Continuing Professional Development
CPD Guidelines for ACPAT 2012
ACPAT strives to maintain high standards to set ourselves above other animal physiotherapy related professionals. In order to do this we have kept our CPD standards in line with the CSP and therefore the HPC.
The CSP and therefore ACPAT focuses more on how learning changes your practice than on the number of hours spent on CPD, although a minimum of 50 hours either animal or human animal split is still required.
A small minority of ACPAT members (10%) will be involved in an annual audit to show they have met the standards. The members are randomly selected and can be Cat B members. This is line with the audit of the HPC.
Below is a guide to the HPC's Standards for CPD which shows that your CPD, which is an integral part of your practice as an ACPAT and CSP member, meets the HPC's standards.
These skills are vital for the ACPAT audit, but are also valuable for sharing the added value of your practice with others (such as prospective employers, Veterinary professionals such as BEVA and BSMA).
What do the HPC's standards expect of registrants' CPD?
In signing the declaration form to renew registration, you are, in effect, stating that you meet the standards of physiotherapy practice published by the council.
The standards for CPD state that registrants must:
- maintain a continuous, up-to-date 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
- on request, present a written profile (which must be their own work and supported by evidence) explaining how they have met the standards for CPD
Evidence of learning includes:
- Learning by doing
- Case studies
- Reflective practice
- Clinical audit
- Coaching from others
- Discussions with colleagues
- Peer review
- Gaining, and learning from, experience
- Involvement in wider work of employer (for example, being a representative on a committee)
- Work shadowing
- Secondments
- Job rotation
- Journal club
- In-service training
- Supervising staff or students
- Visiting other departments and reporting back
- Expanding your role
- Analysing significant events
- Filling in self-assessment questionnaires
- Project work or project management
- Evidence of learning activities undertaken as part of your progression on the Knowledge and Skills Framework
Professional activity
- Involvement in a professional body
- Membership of a specialist interest group
- Lecturing or teaching
- Mentoring
- Being an examiner
- Being a tutor
- Branch meetings
- Organising journal clubs or other specialist groups
- Maintaining or developing specialist skills (for example, musical skills)
- Being an expert witness
- Membership of other professional bodies or groups
- Giving presentations at conferences
- Organising accredited courses
- Supervising research
- Being a national assessor
- Being promoted
Formal / educational
- Courses
- Further education
- Research
- Attending conferences
- Writing articles or papers
- Going to seminars
- Distance learning
- Courses accredited by professional body
- Planning or running a course
Self-directed learning
- Reading journals/articles
- Reviewing books or articles
- Updating knowledge through the internet or TV
- Keeping a file of your progress
Other
- Public service
- Voluntary work
- Courses
This list is not intended to be exhaustive and the Council's intention is that the registrant will make a professional judgement as to which type and frequency of activity will allow them to meet the Standards. Thus, the CPD scheme is based on on-going learning and development and focuses on the individual's learning achievements and how these have been reflected in their clinical practice and service delivery, either directly or indirectly.
Selected for audit
Registrants chosen for audit must:
send us a written profile (which must be their own work and supported by evidence) which explains how the CPD they have done meets our standards.
CPD profiles are assessed by CPD assessors from the professions we regulate, who decide if the profile meets the CPD standards.
Putting your CPD profile together
The main parts of your CPD profile will be:
- a summary of your practice history for the last two years (up to 200 words);
- a statement of how you have met our standards of CPD (up to 800 words); and
- evidence to support your statement.
The purpose of each part of the profile
The summary of your practice history should help to show us how your CPD activities are linked to your work. This part of the CPD profile should help you to show how your activities are relevant to your current or future work.
Your statement of how you have met our standards should clearly show how you meet each of our standards, and should refer to all the CPD activities you have undertaken and the evidence you are sending in to support your statement.
The evidence you send in will back up the statements you make in your CPD profile. It should show that you have undertaken the CPD activities you have referred to, and should also show how they have improved the quality of your work and benefited service users.
Your evidence should include a summary or list of all your CPD activities. This will show that you meet standard 1.
Your evidence should also be able to show that your CPD activities are a mixture of learning activities and are relevant to your work (and therefore meet standard 2).
Attached is an example of a CPD audit. For more information please visit the CSP and HPC's websites or contact the CPD officer for ACPAT.
