The importance of CPD

Every time you renew your registration, you will need to confirm that you continue to meet the standards of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), including its standards of continuing professional development (CPD). 

Each profession renews at a set time and these dates are the same every two years. The next renewal period for radiographers will run from 1 December 2025 to 28 February 2026. During your renewal period, the HCPC randomly selects 2.5% of the radiography profession and asks them to submit their CPD profile. Please ensure your personal details are up to date so the HCPC can contact you if you are selected for an audit.

Being selected is nothing to be concerned about if you have been completing and recording CPD regularly. However, you may be asked to provide more information if your profile is unclear or incomplete.

The HCPC sets out standards for CPD that every registrant should meet to ensure their activities are effective. If a registrant cannot prove they have kept up their CPD, they may be removed from the register.

Choosing CPD activities

CPD activities must include a mixture of different types of learning, so you will need to carry out at least two different types. In practice, most registrants will carry out many different types of learning while registered. If you were audited and had only carried out one type of learning – for example, if you had only read professional journals – you would not meet the HCPC standard.

Tips from the HCPC assessors

Keep it simple. Use simple language to describe the CPD you have done, what you have learned from it and how it has benefitted you and your service users. Do not try to describe in detail every activity of the past two years – select a small number of activities that you feel have benefitted you the most.

Remember to include a dated list, in chronological order, of all the CPD activities you have completed in the previous two years. Be careful to explain any gaps of three consecutive months or more. Before submitting, double check your profile to ensure all relevant documentation is included.

Do not send in evidence of all of your CPD activities. The HCPC only needs evidence to support the activities you have written about. Do not include identifiable information about a service user – this must be anonymised.

The HCPC has comprehensive online resources on CPD and the renewal process, including case studies and videos, at www.hcpc-uk.org/cpd.

What is CPD Now?

At the heart of the CPD resources available to SoR members is CPD Now, the College of Radiographers’ online CPD planning, recording and evaluation system. It is available free, directly from your online membership account, at www.sor.org.

The CPD Now platform enables you to identify the areas of your practice that you want to enhance, and to prepare and carry out CPD activities. You can evaluate and reflect on your learning using the suggested reflective statements or your own preferred model of reflection.

As well as enabling you to put together your CPD portfolio easily and effectively, CPD Now contains a number of features you will find helpful. These include:

Personal development tool: An editable tool to help you identify and plan your CPD.

Invite a reviewer: Ask someone to review and verify your CPD records.

HCPC audit tool: CPD Now makes the process of completing your CPD profile quick and easy, enabling you to submit a fully formatted document if requested.

Your personal accreditation: If you meet the college’s standards for CPD accreditation, you can generate a certificate to evidence this at any time.

With CPD Now accreditation, you can be confident that you will have undertaken enough of the right kinds of CPD activities to stand you in good stead for an HCPC audit. The college’s CPD standard is 12 pieces of CPD, recorded in CPD Now (carried out over a two-year period), which meet at least six CPD Now framework outcomes.

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