Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Currently when renewing or newly registering with the BPC, we require Registrants to declare that they have undertaken the minimum requirement of CPD for their registration category during the previous calendar year (January – December), and that they will continue to do so in the coming calendar year. Please note that the CPD calendar year is different from the registration/renewal year, which runs from April – March.

CPD requirements for each Registration category are listed below:

• Full – A minimum of 15 clinical hours and 15 general hours of CPD is required.
• Newly registered – Where a Registrant has joined part way through the year, hours will be calculated on a pro-rata basis.
• Teaching and/or Supervisory – A minimum of 5 clinical hours and 15 general hours of CPD is required.
• Pre-retirement – A minimum of 5 clinical hours and 15 general hours of CPD is required.
• Deferred – CPD is not required for deferred registrants.
• NHS only – From 1 April 2022 NHS only category Registrants will need to meet the same CPD requirements as full Registrants, a minimum of 15 clinical hours and 15 general hours of CPD.

Please note that the minimum requirements above must be psychoanalytic/ Jungian analytic or psychodynamic in nature. Any other CPD completed (such as first aid training) must be in addition to this.

The BPC retains the right to refuse renewal of registration or remove a Registrant’s name from the Register should we consider a Registrant has failed to adequately fulfil our CPD requirements or our annual declaration.

Annual CPD Audit

The BPC audits a random selection of 5% of our Registrants each year to check that CPD requirements are being met. Registrants selected for audit will be notified in May and asked to complete and return a CPD Audit Form to declare their CPD hours from January – December of the previous year.

CPD is a valuable and meaningful part of ongoing therapeutic practice, and can be a rich and reflective tool that helps to deepen therapeutic work.

When completing the CPD Audit Form, Registrants are required to include thoughtful and meaningful reflections on how their CPD activity through the previous year has enriched their professional practice. These reflections should be long and comprehensive enough to show specifically how you have engaged with the activities, and how your learnings from CPD have enriched your practice.

Please carefully read the examples of Clinical and General CPD listed below, as these are important for meeting the BPC’s required CPD hours, and will be required when completing the audit.

Registrants are reminded to maintain confidentiality when completing CPD Audit Forms.

Clinical CPD

Clinical CPD requires Registrants to present and discuss their work within a clinical forum where the reflection and discussion of the work is psychoanalytic / Jungian analytic or psychodynamic, and is appropriate to the level of intensity of clinical practice. This can be face-to-face, via videocall, teleconferencing or telephone.

Please see above for Clinical CPD hours required in each category. If a Registrant is trained to work with more than one group under their BPC Registration (e.g. adults and couples) the number of hours required is a minimum of 15 clinical hours in their main area of work, plus an appropriate number of hours for any additional groups.

Types of Clinical CPD activities that would be suitable include, but are not limited to:

• Individual supervision
• Group supervision
• Clinical consultation
• Peer group consultation

General CPD

Registrants are also required to keep abreast of contemporary issues in psychoanalytic / Jungian analytic or psychodynamic thought and practise. This encourages engagement with a wider professional context alongside patient work. Registrants are required to demonstrate a range of activities that have clear psychoanalytic / Jungian analytic or psychodynamic relevance. Other activities are acceptable and may be included  in addition, where they have direct relevance to clinical practice such as training in data protection or practical issues in running a clinical practice.

Please see above for the General CPD hours required in each category. Registrants are expected to complete a range of activities; so, for example, only one activity of 15 hours or two activities of 7.5 hours each would not be sufficient. Your General CPD activities should show engagement with your professional development across a breadth of several activities and learning topics.

Types of General CPD activities that would be suitable include, but are not limited to:

• Attendance at clinical seminars, conferences, lectures, workshops, CPD events, study days, and discussion groups where this involves a psychoanalytic / Jungian analytic or psychodynamic focus
• Further training where this involves thought about psychoanalytic / Jungian analytic or psychodynamic theory and practice
• Conducting research or preparation involved in publishing papers, book reviews, or presentations of psychoanalytic / Jungian analytic or psychodynamic relevance (but not time spent, for example, giving a presentation)
• Preparation involved in psychoanalytic / Jungian analytic or psychodynamic teaching, tutoring or mentoring (but not teaching itself)
• Reading psychoanalytic / Jungian analytic and psychodynamic journals and articles
• Learning or training in ethical issues, relevant legislature or policy, and good practice guidelines (such as, equality and diversity, data protection etc).

Recording CPD

We strongly encourage Registrants to keep a clear and easily accessible record of their CPD completed each year.

We recommend logging your activities in a format which includes the below details for each activity:

– Date & hours completed
– Activity title (such as ‘Peer Group Supervision’ or conference name)
– A short description of the activity
– A short reflection on your learnings from the activity and how it has enriched  your professional practice
– Whether the activity falls under General or Clinical CPD (see below)

Keeping clear records of your CPD each year will aid you in completing the audit form if selected and also enable you to engage more closely with the CPD you have completed. If you’d like a sample template (Word document) to help you record your CPD, you can download one here.

In addition, should a Fitness to Practise complaint of concern be raised against you, you may wish to submit this document to the Screening Committee or Fitness to Practise Committee as evidence of remediation.

Not met required CPD hours

If you have been unable to complete the required CPD hours due to unforeseen circumstances, please contact hello@bpc.org.uk as soon as possible and provide us with further information regarding your circumstances. We encourage you to contact us at any point throughout the year if you are unable to meet CPD requirements.

You will still be required to complete the CPD audit form to the best of your ability, if chosen for audit, and you should include an explanation as to why you have not met the requirements. This information will be passed onto the audit panel for consideration.

There is a space on the annual renewal form to explain your circumstances if you have been unable to meet CPD hours for the previous year, or foresee similar circumstances in the coming year.

Countersignature

You will need a countersignatory for your registration; this is an important safeguard in protecting the public and must be carefully considered each time you renew your registration. In almost all cases we would expect your countersignatory to be your supervisor (individual or peer).

The countersignatory must have regularly discussed your clinical work with you in an appropriate setting and can agree they do not know any reason why you cannot continue to be registered. Your countersignatory may be contacted if there are any concerns about your Fitness to Practise and will be contacted if you are selected for the CPD audit.

We would expect that in most cases your countersignatory would be a BPC Registrant. If there is not a BPC Registrant who knows your work well enough, your countersignatory must have a sufficiently rigorous psychoanalytic or psychodynamic training and be regulated at an appropriate level with another body. For example, BACP countersignatories must be accredited members.

As per Standard 7 your level of supervision must be appropriate to the work you are doing and therefore your supervisor or senior colleague countersigning your work must have the appropriate training and experience with the patients and intensity you are working at.

Your countersignatory cannot be your partner, close friend or relative.

If you are unclear on who would be appropriate to be your countersignatory or supervisor, you can contact us at hello@bpc.org.uk

Newly Qualified Registrants

For newly qualified Registrants, we expect you to have a supervisor / countersignatory who is appropriately experienced and more senior to you. Usually, they would be at least 5 years post qualified.

Deferred Registrants

Deferred Registrants don’t have any CPD requirements and do not need to have a countersignatory. You can provide us with the details of your countersignatory if you are able to, though this is not a requirement.

The above requirements replace our previous requirements for countersignatories.

For Countersignatories

Agreeing to be someone’s countersignatory is a serious matter. It means you know their clinical work to an appropriate level to be able to confirm you believe they remain Fit to Practise.

If you agree to be someone’s countersignatory and have no concerns, you can confirm with the Registrant they can use your details as part of their registration or renewal with the BPC. You do not need to do anything else unless the BPC contacts you for further information.

If the Registrant is selected as part of our CPD audit, you will be contacted to confirm their audit form and that you are happy to act as their countersignatory.

If you have concerns about a BPC Registrant and their Fitness to Practise, please let us know as soon as possible. You can email us at hello@bpc.org.uk or call us on 0207 561 9240. You can find further information about raising concerns about BPC Registrants here.