CPD and the Health Professions Council

All Health Professions Council registrants will have received a copy of 'Continuing Professional Document - Consultation Paper' in the autumn of 2004. This document set out the HPC’s proposals with regard to CPD and registration. The document, together with the latest information regarding the conclusions of the consultation process, can be accessed from the HPC website at www.hpc-uk.org.

Click here for the Society of Radiographers’ formal response to the consultation.

As well as the CPD proposals the consultation document sets out (in appendices 1 and 2, page 17) comprehensive lists of examples of CPD activities and how these might be evidenced. It is worth noting that these lists were drawn up following consultation with professional bodies (including SoR) and that they provide helpful guidance to the diversity of activities that can constitute good-quality CPD.

The HPC has published its CPD Standards (i.e. the requirements registrants will have to meet to maintain their registration) and these, together with supporting information, can be found on the HPC website.

The College of Radiographers' online CPD system CPD Now contains important information to help you to comply with the HPC CPD standards. Please visit the HPC section of CPD Now to find out more.

SoR members who are required to register with the HPC should note the following:

• The formal requirement for registrants to declare their compliance with the HPC CPD standards came into force in July 2006 - it is now a condition of your registration. Registrants will be required to sign a statement saying that they meet the HPC's CPD standards - without this registration will not be renewed - at the next round of registration renewals in 2008. The HPC has made it clear that registrants who sign this declaration falsely place themselves at risk of being called before the HPC on a charge of fitness to practice - and that the penalty for this can be as severe as being 'struck off' the register. You should ensure that you are in a position to sign this statement truthfully by the beginning of next year. Please start to use CPD Now immediately to begin this process if you haven't yet started to record your CPD activities. More information will be posted as soon as available.

• The HPC will audit – i.e. check by random sample – to see that registrants are complying. The proposals for the mechanism by which this should be done were set out in the consultation paper and are relatively unchanged.

• Registrants selected for audit will be required to present
  evidence of their CPD. This will not mean that you have to send in your
  portfolio - the HPC will want a statement summarising your CPD
  activities and explaining how these meet the CPD standards.The SoR CPD
  system CPD Now aims to ensure that its minimum requirements more than
  match those of the HPC i.e. SoR members who undertake their CPD using
  CPD Now can be confident that they are meeting the HPC's requirements.
  It must, however, be emphasised that the HPC will monitor compliance
  with its CPD Standards in its own way and that it will not accept a
  certificate of CPD accreditation from the College of Radiographers as
  evidence in itself of compliance. CPD Now contains an electronic
  template to enable members who are selected for audit by the HPC to
  present their evidence in line with the HPC's required format (the HPC
  calls this a CPD profile), using the work they have already done and
  recorded in their on-line portfolio. If you are using CPD Now and are
  selected for audit you will be able to put this CPD profile together
  relatively quickly with little additional work.

• The HPC has indicated that registrants who are audited and fail to meet the CPD Standards will not be 'struck off' – but their registration will not be renewed until they demonstrate compliance. Non-renewal of registration means, of course, that the registrant is unable to practice as a radiographer.

• The first HPC audit to monitor radiographer registrants’ compliance with the CPD Standards is currently scheduled for April 2010. Again, more information about the planned process can be found on the HPC website.

For more information about how the HPC will deal with registrants who fail to meet the CPD standards please visit the CPD section of the HPC website at www.hpc-uk.org. Remember, if you fail to comply you are putting your registration and livelihood at risk.

back | top