How to record continuing professional development (CPD)

This video is a guide to recording CPD in your Social Work England online account. To meet the CPD requirements, you must record a minimum of two different pieces of CPD. You must include a peer reflection with at least one of these pieces of CPD. To record CPD, go to socialworkengland.org.uk and log in to your online account using your email If you haven't recorded diversity data with us previously, we'd like to ask you some equality and diversity questions. The data you provide will help us better understand the Social Work Register and to ensure our processes are fair. Providing your diversity data should take around three to five minutes. It will not be used to make a decision about your renewal application. You do not have to answer every question. It's up to you what questions you answer, if any. You can change your diversity data at any time in your online account. You can also save and return later. On your online account overview, select record CPD under the section your CPD. This will take you to your CPD overview. The box on the right hand side allows you to check that you have met both CPD requirements. To record a piece of CPD, select record new CPD. Read the information on the start page. There are a few things to remember as you fill in the form. Some questions are marked with the word required. You must answer all required questions to submit your CPD. If you want to come back and finish your CPD another time, you can save a draft. Simply select the save draft and exit button. For security reasons, the system will log you out after 60 minutes. To avoid losing any unsaved work, we recommend that you record your CPD in a different document first. Then copy and paste it into the online form. All text boxes have minimum and maximum word limits. The form will tell you if you have done too few or too many words. You will not be able to submit your CPD record until you have corrected this. Each question also has a suggestion of how many words to write. Make sure you anonymise your CPD. It should not include any personal data or information about anyone you support or work with. When you're ready, select start now. This will take you to the CPD form. First, select a type of CPD from the drop-down list, such as on-the-job learning or experience or self-directed learning. Choose a CPD type which you feel best describes the CPD you have done. You can also select other and provide a short description. Next, write a short description of your CPD activity and why it's relevant to you. For example, I listened to a podcast about how new legislation in social care is affecting the way my service is delivered as a children's social worker. Next, record the date of the CPD activity. If the CPD activity was longer than one day, put the last day. Your CPD must have taken place in the current registration year, between 1st December 2022 and 30th November 2023 to be valid for registration renewal. The system will not allow you to record a date outside of this range. Next, describe what you have learnt from doing this CPD activity. You may want to refer to the CPD standard when answering this question. For example, you could write about how the CPD activity contributed to an open learning culture standard 4.5 or kept your practice up to date standard 4.3. Next, reflect on and describe the positive impact the CPD activity has had or will have on your practice and the people you work with. This could be people with lived experience of social work, colleagues or students. If you are not currently working or not in direct practice, you could think about how your CPD activity might benefit people you come into contact with or the profession as a whole. You can also think ahead to how your learning might benefit people in the future, for example when you return to work. At this point, you can choose to record a peer reflection or finish your CPD. If you do not plan to record a peer reflection, skip ahead to the CPD standard and checklist section of this video. Peer reflection. Recording a peer reflection is optional for each piece of CPD, but you must record at least one piece of CPD with a peer reflection during the registration year. There is one additional question to answer if you want to record a peer reflection. Describe what you have learnt from discussing this CPD activity with a peer. The form contains some information about what you should include in a peer reflection, as well as a short list describing who counts as a peer. You can also view a longer list of professionals who count as peers. Please note this list is not exhaustive and you may choose to reflect with a professional not included on this list. The most important thing is that the professional has knowledge of your social work practice. You do not need to tell us the name of the person that you have discussed your CPD with. Once you have recorded your peer reflection, you can move on to the CPD standard and checklist. Once you've finished recording your CPD, you should tick which parts of the CPD standard you have met by doing this activity. Standard 4.6 Reflection and 4.7 Recording are pre-selected because you meet these standards by reflecting and recording CPD. You also have the option to upload additional reflections if you wish. You can use this to upload an attachment of any additional reflections, for example, if your organisation uses its own CPD forms. Accepted file types include Word, PDF, Notepad, WordPad and OpenOffice files. Please do not upload evidence of your CPD activity, such as correspondence or certificates, as this is not required. If you are including a peer reflection, you must write about it in the peer reflection box. Attaching a document with a peer reflection will not be accepted. Finally, tick the boxes on the checklist to confirm that you have provided a description of what you have learnt, reflected on and described the positive impact of the CPD, and not included any personal information about anyone. When you are ready to review and submit your CPD, select Continue. You will then be taken to the Review and Submit screen, which shows an overview of the CPD you have recorded. If you want to change anything in your CPD record before you submit, select Edit Details in the relevant section. Otherwise, select Submit CPD. You have now submitted your CPD. You can log back in and edit your submitted CPD at any time, for example, if you want to add a peer reflection at a later date. Be sure to follow us on social media for regular updates, and make use of our website, which contains a number of different resources to help you record CPD.