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What is Continuing Professional Development (CPD)?

“…a range of learning activities through which professionals maintain and develop throughout their career to ensure that they retain their capacity to practice safely, effectively and legally within their evolving scope of practice.”
HPC CPD Consultation Paper

CPD activity can include:

• Work based learning: reflective practice, clinical audits, event analysis, user feedback, member of a committee, journal club
  
• Professional activity: member of a specialist internet group, mentoring, expert witness, presentation at conferences
  
• Formal/educational activity: courses, research, distance learning, planning or running a course
  
• Self directed learning: reading journals,/ articles, reviewing books/articles, internet, TV and press
  

The range of CPD activities undertaken will depend on:

• Experiences and opportunities for CPD in a professional’s’ work
  
• The profession and specialities available within it
  
• Personal learning needs
  
• Preferred learning style
  
• The relevance of the CPD activities to a professional’s’ practice
  
• The context of practice

The Health Professions Council (HPC) will require all their members to undertake CPD and will be looking to ensure that the CPD carried out by each of the professions is robust and effective.


CPD Website

Working in partnership with Health training providers, throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland, Reed Health has developed a comprehensive, cost-effective solution to facilitate an individual’s mandatory training and CPD.

This unique service, offered by Reed Health, will enable all allied health professionals to search, identify and select courses that they are interested in attending.

The events are organised by a number of established and respected providers across the professions. Many of the courses are offered at a specially discounted rate exclusive to Reed Health. Some of our current training providers include The College of Occupational Therapists, The British Dietetic Association, The British Institute of Radiology, The British Medical Acupuncture Society, The Bobath Centre, The Smae Institute, The DLCC, Harrison Associates, HE Seminars and Physio UK.

If you work for Reed Health, you will be entitled to a CPD fund of up to £600 per annum, which can be used towards all forms of CPD. Many of our temporary staff will be entitled to the Reed Health CPD fund*. (Please see below for further information and speak with your recruitment consultant to confirm details.)

Courses are available to everyone at all professional levels. Managers and head of departments can also use this resource to send members of staff on identified courses and can even host some of the courses locally.

By ‘registering’ an interest, you will be put directly in contact with the provider organising the course.  This centralised resource and database takes the headache out of searching for high quality courses of interest to you.


Open University

As part of our comprehensive CPD package, Reed Health has developed a close relationship with The Open University's School of Health and Social Welfare, the UK's largest provider of education and training for health and social care. The Open University's unique method of study is ideally suited, we believe, to our philosophy and the needs of our candidates.

The OU programmes allow you to study in your own time, with the support of top quality teaching materials, a personal tutor, regular assessments and feedback to aid your progress. The courses can be tailored to accommodate your own particular circumstances and there are very few restrictions on the time it takes to complete a qualification. Most courses can be studied individually, perhaps for professional updating in a specific area, or they can be studied in combination, enabling you to create a diploma or degree profile according to your needs and interests.

Employees of Reed HealthCare are eligible for a special discount of 10%* on Open University Health and Social Welfare courses.

Click here for the Open University Website


Reed Health CPD Scheme

In addition to great pay rates, we make contributions to your CPD fund for each hour you work through us. With a wide range of CPD courses, available with exclusive discounts for Reed HealthCare temporary employees, visit www.reedhealth.com/cpd and start developing your career today.  


How to Make a Claim

In order to claim money from your CPD account, please fax a claim form (available from your consultant), together with the receipt for books or courses, to your Reed Health branch.

You will need to make arrangements to pay for your books or courses in advance, as we are unable to arrange cheques to pay course providers or booksellers directly.

All claims submitted by Thursday each week will be processed through the payroll system and paid out with your wages as follows:

• If you work as a PAYE locum, then your CPD claims will be paid directly into your personal bank account. This will show on your payslip as bonus or payment.

• If you work as a limited company locum, then your CPD claims will also be paid directly into your limited company account. This will show on your payslip as bonus or other payment. You will need to inform your limited company administrative handler that your wages include a CPD payment and the value of the payment so that they can arrange for the payment to be credited to your account. This may incur an administrative fee.

* terms and conditions, please speak to your recruitment consultant

HPC Standards for CPD

The Health Professions Council (HPC) is an independent healthcare regulator and was set up in April 2002 with its main objective being to protect the public and uphold professional standards.

One of the objectives, that is currently being discussed, is to establish standards for CPD. The HPC have always advised that they would link registration with CPD as they are entitled to do so by law.

To readdress this, the HPC organised a consultation process between September and December 2004, where HPC members were invited to a number of consultation events all over the UK to discuss CPD.

The topics up for discussion included:

• The rules for CPD
  
• The standards of CPD
  
• The guidance on preparing the CPD audit profile

The CPD Standards

According to the Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics, “all members must make sure that their professional knowledge, skills and performance are of a high quality, up to date and relevant to their field of practice” Members must also understand the need for career long self directed learning and it is their responsibility to keep themselves up to date.

According to the standards, a registrant must:

• Maintain a continuous, up to date, written and accurate record of their CPD activities
  
• Demonstrate that their CPD activities are a mixture of learning activities relevant to current or future practice
  
• Seek to ensure that their CPD has contributed to the quality of their practice and service delivery
  
• Seek to ensure that their CPD benefits the service user
  
• Present a written profile containing evidence of their CPD upon request

The structure will be generic and flexible to accommodate those working in all allied health professions and in different areas of allied healthcare such as education, clinical practice, research and management and will also cover those working in part or full time employment.

The focus of the proposed standards is the OUTCOME of the CPD. As members are already engaged in a diverse range of CPD activities as part of their professional life, the HPC will not be publishing a detailed and exhaustive list, nor will they propose to set specific curricula for CPD. The will also not be specifying or monitoring the number of hours or number of events each registrant attends.

The Audit Process

Each registrant will be asked to make a self declaration at each registration renewal that they continue to meet the council’s standards for CPD.

A random sample audit of members’ CPD will be undertaken in each profession. The first audit was due in August 2007 has now been delayed to 2008 and will take in the Chiropody/Podiatry profession in July 2008 followed by Operating Department Practitioners later that year.  The other 11 professions will be audited in 2009.

Those selected for audit will be asked to submit a profile within 28 days, with a reminder 28 days later, allowing a total submission time of two months. This shouldn’t be too much of a time consuming task if members have been following Standard One.

Each profile will be assessed by two HPC appointed CPD assessors, one of which will be from the same professional register as the registrant being assessed. It will be the assessors’ final decision as to whether or not the registrant’s profiles meets the set standards. The registrant has the right to appeal.

CPD Profiles

Each randomly selected registrant will be sent a pro forma and it will consist of:

• A front cover
  
• Contents page
  
• Summary of the registrant’s practice history for the last two years
  
• A statement on how the CPD standards have been met
  
• Documentary evidence supporting the statement

Guidance on how to complete each of the sections will be provided by the end of 2005 and will contain ‘prompt’ questions to aid completion of the pro forma statement on how the Standards have been met.

Further details of the processes and comprehensive supporting information will be completed by April 2006 and form part of a communications campaign to make sure employers and health professionals know about the changes being made.

If you would like further information, or to discuss the HPC standards further, please do not hesitate to contact the CPD Department on 0161 200 1080.