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Continuing professional development

ePortfolio

Record and reflect on your CPD online with our ePortfolio system.

Planning your career at the moment? Or perhaps needing to start your own CPD portfolio? Find resources to meet all your professional development needs in this section of the site.

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How can I support and encourage learning in my organisation?

There are many ways that you can support and develop learning in your organisation which may depend on the particular role you have in the workplace. Whether you have a specific role or you just have an interest in supporting and encouraging learning, you can be proactive in this area.

How do I support learning in my organisation?

Whatever your role, CSP resources essential starters for your toolkit are: Then depending on your role, specific responsibilities around learning may arise:

Manager / professional lead

You have a responsibility to meet the learning needs of your staff within the context of a busy service that is trying to meet the needs of patients/clients, at the same time as competing with other healthcare professions for resources. Provision for staff development is essential to ensure that patients/clients are receiving effective treatment but also encourages staff recruitment and retention. Key areas include:
  • Implementing robust appraisal/development review and personal development planning processes.
  • Promoting a learning organisation by encouraging a questioning approach to physiotherapy practice
  • Supporting a CPD programme of activities including formal and informal learning opportunities eg inservice, clinical supervision, journal review clubs, mentoring, reflective practice sessions
  • Link with national competence frameworks [hyperlink to competence section] to underpin staff development
  • Agreeing appropriate protected time for formal and informal CPD
  • Negotiating for and supporting study leave arrangements
  • Resourcing CPD activities using local and national partners
  • Influencing, working with or learning from others eg human resource directorate, other health professionals, other managers, in the wider organisation around CPD.

Opportunities for CPD should be made available with supporting resources and should be allowed for in service contracts. The links between CPD and clinical and cost effectiveness should be fostered and implemented to enhance the quality of services delivered.

As a manager, you will find it beneficial to join the managers network and the CPD network on interactiveCSP to develop useful links and share good practice with other colleagues.

CPD co-ordinator

If you are a CPD co-ordinator within your organisation, you will find it beneficial to join the CPD network on interactiveCSP. This will allow you to:
  • access other like-minded individuals
  • share good practice on CPD issues with one another
  • link with the CSP and local organisations to address concerns and issues around learning and development
The term 'CPD coordinator' covers a range of posts, whether formal or informal, which have the responsibility for supporting staff CPD in a formalised way. You could be working in management but not necessarily. Your role could be to:
  • liaise with management and stewards to develop a CPD policy
  • link with national competence frameworks to underpin staff development
  • support staff to pick appropriate CPD activities
  • develop and deliver in-service sessions
  • co-ordinate peer review
  • act as a mentor
  • support returners to practice
  • undertake training needs analysis for colleagues
  • act as a signpost to CPD information from other organisations, eg the CSP.

Depending on the nature of the role, you may not have large amounts of time to dedicate to formalising CPD. But sufficient time must be set aside to allow you to perform your role. The above CPD framework, policy and standards for CPD will be useful resources when discussing CPD with managers and colleagues in the workplace.

Steward

Stewards have a potential role to play in supporting the learning agenda in their organisation to improve systems for staff. Your role in relation to the learning agenda could be to:
  • work with staff side to develop or improve a CPD/learning and development policy including protected time for CPD
  • negotiate for equitable access to learning opportunities
  • support CSP members’ learning and development in relation to i.e. personal development plan follow through/KSF development review issues
Your contacts may include:
  • other union staff sides
  • CSP members in your workplace
  • CPD co-ordinators in your workplace
  • CSP officers
  • local managers
Depending on your workload as a steward, you may not have large amounts of time to dedicate to the learning agenda, but using your existing skills as a steward around negotiating and representing members, you may be able to influence CPD issues in your workplace.

Clinical supervisor/peer reviewer/mentor

You provide a richer learning experience for colleagues by:
  • facilitating discussion and critical reflection about practice and development experiences
  • encouraging them to capture learning from their discussions with you
Use a range of tools to do this including:
  • CSP proformas and CPD support tools
  • other proformas already available within your organisation
  • CSP guidance on clinical supervision and mentoring

Clinical interest and occupational group (CIOG) education/CPD representative

You provide access to information to other members of your CIOG which include:
  • CIOG CPD courses
  • experienced colleagues to act as mentors or peer reviewers
  • latest research information
  • evidence-based materials
  • useful publications
  • regional networks
  • CIOG conferences and study days
  • As a CIOG CPD or education representative, you may also want to join the CPD co-ordinators network.

Clinical educator

You will probably have developed your interest in being a workplace educator through involvement with qualifying or post-qualifying students on placements and in supporting the learning of junior staff, or engaging in peer learning. As a clinical educator, you are essential to developing the next generation of physiotherapists and influencing attitudes towards CPD. You can encourage your students to:
  • reflect on their practice
  • document their learning from clinical placements
  • apply their learning in other practice situations.

This will ensure they become competent practitioners, will embed this process of CPD into their practice and will allow them to continue on as autonomous effective practitioners once they have qualified.

All higher education institutions involved in pre-qualifying education offer preparation for their clinical educators and it provides an obvious way to evidence your own continuing professional development. If clinical education is an aspect of work that you find especially stimulating and rewarding you may like to consider becoming an accredited clinical educator.

Additional resources

Useful resources for anyone involved in the above roles or generally interested in supporting learning in their organisation:
  • Resources for CPD: the responsibilities of physiotherapy staff, managers and employers: a resource to assist staff and managers to secure resources for CPD in terms of time, opportunity and funding (CPD 11)
  • Implementing clinical supervision: a guide to the principles and practicalities of setting up a clinical supervision system. It can be used in conjunction with the peer review audit tool.
  • Mentoring: a useful starting point for those considering establishing a mentoring system within their organisation.
  • Enhancing your CPD, the contribution of clinical education: a document which highlights the contribution clinical educators make to the profession and the benefits to becoming a clinical educator
  • Keeping a portfolio: getting started: a simple starting point for you to use with your colleagues and staff to encourage them to keep and develop a portfolio of their learning and development that they can use throughout their career. This can be used in conjunction with other CPD tools.
  • CPD process: an essential resource covering all aspects of the CPD process.