Continuing professional development (CPD) is how you stay up to date with current developments and good practice. It helps you remain fit to practise in your profession and speciality.
When you join the register, you accept responsibility for keeping a continuous, up-to-date and accurate record of your CPD activities. Each year a sample of registrants is audited; see CPD audit below.
Read the RCT CPD Policy.
The RCT uses the CPD standards set by the HCPC. You must:
Each year, the RCT Audit Panel selects 2.5% of active registrants at random for audit. If you are selected, you will be enrolled on IPEM’s CPD audit e-learning, which explains what to include in your submission and the standards you need to meet.
If you are selected for audit, the RCT will ask you to upload your Summary of CPD Activity form to IPEM’s CPD portal. Paper submissions are not accepted by email or post. The CPD Portal is an IPEM member benefit, but any RCT registrants who are not IPEM members will be given temporary access to the CPD Portal for the period of the audit.
The auditors will give you feedback on your submission. They will tell you whether it meets the audit standards and, if not, what you need to change.
If you are not currently practising and have not notified the RCT of a career break, you remain in the audit sample. If you are selected and cannot meet the CPD standards, your registration may be suspended.
What matters most is what you gain from each CPD activity, not how long it takes. For each activity, record the learning outcomes and, where relevant, how you applied them in practice.
Almost any activity can include an element of CPD. It is up to you to recognise and record the learning outcomes. Your CPD should cover a range of activities:
For a list of possible CPD activities, see RCT types of CPD activity and examples.
These examples from previous audits show what a good submission looks like:
Use them as a guide to the level of detail, reflection and evidence expected.
