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Pillar 2: Practice

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How will we support the development of planning practice and the planning system?

 

  • We will advocate for a more effective and better resourced planning system. For the overall planning system to work, greater investment is needed in the public sector. We will campaign for public-sector planners to benefit from the skills, resources and digital tools that will enable them to create better outcomes for communities. Additionally, we will advocate for strategic infrastructure plans.

  • We will maintain good relationships with elected officials and politicians. To champion planning at the highest levels of local and central government, we will further invest in our Politicians in Planning Network and create bespoke training content for local councillors. We will continue to provide timely briefings to elected officials on important planning policy and practice matters.

  • We will equip you with the expert knowledge to undertake your job to the best of your abilities. We will continue to provide and develop our practice advice for planners on key topics, supporting you to deliver expertly.

  • We will bring public– and private – sector planners closer together. Greater understanding will lead to better collaboration between the two sectors. To achieve this, we will be proactive about attracting and welcoming all local authority chief planners into the RTPI and making sure their voices are heard. We will also encourage other local authority planners to join our Institute.

  • We will work to positively change public perceptions of planners. As the voice of the profession, we will challenge negative commentary about planning. We will also highlight the critical role played by planners in addressing the housing crisis and developing healthy and sustainable communities.

  • We will grow the reach and influence of the planning profession. This will be achieved through our policy, research, practice, influencing and advocacy work, as well as through our practice and products. We will champion the research work of our accredited planning schools.

  • We will create a profession without barriers. To encourage a diverse talent pool to join the profession, we will continue to modernise. We will ensure that our routes to education and Chartered membership are fit for purpose and any unintended barriers to entry are removed. We will accredit more planning courses, deliver apprenticeships, bursaries and scholarships, and work to increase the capacity and capability of planning where it is most needed.

  • We will attract new talent to the profession. To plug the talent and resourcing gap in planning, we will engage with potential new joiners – including students, apprentices and people from other professions – across the public and private sectors. We will reach out to schools and universities, to explore opportunities to integrate planning into the school curriculum and encourage more people to study planning, including through accredited degrees and apprenticeships. Furthermore, we will encourage students to pursue planning careers post-graduation and support employers, particularly local authorities, to deliver graduate training schemes.

  • We will attract new talent to the public sector. As part of our overall commitment to attracting new talent into the planning profession, we will specifically attract new talent to the public sector. We will design and deliver industry-led skills and capacity programmes for local planning authorities such as the Planning Skills Fund.

  • We will support and enhance planning schools and other centres of planning excellence. Planning schools provide a vital pipeline of planners into the profession. As well as promoting existing schools, we will consider how we can support the development of further high-quality and well-funded planning schools.

  • We will help to retain talent within planning. We will develop strategies to retain graduates within planning – for example, by promoting the benefits of acquiring Chartered status. Furthermore, we will explore how the profession can retain planners who may consider leaving mid-career. Succession strategies can be a way to enable individual progression and ensure the resilience of planning departments into the future.

  • We will collaborate with other professions and learned societies. We will work more closely with other professions, particularly those that specialise in the built environment, to encourage visionary placemaking and support the planning system in its entirety. Additionally, we will deepen our knowledge base as an institute by further exchanging ideas and best practice with other learned societies, such as the Academy of Social Sciences, the Royal Economic Society and the Royal Geographical Society.

  • We will support individuals and communities to participate in the planning system. We will continue to invest in, and support, planning aid services across the UK to help communities to navigate the planning process.

  • We will support planners to harness the power of technology. Artificial intelligence and augmented reality are transforming digital planning. We will lead on the digital agenda by exploring how these technologies can better support planning services to deliver for communities. By investing in digital capabilities, we will make our services available to all members, wherever they are based.

  • We will support planning capacity building and grow our membership in line with the UN-Habitat priorities in a rapidly urbanising world.[1] Our particular focus will be on places and communities that have the fastest-growing populations over the next century and the greatest need for planning.

 

[1] By 2050, 68% of the world’s population is predicted to live in urban settlement and 90% of the urban growth in the next 30 years is predicted to happen in Africa and Asia, according to the United Nations.