Membership

The Joint Consultants' Forum (JCF)is the creation of leading UK professional institutes and bodies, who bestow professional recognition on their members by requirement of defined competencies and who operate codes of conduct that regulate their members. The following organisations are members of the JCF:

• The Association of Consulting Scientists (ACS)
  
• British Computer Society (BCS)
  
• Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)
  
• Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)
  
• Chartered Quality Institute (CQI)
  
• Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)
  
• Energy Institute (EI)
  
• The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)
  
• Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST)
  
• Institute of Business Consulting (IBC)
  
• Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE)
  
• Operational Research Society (ORS)
  
• Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)

If you are a Professional Institute who would like to explore joining the JCF please email information@consultantsjcf.org.uk

Mission

The Joint Consultants' Forum (JCF) is the collective member service dedicated to helping professional consultants (particularly sole practitioners and small consultancy groups) expand their competences and capabilities to deliver more effective business solutions for clients. The JCF shares best practice in professional consulting across all member institutions and promotes inter-disciplinary networking and collaboration on client projects.

Governance

The relationship between the member institutions and the co-ordination of the promotion of joint events and other related activities is maintained by a steering committee. Each JCF professional institution is entitled to be represented on the steering committee by a voluntary officer, usually the chair or committee member of the consultancy group, and a staff member. The steering committee normally meets at quarterly intervals and member institutions take turns to act as host and provide the chairman of the meeting.

Event Promotion & Sharing

Member institutions organize their events independently and, when it is felt appropriate, invite other JCF member institutions to promote the event to their members through their websites and newsletters. The members of those institutions which accept the invitation and promote the event are entitled to the lower member delegate rate. Unless agreed in advance, normal practice will be followed whereby the host institution receives the income and bears the total cost of the event.

Formation of Regional Communities

Following the success of these activities it was decided to invite other groups including academic institutions, public sector and private sector organisations (including SMEs) etc. to participate for mutual benefit through the creation of local communities and build on existing infrastructures where available.

While the collaborative principle has been adopted by organisations like the Chambers of commerce and other groups the proposed collaborative partnership has a somewhat different composition to other groups and can collectively address more effectively issues that others may not be able to do. How best to do this is for each of the regional communities to determine; and the methods may be different in different regions.

Aims and Outcome

The objectives include:

• To help build trustworthy relationships between members of all the above groups and thereby help form fluid collaborative partnerships not only for mutual benefit but also to be able to more effectively address the important issues of the local community particularly in difficult economic conditions

• to help academic institutions, members of professional institutions and both public and private sector organisations share and exchange knowledge and best practice

• to help both public and private sector organisations benefit from ease of access to highly qualified and experienced professionals who are governed by strict codes of conduct, at reasonable fee rates

• to help academics and sole practitioners to put together effective teams to help on projects which require multidisciplinary skills and experience.

Method of Working:

Regions that wish to participate are encouraged to hold an initial meeting. This will include presentations followed by discussion during which volunteers from each group are invited to form a steering group/committee, which will help to determine the best way to proceed; and determine a suitable program of events to facilitate the realisation of mutual benefits of all the participants and the general public in the local community.

Contact and Collaboration with other existing groups are to be encouraged in order to avoid duplication and where appropriate contribute to and thereby enhance existing innovative initiatives, etc