CPD for Legal Training Providers
If you train solicitors, barristers or legal executives and you're not sure your certificates carry enough weight for SRA, Bar Standards Board or CILEx records, that feeling is completely normal — it isn't a sign you're missing something. The SRA doesn't endorse any CPD accreditation body, and structured, outcomes-based training is the standard it actually applies, not membership of a named scheme. What matters is whether your certificate documents the learning clearly enough for a solicitor's own competence record.
What CPD accreditation actually means for a legal training provider
The SRA's continuing competence framework has no fixed annual hours requirement — the emphasis is on solicitors identifying learning needs and keeping evidence that they addressed them. The Bar Standards Board is more prescriptive, setting specific CPD hours for barristers that vary by call year and practising certificate status, and CILEx runs a structured annual cycle for legal executives with the same emphasis on recorded, reflective learning.
Across all three, the direction is the same: evidence of learning tied to professional outcomes, not membership of a particular accreditation scheme. The SRA has been explicit that it doesn't endorse any CPD accreditation body — a large commercial training company branding itself as 'accredited' holds no more regulatory authority over its courses than an independent trainer does.
That levels the field for independent providers delivering employment law, conveyancing, contract law, SRA compliance or legal technology training. What solicitors, barristers and legal executives actually need is a course with clear learning outcomes and a certificate that documents them — that's what satisfies the framework, regardless of who issued it.
Open CPD offers a simple 3 step process for you
Run your employment law, conveyancing or compliance course as you already do.
Log in, set up the course profile, outcomes, hours, delivery mode, and accredit with one click.
Branded CPD certificates and digital badges are generated instantly for every learner.
What solicitors and their firms actually check
A training manager or head of L&D signing off on external CPD isn't looking for an accreditor they recognise — they're looking for evidence that the course was well-structured, relevant to practice, and that their fee earners received something they can log against SRA, BSB or CILEx requirements.
A permanent, checkable verification record supports exactly that. It gives a solicitor's continuing competence record, or a firm's compliance file, something independently verifiable — removing ambiguity that a training manager would otherwise have to chase down themselves.
Each certificate resolves to an achievement page anyone can open, no login, no PDF attachment.
Your logo and course name lead. Certificates are powered by Open CPD, issued by you.
Once issued, the record is stored immutably and stays tamper-proof, the date and detail cannot drift.
How this plays out for legal training providers
Independent legal trainers deliver to law firms, in-house teams and individual solicitors on subjects like employment law, conveyancing, contract law and legal technology — areas where demand is constant because the law itself keeps changing. The gap isn't expertise. It's giving delegates a certificate that documents outcomes clearly enough to support their own SRA, BSB or CILEx record.
There is no SRA-endorsed accreditor for legal training providers, and you do not need one
The SRA has been explicit that it doesn't endorse any CPD accreditation body — what it applies is an outcomes standard, not a check for a named accreditor's logo. Open CPD doesn't insert itself as an intermediary between your course and the SRA, BSB or CILEx; it gives you a structured way to define outcomes and issue a certificate that documents them, ready for a solicitor's own competence record.
Accredit your first legal training course this week
Ready to see exactly how the structure comes together — aims, skills, outcomes, and the verification record that ties it all together? [How It Works](https://open-cpd.com/how-it-works/) walks through the full mechanism. Or [start now](https://open-cpd.com/opencpddemo/) and set up your first legal course profile in minutes.