What counts as CPD?
You should always be looking for ways to improve your practice so you can provide the best possible support. CPD is not just about attending training courses, it can be any activity you feel would improve your practice. This could include learning from podcasts, webinars, project work, articles or reviewing your own practice in a particular area. It could also be the work you have done through programmes such as the assessed supported year in employment.
Feedback
Feedback is crucial to social work practice. It is also important to improving self-awareness. Feedback will help you to grow and improve in a way that informs your practice and helps you identify areas for future learning.
Supervision
Supervision allows you to reflect on and improve your practice. It should support you to consider your values and judgements and allow you to explore your practice, including ethical dilemmas, cultural issues and decision making.
Research, theories and models
It’s important that you understand developments in social work theory and practice, so you have up to date information and knowledge when using your professional judgement and making decisions.
Knowledge of current issues
Social workers need to be aware of diverse aspects of people’s lives to best support them. Changes in policies, guidance and legislation around health, care, justice, policing, housing, employment and benefits can affect the way you practice.
Open learning culture
It’s important to make sure you’re working in an environment that allows you to learn, develop and practice safely. An open learning culture is an environment where learning is encouraged and supported on an ongoing basis.
Reflection
Reflection involves reviewing a professional experience to help make positive changes for your future practice. It turns your experiences into learning and helps you improve your practice in a way that is right for you.
Recording your learning
Recording CPD allows you to reflect on your achievements and identify and manage areas for growth. It also enables you to demonstrate your continued fitness to practise and compliance with our CPD standards.
Ethics and values
You use your ethics and values to help make decisions about your practice, so it’s important that you are able to examine those values and assess how they affect your decisions.
Self-reflection questions
You can use these questions as a starting point for your reflection
- How do you know the changes that you have made to your practice because of feedback have had a positive impact?
- How do you use supervision to identify your learning needs?
- How do you use research/theories/frameworks to inform your practice?
- How does CPD help you develop good subject knowledge, or help you develop your knowledge of current issues in society?
- How does your CPD contribute to an open learning culture?
- How do your learning activities impact on the quality of your practice?
- How do you reflect on your own ethics and values, and how do they impact on your practice?