Hear from Claire on health and social care

Welcome to my new monthly blog series. This month, I want to share 5 principles designed to support access to CPD and lifelong learning for professionals and their employers to maintain excellent standards of care. This topic is relevant to all healthcare professionals in all health and social settings.

What are the 5 principles?

The 5 principles outlined below are designed to support access to CPD and life long learning for professionals and their employers in maintaining gold standard care. They have been developed to highlight the responsibilities of individuals, organisations and the wider system to contribute to achieving such standards.

1. Be each person’s responsibility and be made possible and supported by your employer
2. Benefit the service users
3. Improve the quality of service delivery
4. Be balanced and relevant to each person’s area of practice or employment
5. Be recorded and show the effect on each person’s area of practice.
   
   

Over a number of years, a collaborative multidisciplinary approach which included the RCN has overseen the development of five principles for CPD and lifelong learning consisting of a working group known as CPD together representing over 21 different healthcare organisations from across a range of health and social care sectors and unions which is unique.

Each of the principles reflects shared responsibilities for you to recognise and demonstrate the effect of CPD and lifelong learning on practice; for your employer (if this applies) to actively invest in people, provide opportunities for CPD and lifelong learning and support the health and social care workforce by improving the safety and quality of services by investing in and developing the workforce. You can read more about these principles here.

Why do we need the principles?

Continuing professional development (CPD) is central to maintaining professional competence and capability while supporting lifelong learning to safeguard patient care. Through evidence-based practice, CPD affects positive change in service development and is a requisite for professional revalidation and re-registration.

CPD and lifelong learning support our health and social care workforce in delivering high-quality care within a changing, challenging and complex environment where practicing safely and effectively is essential now more than ever. Sadly, CPD and lifelong learning are often some of the first casualties of financial pressure, understaffing and time constraints. The principles can help ensure access is available to everyone. CPD can help develop professional identity and relationships, which increases job satisfaction and retention.

How are the principles used?

The principles should be used alongside professional and regulatory standards. They are relevant to everybody who works in health and social care, so we encourage all organisations to follow them. As a practitioner, you can use them to;

• Plan your CPD Establish career goals
• Keep up to date with safety and regulatory requirements
• Invest in practitioner well-being
• Help strengthen employer support for CPD
• Combine with professional development frameworks
• Underpin competency frameworks.

 As an employer you can use them to;

• Help employees access the learning and development they require
• Ensure they keep up with clinical developments to provide contemporary services.
• Feel engaged and happy in their work
• Improve the impact of CPD with strong leadership
• Promote a positive workplace culture
• Ensure protected time for staff CPD and job plans.

  As part of the wider system;

• Access to CPD and lifelong learning impact retention positively, helps to support people through transition points and promotes high performance work practices and engagement.
  
  

If you want to find out more about the Principles and signpost others, read the Principles for continuing professional development and lifelong learning in health and social care, and access the NHS Learning Hub Catalogue (accessible to non-NHS professionals) to find all the CPD Together resources which include a prompt card, articles and insights from professional perspectives on how they apply the Principles in practice along with an interactive e-learning resource that provides stories on how the principles can impact you in practice.

Join the conversation and get involved with the hashtag #CPDTogether.