Supplementary guidance
For Chartered APC, Associate and Legal Associate membership candidates
Published June 2021
Contents
1.1 Who is this advice note for?
1.2 How to use this advice note
2.1 What is corroboration?
2.2 Who can be my corroborator?
2.3 When do I need to get corroboration?
2.4 How does the RTPI verify corroboration?
3. Obtaining corroboration in different scenarios
3.1 Corroborating self-employed or sole practitioner experience
3.2 Corroborator changes jobs or retires
3.3 Corroborator is a family member
3.4 Corroborator is an RTPI assessor
3.5 Corroborator is uncontactable
3.6 Still unsure about corroboration?
1. General information
1.1 Who is this advice note for?
This advice note is applicable to Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) membership candidates applying for:
- Chartered membership via the Licentiate Assessment of Professional Competence (L-APC): rtpi.org.uk/l-apc.
- Chartered membership via the Chartered Town Planner Degree Apprenticeship Assessment of Professional Competence (DA-APC): rtpi.org.uk/da-apc
- Chartered membership via the Associate Assessment of Professional Competence (A-APC): rtpi.org.uk/a-apc.
- Chartered membership via the Experienced Practitioner Assessment of Professional Competence (EP-APC): rtpi.org.uk/ep-apc.
- Associate membership: rtpi.org.uk/associate.
- Legal Associate membership: rtpi.org.uk/legal-associate.
1.2 How to use this advice note
This advice note provides supplementary guidance on how to obtain corroboration for RTPI membership applications. It must be read in conjunction with the main guidance available at:
www.rtpi.org.uk/apc, www.rtpi.org.uk/associate or www.rtpi.org.uk/legal-associate.
This advice note explains the options available when seeking corroboration for your membership application.
2. Corroboration explained
2.1 What is corroboration?
Your application must be accompanied by completed Corroborator Declaration Form(s), which are available on the RTPI website. In the form, your corroborator must confirm that they have read the relevant parts of your application and that they agree with your claims. This means that you need to select someone who can appropriately fulfil this role.
Corroboration is a vital part of the application as it ensures the integrity of all submissions. For full details on what is required, please see the main guidance.
2.2 Who can be my corroborator?
Main guidance states that “your supervisor(s) or employer(s)” must complete the Corroborator Declaration Form. Your corroborator therefore may fulfil any of the following roles, as long as they have first-hand knowledge of your work during the corroboration period:
- a line manager, employer or supervisor (previous and current);
- your line manager’s manager, a company director, chief planning officer or other senior staff;
- a work colleague who operated at a higher professional level;
- a client[1] (only if you are self-employed or operate at the most senior level within your organisation); or
- a family member[2] (only if you are employed at a family business where no other individual is available to provide corroboration).
Your corroborator cannot be:
- someone who was subordinate or operating at the same professional level to you during the corroboration time period; or
- someone with second hand knowledge of the work you undertook during the corroboration period i.e. someone who did not directly observe your work.
2.3 When do I need to get corroboration?
Your corroborator needs to be able to verify the contents of your final application. This means it is not possible to have your experience corroborated prior to finalising your application. You should therefore maintain relationships with previous employers and ensure you have up-to-date contact details for them, so that you can obtain the relevant corroboration when needed.
The Corroborator Declaration Form is generally expected to be completed close to your submission date.
If you decide to present an alternative example or case study as part of a resubmission, this work must be corroborated on the same basis as the content of the original application.
2.4 How does the RTPI verify corroboration?
Previously the RTPI has required you to submit corroboration on company letterhead paper or from a work email address. This is no longer required. Instead, the RTPI has streamlined the process and will contact a random sample of corroborators after each submission deadline to verify the authenticity of the corroboration they have provided.
Should a candidate be found to have provided fraudulent or misleading corroboration, the RTPI Membership Team will take appropriate and proportionate action.
3. Obtaining corroboration in different scenarios
3.1 Corroborating self-employed or sole practitioner experience
If you are self-employed or a sole practitioner, you must provide corroboration from a minimum of two clients that cover your range of work; this must include any client whose work is mentioned in your Professional Competence Statement (PCS) case studies.
As well as having clients corroborate your work, it is advisable that you ask another built environmental professional who had direct involvement with your professional work to provide corroboration.
3.2 Corroborator changes jobs or retires
The RTPI accepts corroboration from employers and supervisors who have changed jobs or retired after the corroboration period. In these instances, the corroborator must provide up-to-date contact details within the Corroborator Declaration Form and specify their current circumstances e.g. that they are retired or no longer work for the organisation in question. The same applies if your organisation no longer exists e.g. the organisation has been dissolved, merged or absorbed within a wider structure.
3.3 Corroborator is a family member
If you are employed in a family run business, we would encourage you to seek out a corroborator at the organisation to whom you are not related, to avoid the appearance of a conflict. However, the RTPI appreciates that this isn’t always possible and will accept corroboration from a family member if no other option is available.
As well as having a family member corroborate your work, it is advisable that you ask another built environmental professional who had direct involvement with your professional work to provide corroboration.
3.4 Corroborator is an RTPI assessor
RTPI assessors are permitted to corroborate your submission, however, they would not be able to assess your application. If they are allocated your submission for assessment, they would need to declare a conflict of interest if you are known to them.
3.5 Corroborator is uncontactable
You are advised to keep in touch with your previous employers and supervisors to ensure you are able to ask them to corroborate your application when you are ready to submit. If you are having difficulty locating a potential corroborator, you could try contacting them via social media such as LinkedIn or, where appropriate, getting in touch via mutual contacts.
Assessors cannot take into consideration any uncorroborated experience. Your experience will need to be omitted from the application if a corroborator is uncontactable and no suitable alternative corroborator can be found.
3.6 Still unsure about corroboration?
If you have any questions regarding who can and cannot be a corroborator please contact the RTPI Membership Team at membership@rtpi.org.uk or on +44(0)20 7929 9462.
[1] See section 3.1.
[2] See section 3.3.