Chartered Designation Guidance

The Charters of a number of bodies provide that individuals who meet certain criteria may use an individual Chartered title. Privy Council policy is that the criteria for individual Chartered Status should be broadly similar across the professions, e.g. Chartered Accountant, Chartered Engineer, Chartered Surveyor. Chartered titles have traditionally been linked to academic qualifications and most modern Chartered bodies that intend Individual Chartered status as a robust professional qualification set the entry level at Masters degree level (or equivalent in skills and experience) and re-evaluate holders on a regular basis to ensure continued professional competency and development, with only practising professionals allowed to hold the designation.

Chartered bodies that wish to apply for the power to award individual Chartered designations should first consult with other bodies in the field (both Chartered and non Chartered) to ascertain if there would be any objections. It is initially for the body concerned to determine the scope of this consultation, although the Privy Council Office and Advisors can suggest the inclusion of any other organisations which may have an interest in the proposals.

Chartered bodies should have also consulted the list of approved Chartered designations to ensure that the designation they are seeking is not broadly similar to any currently in existence.

There is a broad expectation that bodies must have held their Charter for a number of years before applying for the power to grant a Chartered designation; any allowance of the power at the time of grant is to be by exception only and at the discretion of advice from Privy Council Advisors.

Applications from Chartered bodies who wish to apply for the power to grant an individual Chartered designation should be submitted to the Privy Council Office in line with our usual guidance for amending Charters and Byelaws.

The Privy Council should be satisfied around a number of points, although these need to be proportionate to the applicant body. Any application should address:

1. what criteria will be set to grant the individual Chartered designation – a recognised qualification (the usual expectation is qualification to Masters level or above), professional experience in the field (if so of what length and in which settings) or a measurable mixture of both;
2. expectations around a robust continuous professional development regime, to maintain high standards;
3. a complaints procedure in place to deal with complaints about Chartered individuals;
4. a disciplinary procedure in place;
5. the title and post nominal proposed;
6. evidence of consultation with other bodies, both Chartered and non-Chartered, in the field to check if they would have any objections to the grant of the power to the organisation to award an individual Chartered designation;

Any proposed designations must be meaningful and not confusing to the public.

When considering whether to allow the addition of a power to grant a Chartered designation, the Privy Council Office and Privy Council Advisors will consider the above points and also consider the appropriateness of the body being able to award a Chartered designation. It is for Advisors with the policy responsibility to be satisfied on the above points and to determine if other bodies need to be consulted for views.

The power to award individual Chartered designations should be included in the ‘Powers’ section of the Charter, with the detail and consequential amendments concerning the grant criteria, complaints and disciplinary procedures etc, [mentioned] in Byelaws.