The Money Advice Service (MAS) is to roll out a peer review scheme to assess the performance of debt advisors in organisations across the UK, and make suggestions for their development. While MAS will fully fund the peer review scheme, it is currently commissioning an organisation to administer it, as well as recruiting a pool of advisers to carry out peer reviews. The organisation that wins the bid is likely to be a large professional services firm, since the work will require considerable audit experience, though MAS is also understood to be discussing the opportunity with umbrella organisations in the world of debt advice. “The challenge is that it needs more than standard auditors to deliver” says Caroline Siarkiewicz, head of UK debt advice at MAS. “We need people with money advice training, qualifications and expertise – so the organisation that delivers will have to recruit a whole raft of money advisers.” Another challenge for the contracted organisation will be to ensure that assessors coming out of money advice roles stay up to date with best practice in the field – one solution may be for them to time-share between their existing roles and auditing.....Read more here