Casework/Specialist Pathway – Raising the Standards of Debt Advice

Description of the programme

Within this activity set, there are two training courses that the IMA offer which must be completed:

Money Advice Foundations

Managing Cases and Caseloads

Money Advice Foundations

It takes time and experience to become a specialist. Money Advice Foundations is designed to provide a short extension of the topics encountered in Money Advice in Practice and is the first step on a road that, through subsequent experience and learning, will take you to specialist status.

This course is appropriate as preliminary legal advice training for new caseworkers. While this training alone will not make you an expert in any area- you’ll need narrower specialist training to understand the law and practice of advice in any kind of depth- Money Advice Foundations will prepare you to deal with the extra complications of ongoing cases.

This course would also suit those advice workers who are ready for a little more depth of knowledge across a broad range of debt and money topics, providing a taster of the specialisms available in money advice.

This one-day course includes discussion and exercises, and covers:

Consumer Credit Act
Limitation Act 1980
Business debt
Money debt in the county court – defences and applications
Possession action for rent and mortgage arrears
Insolvency action by creditors
Enforcement by foreign creditors
Judicial review
Hire purchase
Enforcement agents

Learning Objectives:

Successful learners will be able to:

Identify factors that may make a debt unenforceable and describe how enforceability can be challenged by the client.
List the key features of a hire-purchase agreement and strategies to deal with action to repossess goods.
Identify when insolvency proceedings have been issued against a client and determine strategies to deal with this.
Assist a client in responding to a county court claim including possible defences and making applications to the court when faced with enforcement action.
Identify appropriate strategies for dealing with clients at risk of repossession and assist a client in applying to suspend a warrant of possession.
Distinguish between personal and business debts and advise or refer their client appropriately.
Explain the powers of enforcement agents and identify grounds for challenging their actions.

Managing Cases and Caseloads

With increasing challenges from deadlines and targets, advisers must produce their best under time pressure. This training details how to progress and close a case properly, write good case notes, manage expectations, and understand the nature and the implications for your planning of other services who might be involved with the client.

Learning objectives:

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

open, progress and close legal advice cases,
accurately record key client information, review and monitor progress on cases and understand the importance of priority setting,
recognise the different types of support you can offer clients and understand how and why cases can be referred to other services.

Pre-requisite Learning / Pathway / Accreditation for Prior Learning:

Delegates are required to have successfully completed accredited courses covering the following skills sets, either with the IMA or another MaPS accredited training provider:

Initial contact
Support work
Advice work

For the IMA’s pathway, you must have attended the IMA’s training and passed the tests in each of the following:

Giving a Good Service to Clients and
Money Advice in Practice (since Autumn 2014) and
Referrals & Supporting Clients

Individual Certification

Attendees are provided with information about MaPS Accreditation of a particular course by email prior to the course date. This information is contained within the booking confirmation email that an attendee receives to confirm their place on a course. It explains which Activity Set the course relates to and, where applicable, other courses that need to be completed within that Activity Set. In this case, the attendee will be advised that this course is part of the Casework/Specialist activity set for MaPS accreditation alongside Money Advice Foundations/Managing Cases & Caseloads. It also explains that in order to obtain MaPS accreditation, there will be an online test for each course which must be passed.

Once the training has been completed they will receive a certificate to confirm this. This contains a footer explaining that this certificate alone is not proof of completing MaPS accredited training. If the delegate has successfully completed all parts of an accredited learning pathway, an additional certificate will be issued.

Once the test is completed, they receive email confirmation to confirm whether they have passed.

Once they have attended the necessary courses for a particular activity set and passed the required tests, in this case Money Advice Foundations and Managing Cases & Caseloads, they will receive an Activity Set Certificate, confirming their accreditation up to the level of Casework/Specialist.

What are the outcomes?

This course is accredited to Casework/Specialist level only. Casework/specialist activity will involve an adviser taking on responsibility for the conduct of a case and/or an adviser taking action on behalf of the client. The adviser drives and manages the case and maintains a continuing relationship with the client. Negotiation, advocacy and representation where appropriate are common features of casework.