In recent years, Bat Conservation Trust has been working in partnership with Natural England (NE) and the Chartered Institute for Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) on the development of a transformative approach to licensing mitigation work in England that impacts on bats. This approach is known as Earned Recognition and aims to (1) streamline licensing, (2) raise and maintain professional standards in bat mitigation work and (3) improve outcomes for bats.
Background - Why Bats?
Applications for licences involving bats and bat roosts are by far the highest proportion of mitigation licence applications received by NE and numbers have been increasing year on year. The vast majority are lower risk situations but they still need to be licensed which requires time, effort and cost on the part of the developer, the consultant and NE. This reduces the resources available for monitoring, enforcement and drawing together the evidence base for the effectiveness of mitigation. NE’s resources to put into licensing are stretched and a more streamlined approach holds benefits for everyone.
We believe that an accreditation system helps to improve standards of bat mitigation and will lead to better outcomes for bat conservation.
Earned Recognition (ER)
Earned Recognition works on the basis of assessing and accrediting a consultant’s competence in undertaking survey work and designing and implementing effective mitigation. There are different competency requirements based on the level of accreditation applied for, these relate to the degree of risk to bats. Quite simply, consultants who work on projects that involve higher risks to bats will require a higher level of accreditation that involves demonstrating a higher level of competence.
There is also a benefit for developers choosing to use an accredited consultant, as they will experience a more streamlined licensing process for their project, with Natural England aiming to assess Site Registrations within 15 working days.
To date, over 100 ER Consultants have been accredited and these ER Consultants have used the streamlined licence application system to submit nearly 1000 Site Registrations.
Update November 2024
Bat Earned Recognition (ER) – Application window for ER Accreditation opening soon!
Natural England will be accepting applications for the next round of Bat Earned Recognition (ER) Accreditation Assessment between 2nd December – 6th December 2024. The instructions for applying will be available on the Bat ER GOV.UK page (Bats: earned recognition class licence for mitigation work on bat roosts - GOV.UK) on the 2nd December 2024.
NE have confirmed that all ecologists that expressed an interest previously but were not selected for the pilot or beta phases, or were unsuccessful in completing assessments, are able to re-apply. Further, all applicants must hold a Natural England Level 2 Survey Licence and be a member of a relevant professional body (currently CIEEM, the Institute of Chartered Foresters [ICF] and the Royal Society of Biology [RSB]).
Update July 2024
The successful partnership project to develop and trial an Earned Recognition (ER) approach to bat mitigation licensing is coming to an end, with the resulting Bat ER scheme now being rolled out as Business As Usual. Over the whole trial of Bat ER to date, Natural England have accredited over 100 ER Consultants, who have submitted nearly 1000 Bat ER site registrations.
Evaluation of the trial phases has found good time-savings are being achieved through the site registration process, with the potential for these to become more significant with ongoing process improvement. The introduction of a detailed assessment of competence for accreditation is a novel approach to licensing and bat work. While this has provided challenges, it also provides real opportunity to raise professional standards, and to improve outcomes for bats. Natural England will continue both with ongoing improvements, and with evaluation of the benefits from the Bat ER approach.
The Beta phase accreditation round has taken far longer than anticipated, and Natural England acknowledge the frustration that this has caused. We appreciate the patience of those people who have been Beta candidates, and understand that many have not been able to complete the process.
Given these experiences, Natural England are keen to ensure that issues are addressed before offering further assessment. They are still planning to begin the next assessment round later this year, but are firstly putting in place a number of improvements identified through a review of the lessons learned from Beta. These include:
- Replacement of the portfolio element of the assessment with a simpler review of core survey and mitigation evidence, resulting in a substantial reduction in the competency indicators checked through this route.
- The majority of the assessment taking place through multiple-choice questions or online scenario tests.
- Removing the interview as a standard stage of assessment.
- Providing clearer guidance on the evidence requirements.
- More realistic timeframes for assessment rounds.
- Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements checked at reaccreditation, not at initial accreditation.
- Regular updates to candidates going through the process.
The next accreditation round will be delivered by the NE Wildlife Licensing Service, with the site registration process having already fully transferred to this team. Contact details for Bat ER will continue to be via the mailbox EarnedRecognition.bat@naturalengland.org.uk. Information and updates on Bat ER are now available at: Bats: earned recognition class licence for mitigation work on bat roosts – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) .
