FSSC to use sector-specific boards to get fit for purpose

The Financial Services and Skills Council (FSSC) is undergoing structural change to include specialist sector boards, says interim chief executive Liz Field.

A new governance structure to address the diversity in the industry is needed to make the Council relevant to the sector it seeks to serve, she says.

"Banks are very different organisations to fund managers," Field says. "We need greater expertise in banking, insurance, and investment management. We do not have a total skill set at the moment."

In March the FSSC will find out whether its licence to operate will be reinstated, after the Government revoked it last October.

Field blames past failings on an incomplete skill set and "combative culture" among staff, coupled with trying to do too much for too many people.

A similar conclusion was reached following a strategic review of the Council, headed by former managing director Simon Ellis, last year.

Field says: "It shouldn't have been combative, we want a collaborative culture, we're not the FSA. But sometimes we are caught in the middle between the FSA and professional institutes."

In addition, she says poor communication of the Council's successes left the sector unsure of its role or value. "We diversified too much given our limited resources".

Professionalism and promoting the industry to new entrants are now the only areas covered by the Council.

Following the anticipated March decision, further redundancies at the Council in addition to the two already announced are a "possibility", says Field.

With the first round of "reorganisation" at the Council done, a mixture of re-training and new hires will be needed to plug a staff skills gap, she says.

"But if we do not get the license, no-one will have a job," she says.

Until then, it is business as usual, says Field: "I have been in a situation with a demoralised team before at the National Training Organisation, (the predecessor to the FSSC) and turned it around.

"I am trying to keep people motivated and continuing with the hard work. Our ability to help advisers with qualifications is unchanged."

She expects a positive outcome of the consultation process: "No other independent and objective body can bring together groups of employers, advisers and professional bodies in the way we have done," Field says. "If our license is not granted the FSSC would have to be reinvented, as has happened before."