OPG aims to extend professional guardianship scheme

The Office of the Public Guardian has opened an invitation to firms acting as financial guardians to join its professional guardianship scheme.

Launched in May 2017, the scheme introduced a random sampling approach to reviewing annual accounts submitted by professional financial guardians. This results in faster processing time and therefore quicker access to remuneration. To date 36 firms have joined.

Now that the scheme has been running for some 12 months, OPG is offering other eligible firms the chance to join. To be eligible, each firm must be acting as a financial guardian for at least five cases. The firm must nominate a scheme owner (NSO), i.e. someone who holds a senior position within the firm, who will attend a mandatory half day workshop. It is hoped that these will be held in September and October 2018.

Accounts falling under the scheme must meet a 90% quality standard, which will be applied to the accounts OPG randomly samples for full review. When members continue to meet the standard, the percentage of accounts to be fully reviewed will decrease.

Firms wishing to note their interest in making an application to join, or requiring more information, should contact Amanda Kerr, communications and training manager at akerr@scotcourts.gov.uk