HCPC CPD audits and the five CPD standards, explained

If you are registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) in the UK, you sign a declaration at every renewal that you meet the standards for continuing professional development (CPD). A small number of registrants are then asked to prove it.

How HCPC audits work

• Registrants renew every two years, and CPD is linked to renewal.
• At each renewal, the HCPC randomly selects 2.5 per cent of each profession to submit a CPD profile.
• You can only be audited if you have been registered for two years or more. Recent graduates are not selected at their first renewal, and neither are people returning from a break in registration.
• Selection is computer-generated, so you could be selected more than once.
• If you are selected, the HCPC sends you information on completing your profile. If you have unavoidable circumstances, you can ask to defer. If your profile is found not to meet the standards, you can appeal.

The five CPD standards

Your profile is assessed against these five standards. A registrant must:

1. Maintain a continuous, up-to-date and accurate record of their CPD activities
2. Demonstrate that their CPD activities are a mixture of learning activities relevant to current or future practice
3. Seek to ensure that their CPD has contributed to the quality of their practice and service delivery
4. Seek to ensure that their CPD benefits the service user
5. 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 to meet each standard in practice

1. A continuous record. Log CPD as it happens, not in a rush before renewal. Gaps of many months are easier to spot than you might think.

2. A mixture of activities. Courses are only one kind of CPD. Include work-based learning, reading, reflective practice, supervision, teaching others and professional activity. Variety shows a rounded approach to learning.

3. Quality of practice and service delivery. For your main activities, write down what changed afterwards: a new assessment you now use, a process you improved, a guideline you introduced to your team.

4. Benefit to service users. Connect your learning to the people you work with. Keep it anonymous, for example "children on my caseload" rather than names or identifying details.

5. Your own work, with evidence. Write the profile yourself. Keep evidence for each activity you describe, such as certificates, reflective notes, feedback or documents you produced.

A simple routine

• After each activity, spend five minutes noting what you learned and what you will do differently.
• Keep the evidence with the entry straight away.
• Every few months, check that your record shows a mix of activities.
• Before renewal, pick the few activities with the clearest benefit to service users. These make the strongest examples if you are audited.

Sources

• HCPC: CPD audits
• HCPC: Standards of continuing professional development
• HCPC: CPD insights and data