Everything you need to know about the HCPC re-registration

Everything you need to know about the HCPC re-registration

It has been two years since the takeover of the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC) from the General Social Care Council and it’s nearly time for Social workers across England to start the re-registration process.   

Registration process and fees

Every practising social worker in England will be required to complete the re-registration process in order to continue to legally practice. Registration opens on September 1st and will run until November 30th.  During this time you can use both the HCPC online system to renew or send your renewal form and payment to them via post.

The renewal fee for the 2 year period is £160 and can be paid in instalments. However if you do not renew in time and your name is removed from the register, you may be asked to pay a readmission fee of £280 to become registered again.

The CPD Audit

One of the conditions of HCPC re-registration for social workers is that they must maintain a portfolio of their continuing professional development (CPD) activities. As part of the re-registration process, 2.5% of social workers will be selected at random by the HCPC for an audit of their CPD portfolio.

If selected for the audit, you will need to demonstrate your CPD activities for the past two year period of registration.  You will need to send a profile to the HCPC showing how your CPD activities meet their standards.

This profile should consist of:

• A summary of your practice history for the last two years
• A statement of how you have met their standards of CPD
• Evidence to support your statement.

The HCPC has provided examples of social work profiles on the HCPC website for guidance.

What is continuing professional development (CPD)?

The HCPC defines continuing professional development (CPD) as ‘a range of learning activities through which health and care 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’.

Put simply, CPD is the way professionals continue to learn and develop throughout their careers so they keep their skills and knowledge up to date and are able to work safely, legally and effectively.

Registrants must undertake CPD to stay registered with the HCPC. HCPC CPD standards state that registrants must:

• Maintain a continuous, up-to-date and accurate record of their CPD activities
• Demonstrate that their CPD activities are a mixture of learning activities relevant to current or future practice
• Seek to ensure that their CPD has contributed to the quality of their practice and service delivery
• Seek to ensure that their CPD benefits the service user; and upon request, present a written profile (which must be their own work and supported by evidence) explaining how they have met the standards for CPD.

There are various different forms of CPD activity from work based learning, formal educational courses and self-directed learning. A list of suggested CPD activity examples can be found on the HCPC website here.

CPD activities for agency social workers

We understand that many agency social workers find it difficult to access adequate training and CPD materials while still performing their day-to-day role.

We have introduced a free online training and development portal for all of our agency social workers, which provides hundreds of varied CPD activities and will equip you with everything you need to prepare for HCPC re-registration.  To find out more about the training portal and how you can access it Click here or paste the follow link in to your browser http://www.liquidpersonnel.com/social-work-training.asp