The regional membership team continues to focus on projects, process and protocol which supports key CII initiatives and ensures the local institute network is both involved and informed in helping deliver CII objectives. Continuing under the Evolving the Partnership banner, the three key themes of Volunteer Engagement, LI Visibility and LI Proposition Development will shape the team's work in 2026.
Local Institute National Forum (January 2026)
A January LINF meeting was a new feature to start 2026 as we look to move timings to be better aligned with CII Committee and Board outputs. This will enable more comprehensive information and updates to be shared and discussed by the forum. Presentations were given by Ian Simons, CII Content and Capabilities Director, on the Chartered status project – specifically what better local support should look like; and Adam Harper, CII Executive Director, Strategy, Advocacy & Professional Standards, on the FCA regulatory changes around CPD.
Local Institute Visibility: social media (Linked In) + The Journal
Regular LI updates and profiling of CII activities across both platforms continues to have a positive impact on local institute awareness and engagement. More than 85% of Local Institute have joined the LinkedIn project, allowing us to update with regular and relevant content. We’re continuing to push to achieve 100% take-up! The Journal remains a great source to share local activity with a wider audience.
Local institute Visibility: Website refresh
New look local institute websites are live, showcasing a clean, fresh and user-friendly platform for members seeking local support. The rollout was not without its challenges and the team has worked to resolve a number of hitches around functionality and access – as of mid-February 2026 most of these have been resolved and we look forward to members benefitting from the sites for years to come.
Local Institute Visibility: LI Promotional Campaign
Final touches are being put to the marketing campaign designed to promote the benefits of members engaging with their local institute. National Forum Officers were given a sneak preview at LINF and the team will share further details as we work towards the Q1 launch.
Local Institute Visibility: LI Podcast
The team is planning its podcast schedule for 2026 following positive feedback from volunteers at November 2025 Digital Town Hall events on potential topics for discussion. ‘Local Matters’ is a great platform for extolling the virtues of the local membership proposition and the volunteer community – if you have ideas for future discussions or you’d like to participate, let us know!
Volunteer Engagement: Digital Town Halls
The team is working on arrangements for the first round of Digital Town Halls for 2026. These key volunteer engagement touch points help develop relationships between the CIIs ELT and our volunteer network – feedback was consistently positive across the four events.
Local Institute Operations: Data Protection and Local Institutes
The volunteer working group formed in late 2025 has been progressing the guidance around data protection and what it means for local institutes and their volunteers. Working directly with the CII’s Governance team, the group has provided essential input into ensuring future information and guidance meets the network’s needs. Updates will be provided to the wider network from late February/early March 2026.
Local Institute Operations: Measuring Member / Volunteer Engagement
The team continues to develop an engagement dashboard that will provide a greater insight into member and volunteer engagement for each of the 51 local institutes. Looking at key member activities, event attendance and engagement with our programme of volunteer engagement touch points, as well as membership numbers, funding and council size, this ‘bigger picture’ overview will in due course help us support wider CII membership modernisation development and give better insight of engagement to local institutes.
Local Proposition: Local institute output (2025)
The local institute network held 1,871 member events during 2025 – covering technical CPD, business skills, social events, and networking activities.