Dear All,
I have been lucky enough, as a SoBRA member, to have downloaded a copy of the report and it really is excellent!
This string does highlight a broader issue which the List may wish to contemplate. In the UK at this time, many excellent contributions to knowledge and best practice are produced by collaborations of experts under a professional or commercial umbrella organisations (CLA:ire, CIRIA, CIEH, EIC etc). Some are sold and some are available to subscribing members. Long are the days when EA and HP(E) produced the R&D and guidance for practitioners and regulators as part of their statutory duties. Guidance, like training, appears to have become a commodity to be bought and sold, and available only to the few practitioners (or regulators?) with a budget or inclination to pay the subscription. Perhaps that is why I continue to see references to ICRCL, CLEA 1.04 and SGVs in the reports I receive!!
Now I concede that SoBRA is possibly the best value professional organisation around - and I urge all of you to join - and not just to gain access to this document, but if the sector is serious about improving the professional quality and consistency of the work conducted, perhaps it would do well by making such important and useful documentation available free to all - including the regulator’s who are (lest we forget), the final arbitrators of compliance!
If, as a Regulator, I am to refer a practitioner to this great piece of work and he/she does not have a copy, what am I to do?!
Best wishes to All,
David E. Jackson (so many David’s!)
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