here.

To download the document in .PDF format click here.