How Community Care can help you with your CPD

Social workers will have to renew their registration with the HCPC under a new system for the first time from 1 September. One of the things that has changed is how your continuing professional development (CPD) will be measured.

There are no longer a set number of hours that need to be evidenced, and the responsibility lies with the individual social worker rather than their employer.

What counts as CPD?

Anything that helps your learning and can be used to improve your practice for service users can count towards your CPD, whether that’s reading an article, attending a conference, chatting to colleagues or even watching a relevant TV programme. You just need to be able to answer the following questions:

• What have I learnt from this activity?
• How will it improve my practice?
• How will it benefit service users?

What can I do to improve my learning?

1. Keep up to date with relevant events in the news:

Read a Community Care article about a recent serious case review or inquiry

Read an article to help with your CPD – click here

Keep up to date with what’s happening in government

2. Use an academic guide on Inform to brush up your understanding of research or case law

Read an Inform guide – click here

3. Attend a conference

Attend a conference- click here

4. Use our CPD log tool to keep track of your progress and record activities that count towards your continuing professional development

What else can I do?

• Set up a discussion, book group or journal club with colleagues
• Read a relevant book or watch an educational film or documentary
•  Work shadow
• Be a mentor to another social worker
• Keep a file of your progress reflecting on your experiences
• Learn by doing- take on a secondment or job rotation
• Go on a course or do some e-learning