The HCPC audits a sample of CPD records on their register every two years whilst other bodies carry out an annual audit.
The IPEM CPD Audit Scheme has been designed to fulfil the requirements of relevant regulatory and registration bodies. There are five CPD standards which must be met.
A registrant 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; and
- Upon request, present a written profile (which must be their own work and supported by evidence) explaining how they have met the Standards for CPD.
How it works
Individuals with a professional registration must complete an online annual declaration confirming they have undertaken CPD in that year. All registrants should complete the declaration, which asks a brief number of questions and allows for registrants to respond accordingly if they have been unable to undertake CPD due to issues such as ill health, parental leave or a career break.
Following the declaration deadline, an audit takes place. A number of registrants will be randomly selected to submit a summary record of their CPD activities via the CPD Portal. Paper submissions to the audit will not be accepted via email or post.
The number of registrants audited is currently set at:
- 3% Science Council registrants (3% across all their registers not 3% per register).
- 5% Engineering Council registrants (5% across all their registers not 5% per register).
- 2.5% of Register of Clinical Technologists (RCT).
The CPD Audit Panel assess the submissions against the CPD standards and provide feedback to registrants about how these have (or have not) been met. Any registrant who has not met the standards will be offered assistance to make any necessary amendments. Audits are undertaken both to enable advice and guidance to be given to individual registrants, and to enable evidence of good practice to be shared throughout the profession.
The audit is important
There are consequences to not meeting the CPD audit standards either by not responding to a request to submit a CPD summary or by not providing enough information to pass the audit. If an individual fails in the first round of CPD submissions, the individual is required to be re-audited. Should an individual fail their re-audit in the first year of submission, they will be pre-selected for CPD Audit the following year.
If the result is a fail for two consecutive years:
- Science Council registrants will be removed from the Science Council register and shall lose the right to use the designatory letters of their register. Removed registrants must wait for a period of 18 months before they can reapply and must demonstrate their CPD activity for the 18 months leading up to their re-application.
- Engineering Council registrants will be removed from the Engineering Council register and shall lose the right to use the designatory letters of their register. Removed registrants must wait for a period of 18 months before they can reapply and must demonstrate their CPD activity for the 18 months leading up to their re-application.
- Register of Clinical Technologists will receive a suspension of registration due to CPD failure and their registration status on the online register will be updated to reflect this. This status will remain against the registrant’s name for 12 months after which time the registration status will be changed to ‘deregistered’ until a full re-application is approved.
Please contact profdev@ipem.ac.uk if you have any queries regarding your CPD submission.
Example Submissions
To support you with understanding what a 'good' submission looks like, please see the following examples from a recent audit: