Ways to use The Framework | The Money and Pensions Service

Ways you can use the framework

Here are a range of practical ways you can put the competency framework into action.

If you use it in other ways, it’s a good idea to share this with your colleagues and peers so they can benefit too. Any tips that help with good money guidance practice will ultimately benefit customers.

1. Map out your money guidance

Begin by familiarising yourself with the framework.

Download the framework or explore it online
Read the explanation of non-regulated ‘guidance’ and regulated ‘advice’ (p4)
Explore the framework’s structure – the picture (p5) and the descriptions of the three tiers (p7) are good places to start

Then map the money guidance you deliver against the framework. It probably won’t all apply to you; it entirely depends on your role and the service you work within or manage.

Are you surprised about the breadth and depth of money guidance set out in the framework?
How much of it is included in your role or service you manage? A small part, or the majority?
Are you clearer now about the boundaries of your role or service?

Remember, the Foundation attributes apply to all the conversations you and your team have about money with customers.

2. Self-assess your confidence levels

Think about how secure you feel about the money guidance you or your team delivers.

Use highlighter pens or a rating scale to indicate where you feel most to least confident.
Do any themes or patterns emerge?
Think about the areas where you lack confidence. What does that mean for your customers? Do you avoid those conversations? Do you signpost them to other services?

3. Reflect on your learning and development

Which areas of your or your team’s money guidance have been supported by training?

What is a training course, online learning, mentoring, coaching, or another form of continuing professional development?
Was it recent?
Did it meet your needs?
Are there any gaps?
Do you need to update your knowledge or skills?
Which aspects of your money guidance would you like to improve?

4. Take action

Think about what you can do to improve the conversations you or your team have with customers about money. You could do this for your own self-development, as a team manager or with a head of service as part of a work-related review.

Record the aspects of your money guidance that you want to improve.
Identify training and CPD opportunities that will help meet your or your team’s needs.
Highlight any gaps that will need addressing.
Organise the steps you will take; plan and prioritise your or your team’s learning and development across a manageable timescale.
Revisit your plan – and the steps involved in creating it – over time

Taking the framework further

Whether you’re a frontline worker, a team leader or service manager, the framework can support your practice in other ways too.

Job role and career planning

You can use the framework to spot aspects of money guidance that you don’t currently deliver but would like to in the future.

Do you want to deliver broader money guidance that includes more Technical Domains?
Do you want to specialise in any of the Technical Domains or in more complex money guidance?
What training and development is available that will help you move into these new areas?
When you are applying for a job that involves money guidance, how does it relate to the competencies in the framework?

Strategy, HR practice

You can use the framework to support HR policy and practice, organisation-wide training and development, and organisational strategy:

Vision, values and aims:

How do your organisational vision, values and aims align with the competency framework?
How do you help your staff understand and use the competency framework?
Are you cultivating a shared understanding of the competencies that your organisation prioritises and values?

Recruitment:

How do the competencies in the framework match your job descriptions and person specifications?
Are relevant competencies an integral part of your selection processes, including competency-based application and interview questions?
How do you build the competencies into staff induction programmes?

Staff development

Do you refer to relevant competencies for individual performance management, including staff appraisals and annual reviews?
Can you identify the competencies required by different teams and team members?
Do you use the competencies to consider skillsets, gaps, development areas, and recruitment into teams?
How can you use the competency framework to inform succession planning, to match staff experience and capability to more senior roles, and consider the career progression of those staff who can fill vacancies as they become available?

Training and development planning:

Can you use the competencies relevant to your service to identify gaps in the training and development you have provided your staff? e.g. over the last three years
Do you allocate resources to areas of the competency framework that our organisation identifies as priorities for staff training and development?

Peer-to-peer discussions

Remember, you’re not alone! Who else do you know or work with that has conversations about money with their customers?

You can use the framework as a talking point, or as a way of structuring discussions, with colleagues and practitioners in other organisations.
How does the breadth and depth of the framework relate to the money guidance you all deliver? In what ways are your roles similar? How do they differ?
Do you share the same levels of expertise across the framework?
Are there any shared gaps in your coverage or your training and development?
Can you share useful training and development that supports different competencies?
Can you agree how best to support customers?
What does ‘good practice’ look like for money guidance?

Remember, the UK Money Guider Network offers lots of opportunities to meet other people involved with money guidance. You can register for upcoming events here UK Money Guider Networks Calendar | Trello