The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) recently celebrated the first anniversary of their partnership. Joe Pickard speaks to ICAEW CEO Alan Vallance
In September 2023, both institutes signed the declaration to deliver better outcomes for both CIPFA and ICAEW, their members and students.
Since then, the two bodies have made significant progress across a number of areas to benefit members of both institutes.
Over the last year, the institutes launched fast-track routes to dual membership for CIPFA and ICAEW members, to make it easier for Chartered Accountants to work across both the public and private sectors. CIPFA chief executive Owen Mapley and ICAEW chief executive Alan Vallance have both become dual members, demonstrating their commitment to the partnership.
In February, ICAEW’s Professional Standards Department took over the management of CIPFA’s disciplinary scheme, including the assessment, investigation and prosecution of complaints and reports back to CIPFA committees. CIPFA members and staff have been able to use facilities at Chartered Accountants’ Hall (CAH), including the business centre, library and club, since 2023, while in June, CIPFA moved London-based staff into CAH.
The Accountant: What have your organisations learnt from each other over the past year?
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By GlobalDataAlan Vallance: For ICAEW, the partnership with CIPFA has added to our knowledge of the UK public sector, and in particular the current significant issues affecting the financing of local government. Working with senior CIPFA members has reinforced our respect for chartered accountants in the public sector – for the responsibilities and challenges they face and the professionalism with which they undertake their roles.
We have also learned from each other’s experience in attracting talent into the accountancy profession. We note with interest, for example, CIPFA’s success in accommodating late vocations and different career patterns. Finally our international profiles are complementary, and we have benefited from each other’s global networks and contacts. We are actively considering projects where we can collaborate.
TA: How do partnerships such as the one between ICAEW and CIPFA benefit the wider profession?
AV: Over the last year ICAEW and CIPFA have seized opportunities whenever possible to speak to government, regulators and parliament with one joint voice – in policy statements, consultation submissions and evidence to select committees. We believe that this has strengthened our ability to represent the wider profession and to argue for outcomes that are in the public interest.
More broadly, the convergence between ICAEW and CIPFA has been built around the principle of parity of esteem, and it demonstrates how professional bodies with proud identities, histories and traditions can still collaborate, constructively and effectively, to their mutual benefit and to serve the public interest. We may have different backgrounds in some ways, but ICAEW and CIPFA share an ethos of ethical and technical rigour which has been the bedrock of our partnership.
TA: What are the benefits of being dual ICAEW and CIPFA members?
AV: It is an attractive offer for ICAEW members either working in or for the public sector – in central government and its agencies and arm’s length bodies, in the NHS and other public services and in local authorities. It allows them to add best-in-class sector-specific training and support from CIPFA to the benefits they already get from ICAEW membership.
TA: How have your members responded to the partnership?
AV: ICAEW’s Council and our wider membership have been strongly supportive of this relationship with CIPFA.
TA: How many have since become members of both organisations?
AV: Take-up has been steady: hundreds of expressions of interest from CIPFA and ICAEW members are being processed. Owen Mapley already had membership of both CIPFA and ICAEW, and recently I followed suit, taking up my eligibility for CIPFA membership on the basis of my own extensive past experience of working in the public sector.
TA: How do you imagine the partnership developing in the future?
AV: ICAEW and CIPFA already collaborate in a number of operational areas: CIPFA, for example, outsources the management of its disciplinary scheme to ICAEW, and the two bodies now share the same headquarters building, CAH in Moorgate. CIPFA has helped to develop and market a public sector version of ICAEW’s Sustainability Certificate. There are many further opportunities to cooperate on training products, both in the UK public sector and internationally.
TA: What are your joint priorities in the short, medium and long-term?
AV: ICAEW and CIPFA intend to be a strong and united voice in the debate on how the crisis in local government finances is tackled. We will refine the dual membership offer, streamlining the administration and positioning it firmly as the best choice for accountants in the public sector.
We will explore new areas of operational collaboration, generating business efficiencies and synergies by working together.
