A major recommendation in the Bichard RICS Review was the establishment of Professional Group Panels (PGPs). RICS undertook a consultation last year to obtain member feedback on the naming and number of PGPs and further input in their development. This consultation feedback was presented to Governing Council to approve in December 2022.

Consultation

There was a very strong consultation performance with 158 formal questionnaire responses to the consultation in addition to 13 roundtables and 142 participants. Thank you to all members who took the time to participate, the feedback was extremely useful.

The key themes from the consultation were:

  • There is a clear mandate following the consultation feedback to form PGPs with 97% agreeing or somewhat agreeing with the proposal
  • The names are broadly supported with 80% agreeing or somewhat agreeing with the proposal of names
  • There were a number of suggestions for different PGPs e.g. Rural, Facilities Management, Infrastructure, Residential Survey and Valuation were all highlighted
  • Some confusion around the PGP named Built Environment as the term is normally used to cover many aspects of surveying
  • Planning and Development is a specialism that can be included in many PGPs
  • How PGPs connect and represent regions and the link to World Regional Boards
  • How PGPs tackle issues such as sustainability and climate change

Key Recommendations

A Governing Council Steering Group (SG) was formed to review the consultation and make recommendations to Governing Council. As well as the consultation feedback, the SG also considered other criteria such as member numbers per Professional Group and pathway, growth areas, global relevance and stakeholder impact.

The SG understood that there is no perfect structure for reflecting specialisms within RICS and that some members will see things differently. lt also recognised that this is the start of their development and PGPs should be evolved further by the Knowledge and Practice Committee when up and running later this year.

SG presented to Governing Council that the initial naming and number of PGPs should be:

  1. Construction
  2. Valuation
  3. Commercial Property
  4. Residential Property
  5. Land and Natural Resources
  6. Building Surveying and Control

Planning and Development is clearly a very important area but would be better suited to running across most of the PGPs.

The Knowledge and Practice Committee should have the flexibility working with the RICS Board and Governing Council to evolve the naming and number of PGPs over time where required.

Next Steps

The next milestone is the appointment of the Chair of the Knowledge and Practice Committee and approval of the Terms of Reference of the Knowledge and Practice Committee.

This will enable the appointment of PGP Chairs and, from there, panel members.

Advertising for appointments is likely to begin in April and RICS will be seeking applications from members then.

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