In this section CPD Officer Sean Kelly answers some of the questions most commonly put to the Society by members about the current state of play regarding CPD.

What is the Society doing to help?

The Society provides a number of initiatives to help you with your CPD:

• CPD Now, the College's online CPD system, enables you to plan, action and record your CPD activities. CPD Now also covers the HPC CPD standards and the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) so that you can show compliance with these using just one set of records in a single portfolio. CPD Now users can also have their portfolio accredited by the College of Radiographers. To access your personal CPD Now portfolio simply follow the link 'Launch CPD Now' in the blue box in the top right hand corner of this page. CPD Now is provided as a member benefit with no extra charge.
  
  
• The Society's journals 'Radiography' and 'Synergy - Imaging and Therapy Practice' can provide you with useful CPD materials. Many of the articles in 'Synergy' contain specific guidance on how to use the article for CPD purposes - look for the CPD Now logo.
  
  
• The College's conferences and events programme offers a range of CPD opportunities. Check 'Synergy News' and this website for current programmes.
  
  
• The Society trains and accredits union learning representatives who are able to offer advice and guidance about CPD, as well as to work with your employer to provide better workplace support for your lifelong learning and CPD activities. If you do not have a union learning representative you and your colleagues are strongly advised to elect one - please visit the union learning representative section of this website here 'At Work' - 'Reps at Work' - 'Union Learning Reps' for more information.

The Society is currently discussing with other healthcare unions and professional bodies a national campaign to secure protected study time for practitioners in allied health and nursing. Please click here for the joint statement published in April 2007 PDF.

What is the bottom line? Is CPD compulsory or not?
In 2003 the Society of Radiographers published 'A Strategy for Continuing Professional Development', click here to download PDF. This document set out the responsibilities of three sets of stakeholders with regard to CPD for members - the individual member, the employer and the Society of Radiographers as professional body and trade union. It also sets out the Society's plans to improve access to CPD and learning resources for all members, in anticipation of the link between CPD and registration which has been implemented by the Health Professions Council since July 2006. If you are registered to practice in the UK compliance with the Health Professions Council's CPD requirements is now a condition of that registration.

So what is the minimum requirement - I've heard a lot of people saying that it's thirty-five hours a year. Is this true?
No. Neither the College of Radiographers nor the Health Professions Council supports any CPD system purely based on points, hours or credits. There are three reasons for this. The first is that CPD will involve different types of learning activities for different radiographers. We believe that if you are learning new skills in the context of the workplace, for instance, it is very difficult to quantify the time actually spent on CPD. In some ways, the whole of the working experience is an exercise in CPD if you approach it in the right frame of mind. The second is that the thirty-five hours concept fosters the view that CPD can only equate to formal learning activities. Of course, attending courses, lectures or study sessions is an excellent way to participate in CPD, but there are many others. The third is that both the Society and College of Radiographers and the Health Professions Council recognise that simply counting hours - or for that matter points or credits - does nothing to guarantee that the CPD undertaken is of value to the practitioner or patient. Through its online CPD system CPD Now the College of Radiographers promotes an outcomes based approach that also enables you to demonstrate compliance with the HPC CPD standards and, where required, with the UK National Health Service Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF). Click here for more information about the relative benefits of input and outcomes based approaches.

Isn't it unrealistic, given that departments are short-staffed and we work long hours to provide on-call services, to ask radiographers to take on CPD?
It's certainly true that many radiographers are concerned about managing CPD, bearing in mind the pressures we face just to keep services afloat. But the reality is that we have no choice if we are to develop as a profession. Initiatives such as the extended role are evidence of what CPD can achieve in practice. If we don't take ownership, collectively and individually, of our professional development, we will lose out. Take the reporting of AE films as an example. Radiographers, with appropriate education and training, have proved that they can do this work as competently as anyone else. If we fail to take the initiative, other professions will take it instead. However, the argument about whether radiographers and other professionals can or should undertake CPD is over. The reality is that if you are registered to practice in the UK compliance with the Health Professions Council's CPD requirements is now a condition of that registration.

So what's the latest with the HPC and CPD as a condition of registration?
To see the latest information on CPD and the Health Professions Council click here.

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