Virtual CPD Webinars

12.30pm and 6pm, 24 June 2021

• If you are on an ongoing course can you use it as part of your evidence of CPD?

  Yes, if you are currently engaged in formal study, you can use the learning activities which you do as part of your studies as examples of your CPD. For the purposes of meeting CPD Standard 1, we would however suggest breaking down the CPD record of your studies into individual smaller learning activities, to make sure that your record of CPD is accurate and continuous (we suggest to avoid entering CPD activities that cover substantial amounts of time, e.g. several months). If you have been selected for CPD audit while you are enrolled in long-term studies, and you feel that you would struggle to submit your profile, you can email cpd@hcpc-uk.org for assistance with your submission, or request a deferral of your CPD audit via our online system.

• I had a different role last year but was still registered with HCPC. Is it ok to include learning and development from this period as it is relevant to my current role (am an OT but spent time as a case manager in a CCG last year)? Or should it just be OT related as that is what my registration applies to? Thanks

  Hi there! You can include CPD activities which were relevant to your role at the time, as long as your role was related to your profession as an OT. Any period where you might have not practiced your profession (i.e. have not relied on your skills and knowledge as an occupational therapist) would be considered as a career break, or period of not practicing. This would be considered as a valid explanation for not engaging in CPD activities at the time. If your previous role was related to your profession as an OT however, you will be expected to engage and record your CPD activities for that period. I hope this helps!

• My role is not clinical or directly with an NHS board but I do support NHS Boards and my professional group so am having an impact on staff and end users to improve their practice and outcomes, does this still count as CPD?

  Hi there! Yes, as long as you continue to rely on your skills and knowledge as a HCPC-registered health professional, you are still considered to be practicing your profession. Hence, any CPD activities that you engage in as part of your role can be counted towards your CPD. Please bear in mind that our registrants work in many different roles, some of which are not related to treating patients, or working as frontline health staff. Depending on the requirements of their roles, their CPD activities will be different. However, they are still considered to be meeting the CPD requirements of their registration.

• I am confident that all of us registered in HCPC would be trying to work hard in our work profiles. My question is are there any peer CPD groups run by HCPC where professionals can meet virtually and spend some time reflecting about work which can be monitored by a fellow HCPC professional and that can be counted as a part of our CPD hours? By this way everybody of us could be involved in CPD's round the year with constant learning throughout time.

  Thank you for your question! As a regulator for so many different health professions, the HCPC is unable to host events where groups of registrants would be able to reflect on their individual CPD activites. We are, however, able to provide advice and assistance on how registrants can meet the CPD standards. Professional bodies might sometimes organise events which provide registrants with opportunity to engage in/reflect on their CPD activities. I would also recommend checking some of the information that we have on our website about some useful practices that registrants can implement to help them find time/reflect on their CPD activities: https://www.hcpc-uk.org/cpd/your-cpd/finding-time-for-cpd/. I hope this information helps!

• I thought you could "refresh" learning outside of the 2 year period. So if you did learning 3 years ago but then you implement this into practice more recently is this ok to include a reflective piece as evidence?

  Hi there! Yes, you can reflect on your learning from the period of outside of 2 years, as long as you can relate it to your current practice, and clearly show how this reflection helps you to meet the standards of CPD. For eaxmple, you might look back at your studies and think about how your practice has developed since then, or how your profession has evolved and forced you to change some of the practices.

• Almost everything I do could count as CPD. How do I choose what to document? I can’t do it all!

  Thank you for your question! When creating a record of your CPD activities, you might want to consider which of the CPD activities help you to meet the CPD standards best. Please refer to the CPD standards on our website, which will hopefully help you to decide which activites you would like to record on your list: https://www.hcpc-uk.org/cpd/your-cpd/our-standards-for-cpd/. I would also suggest making sure that the activities that you record are actual examples of CPD, and not just your day-to-day work duties. You might also wish to refer to our website for information about which activities count as CPD: https://www.hcpc-uk.org/cpd/your-cpd/cpd-activities/

• Would enrolment on a course contributing towards your profession count towards your gap in CPD?

  Hi there! We usually advise that full-time studies are a great source of CPD and can contribute greatly to your learning experience. However, if you are under a lot of pressure from your studies due to assignments, and you struggle to engage in a mixture of different learning activities during your studies, you can provide an explanation for the gap in your CPD activities due to full-time studies. I hope this information helps!

• How does this work with split posts? Would CPD be expected to be evenly split between the posts?

  Thank you for your question! Please note that as per the CPD standard 2 you will be expected to engage in CPD activities that are "relevant to your current or future work". This means that as your role changes, we also expect that the nature of your CPD changes also. We do not have requirements for your CPD activities being evenly split between posts if you change your role, just as long as the CPD activities you complete at the time are relevant to the nature of work you are doing. I hope this information helps!

• How does IBMS eCPD fit with the HCPC CPD standards? Is the frequency and selection of materials enough?

  Thank you for your question! Professional bodies can provide registrants with some training courses or ways to keep the record of their CPD. However, please note that it is the responsibility of individual registrants to make sure that their CPD activities meet the HCPC standards of CPD. I would therefore suggest to look at your list of activities and decide if your CPD activities meet the required standards, and decide if the way of recording activities and frequency of your CPD actually meet the HCPC standards of CPD. For more information about the standards, please see our website: https://www.hcpc-uk.org/cpd/your-cpd/our-standards-for-cpd/

• As a returning practitioner, if I was to be called up soon I will not have 2 years worth of CPD to demonstrate. How do I document/what do I need to provide to show I have only been back to work recently?

  Thank you for your question! If you have been off the HCPC Register for a period of time, you will not be expected to engage in CPD activities during that period. When returning to the Register you would be need to ensure you complete CPD, however you would only be selected for CPD if you have been on the Register continuously for 2 years at the point of selection. However, please not if you had a career break for example for 6 months and remained on the Register and were then selected for CPD, you could explain this gap within your profile, alternatively you may want to email cpdprofiles@hcpc-uk.org to discuss your options such as deferral.

• I don’t understand how this training can be used as evidence ? Can you give an example of this please? How would this help my patients in the hospital?

  To get an idea of the different types of CPD activities/evidence please visit https://www.hcpc-uk.org/cpd/your-cpd/cpd-activities/ and https://www.hcpc-uk.org/cpd/cpd-audits/completing-a-cpd-profile/cpd-evidence/. Upon reflection on your CPD you can think about how your activities has benefitted your service users, such as your patients in Hospital. You may also find looking at our sample profiles helpful: https://www.hcpc-uk.org/cpd/cpd-audits/completing-a-cpd-profile/how-to-complete-your-cpd-profile/cpd-sample-profiles/