Radiographers will soon be required to renew their HCPC registration, and may be required to demonstrate their CPD activities – which is why the College of Radiographers has developed five principles to show what responsibilities around CPD and lifelong learning should look like.
Dr Amy Robertson, professional officer for education and accreditation, shares how the new updated principles can help you to access quality, effective and balanced development opportunities to support and document your learning in preparation for HCPC renewal.
HCPC Renewal and CPD Audit
Whilst we prepare for the festive season another deadline is fast approaching - the time for radiographers to renew their registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). Whenever you renew your registration with HCPC, you will be asked to sign a form to confirm that you continue to meet the standards of the HCPC, one of which is the standard for continuing professional development.
When each profession renews, the HCPC randomly select 2.5 per cent of registrants from that profession and ask them to submit their CPD profile. This is the CPD audit. If you are picked for audit, you need to complete a CPD profile by the deadline and provide supporting evidence that shows how the activities you have carried out meet the standards and the dates they were undertaken.
CPD Together principles for lifelong learning in health and social care
The College of Radiographers has been collaborating with 20 other organisations to bring together a set of five principles to help everyone involved in CPD and lifelong learning to show what responsibilities around CPD and lifelong learning should look like for individuals, organisations and the wider system, in health and social care.
The principles were written by a working group, known as ‘CPD Together’, representing organisations from across a range of health and social care sectors and unions. The group still meets and is working on ways to raise awareness of the principles and to ensure they become embedded.
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The CPD Together Prompt card prepared by: The Interprofessional CPD and Lifelong Learning UK Working group. The full principles and associated resources can be found on the NHS Learning Hub.
Using the principles as a practitioner
The principles start with you and your career. Use them to plan your CPD for your career goals and interests and to ensure you keep up to date with technology, capability, safety and regulatory requirements. CPD and lifelong learning are also key elements of practitioner wellbeing at work and so are an investment in you. As a practitioner you can use the principles to help you strengthen employer support for CPD, highlighting their role in access to CPD.
Combine these with your profession’s development frameworks. For example if you are a support worker, practitioner, practice educator, enhanced, advanced or consultant radiographer working in imaging and oncology, use these principles alongside the Education and Career Framework (4th Edition).
You can also use the principles to underpin competency frameworks, or preceptorship goals that you’re working towards. These principles and other resources are available via our professional development platform CPDNow members can access this as part of the member benefit package here: CPD resources | SoR
Using the principles as an employer
If you are a service lead you can use the principles to support your employees to access the learning and development they need. Investing in employee CPD helps ensure that your employees are keeping up with clinical developments, are providing an up-to-date service and, crucially, that they feel engaged and happier in their work.
Employers can improve the impact of CPD with strong leadership and a positive workplace culture. Employers can build in protected time for staff CPD as part of Specified Professional Activities in job plans.
Using the principles as part of the wider system
There are huge issues around workforce retention as well as difficulty moving on at career transition points. Research is sparse in this area, especially for radiography, but based on research from other professions, access to CPD and lifelong learning has a positive impact on retention and supporting people through transition points.
By understanding and then reflecting on how the impact of CPD relates to the individual, the patient, the service and the professional services can maximise the application from theory into practice.
Where can I find out more?
Read the full publication ‘Principles for continuing professional development and lifelong learning in health and social care’ to find out more about these principles and how they benefit you, your employer and the wider systems. You can access the principles on the NHS Learning Hub.
To find out more about HCPC renewal and audit visit here. Find out when to renew here.