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Our articles in editions of the Journal over this year and last have explained the new CPD scheme. You will also have received an email/ letter from the IPS team explaining the new scheme, in particular its new element.

In this article I have explained the change and provided an example of how you could meet the new requirement, based on what I have done, as a Fellow who is also subject to the requirements. I have also copied at the end of this article my completed CPD forms to give you an indication of how you may complete them.

What do I need to do for the 2013/14 CPD year?The CPD year changed in 2013. It now runs from 1 October to 30 September, which I shall refer to as the CPD year in this article. Therefore we must meet our CPD requirements for the 2013/14 CPD year by 30 September 2014.

The 2013/14 CPD year is a transitional CPD period and there is one change only which we must meet during this period. It requires us to undertake a professionalism activity in addition to the normal CPD hours.

Therefore you need to do the following by 30 September 2014:• Fellows, Legal Accounts Fellows &

Associate Prosecutors – 16 hours CPD + one professionalism entry

• Graduate members & Legal Accounts Graduates – 12 hours CPD + one professionalism entry

• Associate members – 8 hours CPD + one professionalism entry.

The hours requirement of the CPD scheme follows the same approach that we have been accustomed to since the scheme began. The same types of evidence, such as courses, research etc can still be used to make up the hours this CPD year.

What is professionalism?IPS has taken a broad approach to what falls within professionalism. It covers:• refreshing your knowledge and

understanding of professional ethics, including the Code of Conduct

• improving your knowledge of the primary business in which your clients work (business awareness)

• developing an understanding of the issues which may affect your clients (social awareness)

• developing your client communication skills

• improving your skills in dealing with challenging clients

• refreshing your knowledge and understanding of equality and diversity issues

• improving your time management skills• or any other area under the remit of

professionalismIn order for the activity to amount to

CPD you must have learnt something new or refreshed or developed your knowledge or skills.

The reflective part of the CPD schemeProfessionalism CPD is not just about finding a course that fits one of the above definitions. You need to reflect on your skills and abilities, preferably at the beginning of the CPD year, and during that reflection identify training or development needs you have in the area of professionalism. Another ideal opportunity to carry out this reflection may be when you are preparing for your appraisal at work.

IPS has devised a form that you can use to complete the outcome of your reflection. This was sent to you in the email/ letter you will have received about the scheme recently. A copy of my completed form is at the bottom of this article so that you can see how I dealt with it. The forms can also be accessed from the CILEx website, simply login to myCILEx and go to ‘CPD Online’ where you will see links to the forms in the final paragraph of text.

In my case I reflected on my skills and abilities and took the view that I needed to develop my knowledge on approaches to handling allegations of misconduct that occur in a social media context. This is relevant to my work at IPS. I therefore completed the reflection part of the document to record this development need.

My proposed CPD activity fitted into the definition of professionalism CPD in the following ways. It would:• refresh my knowledge and understanding

of professional ethics• improve my knowledge of the primary

business in which CILEx members (who IPS regulate) work

• develop my understanding of the issues which may affect CILEx members.

The planning part of the CPD schemeHaving reflected and identified my development need I next considered how it could be met. I found that there was a regulation event which involved a session on the impact of social media on regulatory action.

In this instance I chose an event to attend. How you meet your need depends on the circumstances. It should be the method that is most suitable to you and the development you need to undertake. For example, you may find that you can meet your needs through research, practising to help improve your skills, receiving mentoring and feedback from your colleagues etc.

The action part of the CPD schemeNext came the action. I attended the event. I actually found I learnt more than I had expected the sessions to cover. There were two additional elements from which I also learnt about new approaches to fitness to practise issues. (Incidentally if we were in the full new CPD scheme I could have added those two learning parts as additional CPD entries). This year I can record CPD hours for the number of hours that the sessions focused on that learning.

IPS may call my professionalism records for sampling. If they do I need to provide evidence of my CPD and my completed reflection, planning and evaluation document or the equivalent information from my records. Therefore I have retained copies of the hand-outs and notes I made at the session and will keep these for 5 years. If asked I will need to provide these to IPS.

The evaluation part of the CPD schemeA few days after having completed the event and gained the learning I completed the evaluation part of my form. I thought about whether the activity I undertook met my aim, how it was relevant to me and how I will put the learning that I gained into practice. Fortunately I have not had to apply the misconduct in social media into practice in the context of casework or in respect of my own/ organisation postings on social media. If we were to make a posting I would review it to make sure we have

Baljeet Basra, Fellow of CILEx and IPS’s head of business of business development & operations, on how to complete the new CPD scheme

CPD: the professionalism entry

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acted professionally. Also if IPS were to receive an allegation of misconduct made against a member I will be able to apply my learning in advising the misconduct team on approaches to take to investigating such cases. I therefore completed question 4 of the evaluation part of the form.

In many instances you will be able to put your professionalism learning into practice immediately. If so you would complete question 3 rather than question 4 of the evaluation part of the CPD form.

The scheme documents There are two documents to complete. The first is the one I have taken you through above. You will need to retain that with your CPD records and send it in with your evidence in case IPS calls it for sampling. Alternatively you can keep your own

records but you should ensure that you have covered all 4 areas; reflect, plan, act and evaluate.

There is, however, a return that you need to send to CILEx by 30 September 2014. It comprises the normal CPD hours log you complete using ‘myCILEx’ and the professionalism entry. At the moment the professionalism entry cannot be entered onto ‘myCILEx’ although that will be possible soon. If, like me, you are ready to submit your professionalism record now you can complete the second form below and send it by email to the CPD inbox or in hard copy to the CILEx membership team. CILEx will then add it to your records when ‘myCILEx’ has been updated.

Want to hear more about professionalism CPDHopefully my example will show you that

the new scheme is not daunting. It’s a new way of thinking about your CPD needs and a different mechanism for recording what you need to do.

IPS does recognise that you may want to know more or have questions. IPS are holding sessions in Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol and London to explain the scheme for this year and how the full scheme will operate. The sessions will take place between 2nd and 11th of April and there will be an afternoon and evening session in each region. My colleagues will also be able to answer your questions at those sessions. Please do try and make it to one of these sessions if you need more information. An event link will be sent out for you to register your interest in attending.

My completed documents

Professionalism Planning and Evaluation Document

THIS IS THE DOCUMENT THAT YOU COMPLETE AND RETAIN

CPD RECORD – temporary log for professionalism CPD, send to cpd@ilexstandards.org.uk if completed before the online logbook is updated (early next year).

THIS IS THE DOCUMENT YOU COMPLETE AND SEND TO CILEx TO RECORD YOUR PROFESSIONALISM ENTRY ONTO YOUR RECORDS. REMEMBER YOU WILL HAVE TO COMPLETE YOUR CPD HOURS LOG AS NORMAL

Area for reflection

Learning outcome Planned activity Y/N

To be completed by (date)

Learning outcome achieved (Y/N)

Relevance to your work (state relevance to your area of practice and to your own work)

Activity completed (date)

Professionalism Understanding the ethical approach to commenting on social media; the impact of comments made on social media and whether they can amount to misconduct

Y February 2014

Y Being able to act ethically on social media and I can take a view on the conduct of members postings and whether they breach the Code of Conduct

6 February 2014

Reflect: Which area of professionalism could I work on this year?Learning about approaches to dealing with misconduct on social media and develop awareness in acting ethically as an organisation in social media postings

What is my learning outcome?Develop views on dealing with misconduct on social media and how to assess that we act ethically

Plan: What CPD activity will best meet my learning outcome?Attendance at regulation event

When will I achieve this?February 2014

Act: Ensure you keep documentary evidence that

supports your CPD activity, in case your CPD record is selected for sampling. At the event I received hand out with slides from speakers, made notes of discussion and received post event email material that I will retain should CILEx call my record for sampling.

Evaluate: 1. How was the CPD activity relevant to your practice? IPS makes social media postings. I can use my learning in reviewing our proposed postings to make sure we have presented ourselves ethically and with professionalism. I also oversee the work of the IPS enforcement team. Within that team we can receive allegations of misconduct taking place on social media by regulated members. It was therefore helpful to obtain views on approaches we take to such allegations.

2. How far did the CPD activity meet your learning outcome?

The presentations by the speakers and discussions identified approaches we can take and therefore improved my knowledge.

3. If you have already used this learning in practice, how have you done this?

4. If you have not yet applied the learning in practice, how do you expect to?

The learning will be used to review IPS’ postings and inform approaches to misconduct cases involving social media.

5. If the activity did not meet your identified learning outcome, can you plan further CPD to meet this need? If yes, you can add this to your CPD plan.

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