Frequently Asked Questions

What is CPD?

Continuing Professional Development involves you in striving to improve your practice (which includes deepening your understanding of OT and improving your knowledge and skills) in order to benefit service users and to make a useful contribution to the service within which you work. The AHP defined CPD as: a range of learning activities through which health professionals maintain and develop throughout their career to ensure that they retain their capacity (and capability) to practise safely, effectively and legally within their evolving scope of practice’, (AHP 2003).

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Who is responsible for my CPD?

You are. Your employer should support you in striving to improve your practice for the benefit of service users; but you are ultimately responsible for your professional development. COT supports the process by providing guidance and tools such as the interactive learning opportunities database and by employing a dedicated officer at COT, the Education Manager (Lifelong Learning) who will provide information and advice to members. For further information on any CPD question, contact education@COT.co.uk

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Am I entitled to minimum provision by my employer to hours dedicated to CPD?

COT recommends that all registered therapists and associate members carry out a minimum half a day per month or six days per year. A collaborative statement being produced by diverse AHP Professional Bodies (including COT) also stipulates six days per year. There is no statutory obligation on the part of your employer to provide this but your employer should support you in your professional development in order to maintain the quality of service provision for your client group.

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How can I know that my CPD benefits service users?

Your CPD should be designed to contribute to the effectiveness of your service. You can sometimes collect feedback from service users or carers. Unsolicited praise is one thing; more structured feedback needs to be treated as carefully as research data. Audit and evaluation of CPD can create evidence for the efficacy of your intervention which reflects on the service as a whole. Such data can be used to influence future commissioning of services to ensure that service users continue to benefit from effective occupational therapy interventions.

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I am not working as an OT, per se, i.e. that is not my job title. Should I maintain my membership of BAOT/COT and how will this benefit my registration with the HPC?

You should retain your membership of BAOT/COT as this provides you with the resources to keep you informed, abreast of new developments, aware of and able to participate in salient learning opportunities, in touch with colleagues and their ideas and knowledgeable about current published thinking in the profession. This underpins your self-declaration of fitness to re-register with the HPC.

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Other professional bodies have developed electronic systems such as online diaries will COT be doing the same?

COT provides resources to facilitate your management of your own learning, which includes this interactive learning opportunities database. We are currently developing an electronic resource to support you in the development and maintenance of your portfolio and profile and it is likely that this will be available by the end of 2007 ready for the first audit of occupational therapists in 2009. We do not monitor your CPD activity, as you are responsible for your CPD as an autonomous professional.

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How does the Interactive Learning Opportunities Database resource fit into the registration requirements of the HPC?

If you are registered with the HPC, you will be required to undertake CPD activity. Occupational therapists will first be audited in 2009 and every two years thereafter. If you are selected for audit you will be required to submit a profile statement and a selection of relevant evidence from your portfolio evidencing your learning and outcomes (HPC, 2006). The HPC have defined CPD as "A range of learning activities through which health professionals maintain and develop throughout their career to ensure that they retain their capacity to practice safely, effectively and legally within their evolving scope of practice." The ILOD will help you to identify learning activities, both formal and informal as well as provide you with the necessary tools to reflect on your learning, relate it to your practice and prepare your portfolio for re-registration.

If you are not a registered practitioner but may become one in the future using the ILOD will help you to engage in relevant CPD, making it possible to meet the requirements of the regulatory body in the future.

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How can I feedback about my experience on a formal or informal learning opportunity?

We are keen to receive feedback about both formal and informal learning opportunities. We will use feedback as part of our ongoing quality assurance approaches to Interactive Learning Opportunities Database listings. Please contact education@COT.co.uk

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How can I recommend a learning opportunity?

Either contact education@COT.co.uk or post on the CPD discussion forum on the members’ section of the COT website.

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If I don’t find the formal learning opportunity that I want, what do I do next?

If you are using the 'Quick learning search' try an advanced search instead by clicking ‘find a formal learning opportunity’. You could also try broadening your search with more or different keywords, searching by an alternative geographical location or by the level or type of formal learning opportunity. If you still can’t find what you want, please contact us at education@COT.co.uk to let us know what is missing so that we can try to find an appropriate course for future inclusion. Please note that this is an evolving database with new opportunities added daily. If you can’t find the opportunity you are looking for straight away, it may be added in the near future.

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