What are CPD Hours in Health and Social Care?

CPD hours in health and social care refer to the amount of time spent on Continuing Professional Development activities. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is the process of maintaining and improving the skills, knowledge and competence needed in a professional role. In health and social care, CPD is usually a mix of formal learning, practical experience and reflective practice. CPD hours are a way of tracking how much learning or professional development you have taken part in over a set period, often within a year.

The purpose of CPD hours is to ensure that people working in health and social care remain up to date with current practices, legislation, clinical skills and care approaches. This helps provide safe, high-quality care to patients and service users.

CPD hours are not the same for every role or organisation. Different regulators and employers have their own requirements. For example, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) set CPD requirements for the professionals they regulate. Other care workers may follow CPD expectations set by their employer or by training standards linked to qualifications.

Why CPD Hours in Health and Social Care are Important

The health and social care sector deals with people’s health, safety and wellbeing. If staff do not continue their learning after qualification, their skills and knowledge can become outdated. This can lead to unsafe practices. CPD hours ensure regular exposure to new ideas, guidelines and best practices.

Some benefits of CPD hours in health and social care include:

• Maintaining professional registration for regulated roles
• Keeping up to date with legislative changes
• Learning about new clinical procedures or care approaches
• Improving the quality of care provided
• Building confidence in practice
• Supporting career development and progression

How CPD Hours Are Measured

CPD hours are typically measured in units of time, with one hour spent learning counted as one CPD hour. The learning may be structured, such as a formal training session, or informal, such as attending a workplace seminar.

In regulated professions, CPD hours may be counted as part of a portfolio. For example, certain regulators require you to complete a set number of hours or credits over a defined period, along with a record of what you learned and how it improved your practice.

Recording CPD hours often involves:

• Logging each activity in a CPD record or portfolio
• Noting the date and duration of the activity
• Including a description of the content covered
• Reflecting on what was learned and how it will be applied in practice

Some organisations use CPD points instead of hours. One hour of learning may equal one point, but this can vary between training providers.

Activities That Count Towards CPD Hours

In health and social care, CPD activities can take many forms. Both formal and informal learning can contribute to CPD hours, as long as it is relevant to your role and development needs.

Examples include:

• Training courses and workshops
• E-learning modules
• Conferences and seminars
• Reading relevant professional, clinical or care-related literature
• Participating in reflective practice sessions
• Shadowing experienced colleagues
• Professional supervision sessions
• Updating clinical or care skills through practical training
• Peer learning groups
• Completing qualifications or accredited modules

Not all training automatically counts as CPD. The activity must have a link to improving or maintaining professional competence.

CPD Requirements for Regulated Health and Social Care Roles

Several UK health and social care professions require CPD to maintain registration with a regulatory body. Each regulator sets its own rules for CPD hours.

For example:

• Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) – Registrants must complete 35 hours of CPD over three years, with at least 20 of these hours involving participatory learning where you actively engage with others.
• Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) – CPD must be completed regularly and be relevant to your practice, but there is no fixed number of hours. Professionals may be audited and must provide evidence of their CPD.
• General Medical Council (GMC) – Doctors follow CPD requirements set by their employer and appraisal system, usually involving annual CPD activity across different domains.
• Social Work England – Social workers must record their CPD annually online to maintain registration.

For non-regulated care workers, CPD requirements may come from employer policies, training frameworks or qualification standards such as those set out in the Care Certificate or in NVQ/SVQ programmes.

How CPD Hours Are Recorded and Evidenced

Recording CPD hours serves two purposes: meeting regulatory or employer requirements and reflecting on personal development. Keeping an accurate record is important for audits, professional appraisals and training needs analysis.

A CPD record usually contains:

• Details of the CPD activity
• The date and length of the activity
• How the activity relates to your professional role
• Evidence such as certificates, attendance logs or written reflections
• Notes on how you applied the learning in practice

Many organisations provide templates or online systems for logging CPD hours. Evidence can be stored digitally or in a paper-based portfolio.

Reflection is an important part of recording CPD hours. Regulators often want professionals to show how they have integrated learning into their work, not just confirm they attended a session.

Linking CPD Hours to Personal Development Plans

In health and social care, CPD hours are often linked to a Personal Development Plan (PDP). A PDP is a tool used with supervisors or managers to identify learning needs and plan training activities.

The plan outlines:

• Skills or knowledge you want to improve
• CPD activities that will help achieve these aims
• Timescales for completing activities
• Targets for CPD hours over a period

Linking CPD hours to a PDP helps ensure that the learning is relevant and aligned with professional goals and service needs.

Barriers to Completing CPD Hours

While CPD is recognised as necessary, there can be challenges to meeting CPD hour requirements in health and social care. Common barriers include:

• Lack of time due to staffing pressures
• Difficulty accessing training resources
• Limited funding for courses or conferences
• Lack of awareness of available CPD opportunities
• Poor recording practices leading to incomplete portfolios

Employers and regulators stress the need for planning CPD activities in advance and making use of cost-effective training such as free online modules and workplace learning.

Ways to Maximise CPD Hours

Health and social care professionals can make the most of CPD hours by:

• Planning learning early in the CPD cycle
• Using a mix of formal and informal activities
• Attending events that offer multiple CPD hours in one day
• Recording learning immediately after completion
• Reflecting on how the learning affects patient care or service delivery
• Networking with peers to share CPD opportunities
• Making use of online learning libraries

Time spent on relevant, well-documented learning will meet CPD hour requirements and improve practice.

The Role of Employers in Supporting CPD Hours

Employers in health and social care often play a role in supporting staff to complete CPD. This might include:

• Offering in-house training
• Providing paid time for learning activities
• Funding external courses
• Supplying resources such as e-learning platforms or professional journals
• Encouraging staff to develop PDPs

Regulators encourage employers to create a learning culture so that CPD hours are seen as part of everyday practice.

Final Thoughts

CPD hours in health and social care provide a structured way to measure ongoing learning and professional development. They help safeguard service quality, patient safety and staff competence. Recording hours, choosing relevant activities and reflecting on outcomes are all key parts of meeting CPD requirements.

Whether you are a regulated professional or a care worker following employer-led training, investing time in CPD hours benefits both practice and career progression. By seeing CPD as an active and regular part of the job, health and social care staff can maintain high standards and continue growing in their roles.