CPD FAQs

Q1. What is CPD?
A1. CPD is defined as: “The systematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of knowledge and skills and the development of personal qualities necessary for the execution of professional and technical duties throughout a practitioner’s professional life.”

It includes a range of activities, not just training courses, which contribute to your personal and professional development.

Q2. What is its purpose?
A2. The purpose of CPD is far more than just keeping up to date. CPD is an important means of ensuring that you have the knowledge, skills, and attributes to work to the best of your abilities as a professional environmental health practitioner, both now and in the future.

Q3. Do all professions have to do CPD?
A3. CPD is a feature of all the main professions, with each profession setting its own scheme based on the definition above. In recent years there has been a renewed focus on CPD, as professional bodies seek to emphasise their quality assurance systems.

Q4. Do all CIEH members have to do CPD?
A4. All members (except student and associate members, and people who have moved to retired membership) have to undertake CPD, but the number of hours varies. The standard requirement for members is 20 hours a year, while for those with Chartered status the requirement is 30 hours and for Accredited Associate members it is 10 hours.

Q5. What arrangements are there for retired members?
A5. The retired member category is available only to members who are no longer working in any capacity. On this basis, their CPD requirement is waived subject to a declaration to that effect. A member who starts work again must notify the CIEH Membership team and will be required to undertake CPD as a result of changing category. If the work is entirely unrelated in any way to environmental health, members are advised to seek advice as to new provisions which permit CPD to be waived in certain circumstances.

Q6. How are the hours of CPD calculated?
A6. Core CPD hours are calculated by the hour. Supplementary CPD attracts CPD credits at a rate of 50% - ie one hour of supplementary CPD provides 0.5 hours’ credit against the standard 20 hour requirement. At least half of the CPD undertaken in any year must comprise core hours.

Q7. What is the difference between core and supplementary CPD?
A7. Core CPD includes any activity which assists you directly in your professional / working capacity. It includes technical and management courses, training on new and existing legislation and all environmental health subjects.

Supplementary CPD includes activities such as learning languages or IT skills which support your professionalism. There are shades of grey between core and supplementary categories and it may depend on the purpose for which the course is undertaken. For instance, learning a language for personal leisure purposes is clearly supplementary CPD, whilst a learning a language to improve, say, delivery of the port health function may be justified as core CPD.

If you are in doubt, please contact the CIEH Education team.

Q8. How much CPD do I have to do a year?
A8. This depends on your category of membership:

Q9. Is that a calendar year?
A9. Yes. All records should be collated by calendar year.

Q10. Will I be required to submit records?
A10. An annual sampling programme is carried out to provide an evidence trail to underpin the scheme. If you are part of the sample, you will be requested to provide your records for the previous year. You may also be able to rely on CPD accumulated in the two years preceding the year in question.

Q11. What do I do if I attended a course and a CPD certificate was not provided?
A11. In extremis, you can ask your manager or a colleague who attended the course to sign to confirm that you attended.

Q12. What happens if I have exceptional personal circumstances which mean that I can’t do CPD?
A12. If circumstances permit, you should contact the CIEH in advance for advice. If the CPD assignment option is not realistic – eg in the case of acute illness – special arrangements may be considered. If your circumstances prevent advice being sought in advance, you should contact the CIEH as soon as you are well enough.

Q13. Can I ‘bank’ CPD from earlier years?
A13. You can accumulate CPD over a three-year period so that you can demonstrate 60 hours overall, based on 20 hours x 3 years (or 90 hours overall if you have Chartered status, or 30 hours overall if you are an Accredited Associate member).

Q14. Can I earn CPD for doing research?
A14. Yes, provided the research is published or capable of being published. Routine research related to information gathering as part of your job is not normally eligible for CPD. Academic research contributing to the body of environmental health knowledge may attract a maximum of 10 core hours of CPD in one year.

Q15. What is reflective practice?
A15. Reflective practice is simply thinking about what you hope to learn, what you actually learned and what you conclude from the learning. By using reflective practice it changes the emphasis towards the quality in the learning outcomes rather than a purely quantitative measure of x hours.

Q16. Why is writing a professional development plan encouraged?
A16. A professional development plan is a means of ‘capturing’ your reflective practice and by this means it allows you to plan and track your own personal development. It is easier to measure the quantity rather than the quality of CPD, and the professional development plan provides a qualitative record.

Q17. What happens if I don’t do CPD?
A17. You are the one who loses out. However, if you are asked for your CPD records and are unable to demonstrate sufficient CPD, the case may be referred to a CPD panel. Ultimately, a CPD panel may make a complaint under the Code of Conduct or agree other measures.

Q18. I am working overseas, how can I do CPD?
A18. CPD is possible in almost all circumstances, for instance by attending or running training locally, or by completing CPD assignments published in EHP and on the CIEH website.

Q19. I am struggling to find CPD opportunities in my current job. What options do I have?
A19. This depends on why you are struggling.  If it is a temporary problem and you have an excess of ‘banked’ CPD from previous years, then you may be able to aggregate CPD over three years provided you do not run into deficit. Perhaps you could run training yourself and gain CPD, or you could do a CPD assignment. You may be able to claim supplementary CPD, or you may decide ultimately that a change of post is needed if your career is likely to suffer in the long term.

If you are in difficulties, phone or email the Education team for advice. One further option may be to change your level of membership to reduce the annual CPD hours required.

Q20. I have Chartered status but cannot meet the extra hours required. What should I do?
A20. You can come out of Chartered status temporarily and then opt to go back in again at a later date, thereby reducing your CPD requirement from 30 to 20 hours during the interim period.

Q21. I work part time, can I do a reduced number of CPD hours?
A21. No. You still need to be able to demonstrate your professionalism while you are working. There are no half measures.

Q22.  What happens if I change my level of membership?
A22. Subject to the change, your CPD hours may change. In that case, the hours are determined on a pro-rata basis for the year in which the change occurs.