Continuous Professional Development 

Welcome to the CPD section of the PAC website

In order to help you develop your practice a CPD tool kit has been developed to enable you to maximise your learning from the networking and events that PAC arranges. The tool kit includes some templates, examples of resources, including reflective diary sheets and links to useful websites. You can add to this if you have examples or further resources to share.

What is Continuous Professional Development?

It is a process by which a professional person maintains the quality and relevance of professional services throughout his/her working career (CPD Institute).

CPD promotes a practice culture where it is acceptable as part of everyday practice to:

- Evaluate and question practice
- Explore alternative approaches to practice and present them for critical review
- Debate different approaches for their potential merits
- Make judgements about the relevance of evidence in the context of practice
- Introduce different approaches, monitor and evaluate them. (Alsop 2000 p1000)

Fish & Twinn (1997 p151) argue that ‘good - or quality - work in professional practice encompasses not the pre-specified list of individual competencies that take no account of context but a repertoire of skills, abilities, capacities, professional knowledge, personal attributes, personality and ability to work with other professionals together with what determines their appropriate employment (namely flexibility, educational understanding, moral awareness and professional judgement).’

CPD is a process rather than a product and should:

- Be systematic and lifelong
- Embrace formal education and informal learning including on the job learning
- Build on what is known in order to:

- Assure competence
- Develop personal qualities
- Enhance professional and technical skills
- Maintain, enhance and broaden professional knowledge
- Expand and help fulfil potential
- Have a positive impact on health outcomes
- Maintain quality and relevance of professional services
- Develop and enhance practice
- Prepare for changing roles in service delivery (Alsop 2000: 3)

How can PAC support your CPD?

- Through the programme of events and activities arranged over the year which offer a range of learning opportunities. Not all of these will be applicable to every member but each year the programme will be varied.
- By maintaining a tool kit (see below) of resources accessed from this page, which can be used to record your CPD activity and to reflect on learning outcomes.
- By offering the opportunity for networking and communication between PAC members through CPD related activities such as peer review and shadowing.
- Your CPD will draw on these and a range of other learning opportunities from your working environment. All these provide strong reason for members who work in the public affairs and campaigning arena to join PAC.

What is a CPD portfolio?

You may wish to use learning opportunities to form part of your CPD portfolio. A portfolio is ‘a living, growing reflection of its owner’ (Redman 1994). The CPD portfolio therefore needs to be updated to reflect ongoing needs and opportunities.

 

Tools

1. Certificate

This empty Certificate can be downloaded and taken to PAC events. Ask the PAC executive member organising the event to sign it if you wish to have a certificate showing you attended

2. Reflective Circle Tool

This is a two page reflective record sheet. The instruction page tells you how to complete this and the blank page is for you to fill in about a particular piece of learning.

3 Reflective Diary Tool

This document gives a simple four point prompt for reflecting on a learning event

4.CPD Record Tool

This is a simple 3 box record sheet

5. CPD Reflective Log

This is an easy 4-point tool to help you identify what you did, what you learnt, how it will change your practice and how you will follow up.

 

References

Alsop, A (2000) Continuing Professional Development a guide for therapists. Blackwell Science, London
Eraut, M. (1994) Developing Professional Knowledge and Competence. The Falmer Press, London
Fish, D. Twinn, S. (1997) Quality Clinical Supervision in the Healthcare Professions. Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford
Redman, W. (1994) Portfolios for Development: A Guide for Trainers and Managers. Kogan Page, London

Useful web links:

- CIPD;

- CPD Institute;

- CPD UK;

- RapidBI;

Contact

If you want help or advice contact:
Ruth Crowder
Pip Ford

Or contact them with suggestions of improvements and extra resources.