– If you were audited, we would ask you to tell us about some of the activities – You should aim for your CPD to benefit your service users. As long as you can explain this if asked, you will still meet this standard. The important thing is to consider why the activity was not as helpful as you thought it would be, and how you might do things differently in future. You cannot always anticipate the actual benefits of CPD activity. We use the term ‘seek to ensure’ in standard 3 because there may be some instances where the CPD activity you carried out to improve your practice is not as effective as you thought it would be. Some CPDĪctivities might mean that you continue to work as you did before, but that you are more confident that you are working effectively. Others might help you gain new or improved skills or help you to make changes to working practices. You do not necessarily have to make drastic changes to how you work. Your CPD should lead to you making changes to how you work which improves the service that you provide. – If you were audited, we would ask you to tell us about some of the activities you have carried out, what you learnt and how this has improved your practice. – You should aim for your CPD to improve the way you work. Although this is not a specific requirement, we would encourage you to look for opportunities to learn and reflect on your practice with others.
For example, ‘peer discussion’ is a term used to describe opportunities to discuss practice issues with groups of professional colleagues. There is some developing evidence that suggests that the most effective learning activities are often those that are ‘interactive’ and which encourage ‘self-reflection’. You are able to make your own decisions about the CPD that is most beneficial to you, your practice and your future career ambitions. If you have an annotation on the Register (for example, in prescribing), we would particularly encourage you to consider whether you need to complete some CPD activities to keep up to date in this area of practice. So some or all of your CPD might be about preparing you for a future role. Your CPD can also support your career development. If you work in private practice, some of your CPD might be about the skills you need to run a successful practice. For example, if you are managing a team, some of your CPD might be based around your skills as a manager. Your CPD will be relevant to your practice so will be individual to you.
This means that yourĬPD should be related in some way to your registration as a health and care professional.
Your CPD must be relevant to your current or future practice. If you were audited and had only carried out one type of learning – for example, if you had only read professional journals but had not carried out any other kind of learning – you would not meet this standard. We have provided a longer list of possible CPD activities in appendix 1. In practice, most registrants will carry out many different types of learning while registered with us. This means that you need to carry out at least two different types of learning activity. Your CPD must include a mixture of different types of learning. Your CPD must relate to your registration and practice as a health and care professional.Your CPD must include a mixture of different types of learning.So keeping a good record will mean that you can do this easily. We will not ask to see a complete copy, but if you were audited, we would ask you to give us details of the activities you have completed over the previous two years and send us some supporting evidence. Please make sure that you can access your record – for example, in case you leave your employer. You might follow a format provided by your professional body or by your employer.
You might choose to keep a binder or folder including documents such as certificates and notes that you have kept relating to your CPD, or you might keep this record electronically. We do not ask for a set format for recording your CPD.
If you are audited, we will be interested in what you have done over the previous two years (the length of each registration cycle).