Money Advice Service Quality Framework for Individuals
How Wiseradviser NI will help you to meet the Money and Pension Service (MaPS)
Quality Framework for individuals delivering debt advice –
The Money Advice Trust and Advice NI gained accreditation for this quality framework from the Money Advice Service (now Money & Pension Service). In the Initial Contact, Support Work, Advice Work, Casework/Specialist, Court Representation and Supervision debt activity sets.
What this means for Wiseradviser users
For each of the debt activity sets, we have introduced a core cluster of Wiseradviser NI courses (both face-to-face training and e-learning) that meet all the accreditation requirements.
This core programme is the minimum training you need to demonstrate that you have completed accredited training. Where there is repetition of courses within the debt activity sets, you will only need to complete this course once.
Please note: Completing these clusters of courses alone will not equip you with the essential technical knowledge needed to offer effective debt advice. However, completing these clusters will support you and your agencies to demonstrate that you meet the Money Advice Service’s Quality Framework for Individuals requirements.
We recognise that you need to learn a lot more in order to provide accurate and effective debt advice, which the entire Wiseradviser learning programme offers.
We highly recommend you complete all of the optional courses that are relevant to your role.
How this works
The diagram below shows what courses form the Wiseradviser Northern Ireland pathway (the brightly coloured boxes with white text) and what the relevant optional courses (the white areas with green text) are for each debt activity set. Click the diagram to view a larger version (PDF).
For example, if you are new to debt advice, you would complete the Initial Contact & Support Work core course (in the orange box), Introduction to Providing Debt Advice first, then complete any of the optional courses, at that level, before moving up to the next learning pathway.
To be equipped to give good and effective debt advice, you will need to complete the core courses within a debt activity set and we recommend you complete as many of the optional courses as are relevant to your role, before moving on to the next debt activity set cluster.
As part of the MaPS Quality Framework advisers are required to meet the core training requirements outlined above and to meet the Money and Pension Service Continuing Professional Development Scheme which many of the optional courses will also count towards. To meet the CPD element debt advisers must:
- Accumulate at least 16 CPD points worth of technical CPD actives
- Undertake activities in at least 3 or 4 activity categories
- Complete at least 1 training activity
- Submit a completed CPD record each quarter
Contact the IMA who administer the scheme to find out if a course is eligible for CPD points under their scheme prior to taking the course if required for CPD points. There are strict criteria around this allocation of CPD points under the scheme. For further information see the following:
https://www.i-m-a.org.uk/cpd-scheme-for-maps-funded-advisers/
In addition, any advisers working to the Northern Ireland Advice Quality Standard can use all Wiseradviser courses towards the CPD requirements of the standard.
Other Training Requirements:
In addition to the quality standard requirements, any adviser wishing to become a DRO Approved Intermediary must complete the Wiseradviser NI DRO Intermediaries training pathway which includes online and face-to-face learning.
