Episode 25:

Hello and Welcome to the Part3 with me podcast.

The show that helps part 3 students jump start into their careers as qualified architects. I am your host Maria Skoutari and this week we’ll be talking about being an RIBA Chartered Practice, how you become one and what benefits does it bring to your practice by becoming an RIBA chartered practice - PC1 - Professionalism & PC4 Practice and Management of the Part 3 Criteria.

So if you want to register your practice to become an RIBA Charter practice how would you go about doing it and how does it qualify?

One of the key requirements in becoming an RIBA Chartered Practice is to declare the practices compliance with 13 criteria set out by the RIBA, these include:

  1. That the practice is a full-time architects business or an architectural business unit within a multi-functional organisation and it ensures that all practice information submitted to the RIBA is up to date and accurate. 
  2. At least of the full-time directors or partners is an RIBA Chartered Member
  3. All architectural work is under the direct supervision of an RIBA Chartered Architect 
  4. The practice meets the quality assurance standard of staff bound by a relevant code of conduct based on a minimum of 1 in 8 staff being an RIBA Chartered Member. 
  5. The practice and all employees conduct themselves in accordance with the Code of Practice for Chartered Practices - which essentially is the Code of Conduct each RIBA member needs to follow as previously covered in Episode 1
  6. The practice must operate a management system to ensure that architects in the office adhere to the RIBA Code of Professional Conduct and comply with Continuing Professional Development Obligations. CPD provision to be set out within the employment contract of staff members. 
  7. The practice must hold Professional Indemnity Insurance cover that is of appropriate cover for the work undertaken.
  8. The practice must operate a Quality Management System, relevant to the size of practice
  9. The practice must ensure that an appropriate Health & Safety Policy is in place and is operational
  10. 10.The practice must ensure that an appropriate Environmental Management Policy is in place and is operational.
  11. 11.The practice must operate an Employment Policy which addresses the requirements of the RIBA Chartered Practice Employment Policy Guide.
  12. 12.The practice must ensure that an appropriate Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy is in place and is operational.
  13. 13.For practices registered and located in the UK, they are required to make a return of the annual RIBA Business Benchmarking Survey.

So to become an RIBA Chartered Practice, you must meet the 13 criteria I just mentioned, then you are also required to complete and return annually the RIBA Chartered Practice declaration of compliance signed by an ARB Registered architect and also to be an RIBA Chartered Architect, abide by the RIBA Code of Practice for Chartered Practices based on the 3 principles of the Code of Conduct, and to pay the annual subscription fee. Failure to meet these requirements will result in the removal of the practice from the Register of Chartered Practices.

So every year, the RIBA carries out a compliance monitoring when the annual application forms are submitted but the respective chartered practices. Once they receive all the application forms, the RIBA carries out an audit of 5% of all RIBA Chartered Practices against some or all the compliance criteria during the subscription period. 

Now we’ll be looking more closely at some of the criteria just mentioned:

First looking at Criteria 4, where it states that 1 in 8 staff members should be a Chartered Member, it is expected that the details of the names and RIBA Membership number of each RIBA Chartered Architect will be provided alongside the total number of all architects employed in the practice.  

Moving on to criteria 6, whereby the practice must adhere to the RIBA Code of Professional Conduct of Practice for Chartered Practices and comply with CPD obligations. The Code in essence meets the same 3 key Principles as the general RIBA Code of Professional conduct for chartered members which is Integrity, Competence and Relationships - please check out the link in the episode notes for access to the full Code of Conduct Document. Now when it comes to CPD, it is a requirement for RIBA Chartered Practices to provide the opportunity for all staff members to undertake CPD, which consists of them to do at least 35 hours of CPD each year with 20 of those hours to be from the RIBA’s prescribed CPD Core Curriculum meaning to cover at least 2 hours for each of the ten CPD topics. These topics are:

CPD can be provided by a mixture of structured CPD which is provided by an external course leader, teacher or tutor to teach certain aims and outcomes or ti can be provided through informal CPD which are usually self-directed. 

Next looking at Criteria 7, whereby the practice must hold Professional Indemnity Insurance cover that is of appropriate cover for the work undertaken and must comply with the RIBA Code of Professional Conduct and for UK based practices the insurance cover must also comply with the ARB’s guidelines for PII that we discussed in Episode 19. If you practice is outside the UK you can still apply to become an RIBA Chartered Practice but they must have an equivalent form of insurance policy in place. Practices are generally expected to have at least one month’s cover to run under their current PII policy when applying to join and at the point of renewal. Details of the PII policy provider, policy number, level of cover and policy renewal date must be supplied on the application form. 

Now when it comes to Quality Assurance outlined in Criteria 8, RIBA Chartered Practices are expected to confirm that an appropriate formalised Quality Management System (QMS) is in place and utilised. The QMS must demonstrate each project has a clear leadership structure and it is supervised by an RIBA Chartered Architect. There are different requirements for the different practice sizes. 

The RIBA believes that quality management is core to the success of the business in providing quality assurance which meets the RIBA chartered practice scheme.

Next moving to criteria 9, whereby a practice must ensure that an appropriate Health & Safety Policy is in place and is operational, RIBA Chartered Practices are expected to set out their health and safety policy in writing and apply it to all employees in both the workplace and on-site visits. The policy must set out how the practice intends to manage health and safety and who will be responsible for it, when and how. Health and safety risk management is also expected in the practices project work. 

For practices that have over 5 staff, a person should be nominated and qualified to be responsible for health and safety matters, the maintenance of the health and safety policy and its communication to all staff. All staff should receive adequate health and safety training. There is again an RIBA Health and Safety Policy Template available on the RIBA Chartered Practice Toolbox. 

Next under criteria 10, where a practice must ensure that an appropriate Environmental Management Policy is in place and is operational this must be formally written in the practices employment policy and is applicable to all practice sizes. RIBA chartered practices are required to have an Environmental Management Policy to establish a common approach to minimising environmental impact on projects and in practice, this approach can help achieve internal buy in by providing a framework of internal communication, assist in clarifying processes, communicating to clients your environmental policies can inspire confidence and attract clients to your practice through your environmental values and lastly it assists the practice by driving improvements to design work and operational procedures of the practice. 

Then under criteria 11, the practice must operate an Employment Policy which addresses the requirements of the RIBA Chartered Practice Employment Policy Guide. Some aspects of this were covered in the previous episode, but just to give you a quick overview of the RIBA Employment Policy. This policy in essence champions the benefits of adopting good employment practice and by improving employment practice this as a result provides wider benefits to society. Therefore, the aim of the Employment policy is to support members awareness of their legal requirements as employers and rights as employees, the RIBA aims to support practices on these matters by:

The RIBA also encourages best practice in employment for RIBA Chartered Practices by adding Investor in People listing to the practice directory and encouraging membership through articles in the RIBA Journal, rewarding best practice through the Student Employer of the Year Award, providing information on good practice when it comes to student employment, updating the education criteria to further promote good business/employment practice, provide diverse range of CPD, and addressing the long hours culture architecture practices tend to have. For chartered practices outside the UK, the RIBA requires them also to follow the same employment policy as UK chartered practices but where the national legislation conflicts with the policy they should follow the national legislation.

And finally, moving onto criteria 12, the practice must ensure that an appropriate Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy is in place and is operational to help practices meet this requirement, the RIBA has developed a Chartered Practice Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy Guide again available on the Chartered Practice Toolbox. The RIBA aims to promote the business, social and environmental benefits of good employment and diversity in architecture practice by promoting the added value of diverse architect to the built environment, using a range of role models to promote new members to join and retain existing ones, and through continuous dialogues with the government on the implications of legislation and procurement methods that discourage good employment practice and diversity. 

Now moving onto the next section of the episode, what benefits does your practice receive by being an RIBA Chartered Practice.

The status of being an RIBA Chartered Practices helps your practice win more work by:

Becoming a RIBA Chartered Practice also gives practices access to a range of professional services and products to help them run their business. By:

It also demonstrated that the practice is commitment to delivering the highest professional, ethical and best practice standards in architecture.

You also receive benefits on RIBA products and services enjoying exclusive discounts on a range of products and services including:

For practices over 100 members of staff you can join the RIBA Corporate Membership which offers:

So to sum up what I went through today, in order to become an RIBA Chartered Practice, the practice:

And benefits include:

RIBA Chartered Practices are the only architectural practices endorsed and promoted by the Royal Institute of British Architects, through commitments to quality assurance, business management and client service which provides your practice with excellent exposure and credibility with clients.