CPD (Continuing Professional Development) is defined as ‘a range of learning activities through which professionals grow and develop throughout their careers to ensure that they retain their capacity to practise safely, effectively and legally within their evolving scope of practice’.

When working as a professional practitioner, it is important that you keep your theoretical and practical / knowledge and skills up to date in two main areas:

• Learning more about your discipline or therapy.
• Learning more about how to work as a professional practitioner, including any new legislative or other requirements.

A minimum of 15 hours per year overall must be spent on CPD to meet the requirements. Your CPD must include activities which involve learning specifically about your own discipline(s) as well as more general learning to support your development as a practitioner. This general learning could be focused on issues such as health & safety, first aid or business development.

 

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We recognise a wide range of activities which you can count towards your CPD. These could include, for example:

• attending seminars
• reading or writing articles
• taking part in research
• receiving supervision or mentoring which enhances learning and development
• work shadowing – almost any practise-related activity
• first aid
• marketing

Unable to meet the requirements? 
If you cannot/do not complete the number of hours required, this does not mean you will automatically lose your membership. Mitigating circumstances will be taken into account. Advice will be offered to enable you to complete your CPD, where possible, over an agreed period of time. Should it still not be possible to meet the standards, registration will lapse until such time as they are met.

Choosing relevant CPD activity 
These are examples of some types of activities that you may wish to consider when planning your CPD.

GROUP ACTIVITY

• Attendance at courses, seminars, workshops and lectures which enhance your knowledge and skills. This could include webinars where you are interacting with other practitioners online or by telephone.
• Attendance at conferences or meetings which are dedicated to clinical practice or learning more about the discipline(s) you practice.
• Peer supervision where you meet with other practitioners from your discipline(s) and learn from each other about best practice.
• Being an examiner, tutor or assessor in the discipline(s) for which you are registered, where these are developmental and learning opportunities rather than regular activities included in your work.
• Providing taught sessions where these are occasional and represent a developmental activity for you rather than something you do on a regular basis as a tutor.

PERSONAL STUDY

• Client case studies Undertaking these would be used to demonstrate the learning which has resulted through the course of providing treatments and how this will improve the service you provide to others in future.
• Personal study which could include following a formal programme of study either taught or possibly distance-learning. In either case you must be able to describe what you have learned from this and how you will put it into practice in your work.
• Reading such as articles in journals, books or online which provide learning you are able to put into practice in your work as a practitioner.
• Research: If you are participating in a piece of research which is enhancing your understanding of your discipline and / or practice.
• Writing articles or books which are published.

SUPERVISION

• Receiving supervision which supports your learning and development, as a time-limited specific activity rather than any guidance received as a regular part of your work. Such supervision could be individual or in small groups.
• Receiving mentoring which supports your professional development over time, against agreed objectives. This can be individual mentoring or in small groups.
• Work shadowing where you are working alongside another practitioner to enhance your knowledge and skills about your practice.

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

• Attendance or presentation at conferences which improve your knowledge and skills or professional practice, or involve personal development which will be of benefit to you in your role as a practitioner.
• Business, marketing and other courses which enhance professional practice.
• Certified first aid training.
• Health and safety training which is relevant to your professional practice.
• Involvement in professional association activity. This could include attendance at meetings, providing articles for your association newsletter, involvement in local or national events, representing your discipline in some way.
• Organising events, conferences or meetings which could be related to your discipline or to some other aspect of professional practice. For example this could include community activities such as taster sessions or demonstrations.
• Personal development which enhances your professional practice. For example this could include courses which enhance your ability to be empathetic with your clients.
• Training to enhance ethical practice such as how to maintain professional boundaries or how to deal with issues of confidentiality.