Government Finance Profession

The CIPFA's CPD policy

Why CPD is important:

The Institute has a real interest in the ongoing competence of all members. CIPFA members have a duty to observe the Institute's Statements of Professional Practice including the SoPP for CPD. This emphasises that all members should maintain and develop their professional competence. CIPFA has developed its CPD to enable you to enhance your own career prospects, your professional reputation, and that of CIPFA and that of your department.

What do I have to do?

The minimum requirement is to record and evidence your CPD activities ensuring that they amount to at least 20 hours in any one year and 120 hours over a three-year period. (This compares to 150 and 25 hours respectively in the previous scheme).

Previous Development Activities Undertaken:

You may backdate your registration into the scheme by up to 12 months from the time of joining to include development activities already undertaken.

CPD Portfolio

Your Portfolio will also include your CPD documents, which detail your CPD activities. The documents used to record your CPD will be based on CIPFA’s Level 2 participation. This requires the following information:

Learning and Development Plan

• Key roles and responsibilities
• CPD Needs
• CPD Activities

Learning and Development Record (Level 2)

• Type of CPD activity completed, e.g. work place training
• The date the activity was completed e.g. 6 June 2003
• The number of hours spent of the activity e.g. 6 hours;
• Reference to a piece of evidence to verify the activity was undertaken e.g. Certificate of Attendance
• In addition, you are also asked to share your reflective comments about the usefulness of the activity, what you have learnt, how you will use the acquired knowledge or skill in the future, and how far it has met your objectives.

Evidence of CPD activities

• This provides supporting material to demonstrate that you have undertaken the activities listed on your CPD Record at either Level 1 or Level 2. Some examples of evidence are: Certificates of Attendance; Terms of Reference for projects/Executive Summary; Training record; Appraisal report; Specification Report/testing log; Copy of Presentation; and Web based learning log.

Straightforward and flexible process

The emphasis based on undertaking development rather than on filling in forms. The CPD Plan enables you to focus and structure your development whilst recording your development, and reflecting on your achievements and shape your plan for the next year.

Participation is based on your needs so you are the one that benefits the most. The flexible nature of the Scheme also means that as your needs change so your CPD Plan can change with you.

Please click on: CPD Plan/Record Sheet to access/download forms.

For further information: www.cipfa.org.uk