Continuing Professional Development
2015/2016 CPD requirements:
tips for success
Danielle Ingle and Yasmin Hussain discuss ways of reaching a place of compliance.
Be aware of your requirements
This CPD year sees the transition of Graduate members onto the outcomesbased scheme. Like CILEx Practitioners, Fellows and Associate Prosecutors, Graduate members are now required to complete nine outcomes and submit these on myCILEx by 30 September 2016. Associate members must continue to undertake and submit eight hours’ CPD, and, in addition to this, one outcome in Professionalism.
Tip: Detailed information on the CPD requirements for each grade of membership can be found on the CILEx Regulation ‘Help with your CPD’ page.1
We believe it is essential that CILEx Practitioners and members undertake CPD to maintain and enhance their knowledge and skills to assure their clients, the legal profession and the wider public of their ongoing competency. With this in mind, further training and development should always be a consideration whether you are undertaking something for the first time or feel your skills require updating.
There are a variety of activities which can be undertaken to meet your requirements. It is important to remember that the concept of a CPD activity has not changed and remains the same under both the outcomes-based and hours-based schemes. Recognised CPD activities include reading relevant journal or internet articles, attending external courses, e-learning , in-house training, academic/professional study, research of legal topics, work shadowing, coaching or mentoring a colleague. While this is not an exhaustive list of activities, it goes to show the range of options available to you for meeting your CPD requirements. CILEx does not accredit CPD providers, so there are no restrictions as to how you approach your CPD.
Tip: An activity can be used to meet more than one outcome under the outcomes-based scheme. For example, an all-day course may update you on three different topics.
Under the outcomes-based scheme, five of your nine outcomes must be planned each year in accordance with the CPD cycle.
To follow the cycle, first, you should highlight personal learning outcomes that you wish to achieve by the end of the CPD year. You should then pick an activity which will best help you to meet your outcome. After completing the activity, you should take time to evaluate its relevance to you.
When planning your CPD activity, it is important to make a note of the date you did this as it will not be the same as the completion date when entering your CPD outcomes onto your online myCILEx account.
Tip: You are able to use the evaluation documents available on the CILEx Regulation ‘Help with your CPD’ page to record your journey through the CPD cycle. You should use separate documents for each outcome.
As a member of CILEx, you must complete one planned outcome in Professionalism every year. Professionalism relates to competence and confidence in the broad range of skills, knowledge and experience that are part of the quality service for consumers of legal services, but not necessarily focused on the law itself. The outcome must develop or refresh your professional knowledge or skills in matters, such as client care and communication skills, equality and diversity issues, business and social awareness, and time and resource management.
Tip: Professionalism can also relate to compliance matters, so you may wish to meet this outcome using anti-money laundering training, preparing for a Lexcel audit or reviewing office procedures.
We recognise that some on-the-job learning, carried out through shadowing a colleague or ad hoc conversations with supervisors, can be just as beneficial for the purposes of CPD.
For this reason, the new CPD scheme allows members to use this type of learning and development to contribute to their CPD requirements each year. Although the learning outcome was not decided before the development activity had happened, this can be used as CPD, and in this type of situation we would ask that this is logged as an unplanned outcome. A maximum of four outcomes can be logged from activities of this nature.
Unplanned outcomes require you to record what you did in relation to the ‘Act’ and ‘Evaluate’ stages of the CPD cycle.
Tip: Reading this article and others in CILEx Journal could be counted as unplanned outcomes, if you feel you have updated your knowledge on a point relevant to you as a CILEx member or on a point of law. If you are an Associate member, up to 75% of your hours-based requirement can be obtained through reading legally focused materials.
Under the outcomes-based scheme, you need to explain how the activity you undertook met the outcome you wanted to achieve and the relevance this has to you as a professional. If you are an Associate member, then you need to record the amount of time spent undertaking the activity to show how you have met the annual requirement.
On the online logging system, you will be required to provide the exact date on which you completed your CPD activity and also the date on which you planned your activity, where applicable.
There are step-by-step logging guides to help assist you when logging your CPD outcomes and/or CPD hours; these are available on our ‘Help with your CPD’ page.2
Tip: When logging your CPD on your myCILEx account, remember that there is a character limit. This includes letters, spaces and punctuation. We suggest you keep it brief when logging online, and then use your evaluation document to go into more detail.
Each year, we will sample a random 2.5% of members from each grade of membership. If you are selected for sampling, you will be asked to supply additional documentation in support of what you have already entered onto your online logbook which demonstrates the activities you have undertaken.
You are able to use the evaluation documents available on our website to record the activities you completed, as well as the other stages of the CPD Cycle. You should supplement these with additional evidence, such as course attendance certificates, notes taken during training sessions, course handouts or research you have conducted.
Tip: Always keep a copy of your CPD record at home and at work, this way you will always have it to hand should you be called for sampling or if we need any further information on your records.
The CPD pages on the CILEx Regulation website have been redesigned to be more helpful and user-friendly for members. Along with tailored guides to the CPD requirements, you can also find ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ , ‘the CPD Handbook’ and the ‘Rules and Regulations’ .3
Finally, it is important that you log your CPD online. In order to be compliant with your 2015/2016 CPD requirements, you must ensure that you log your CPD on your myCILEx account no later than 30 September 2016.
We understand that sometimes there are circumstances which may lead to you being unable to submit your CPD on time. If this may be the case for you, then you can apply for a three-month extension by e-mailing us, stating the reason for your request. Please be aware that the CPD Handbook states that requests of this nature should be made no later than 31 August 2016.
It is important that you keep your details up to date with CILEx so we are able to contact you should the need arise. If you have moved, changed job, retired, taken maternity leave or been on sick leave, you should ensure that your records are up to date with CILEx; this can be done through your online myCILEx account or in correspondence with the CILEx membership team.
If you would like more information on CPD or to seek clarification of your requirements for the year, please e-mail us or telephone +44 (0)1234 845 770.