Continuing Professional Development

Continuing professional development is something that everyone should be doing and can take many forms. As well as formal courses and workshops that you might attend, there are many ways in which you can develop your knowledge and skills on a day-to-day basis. These could include IMI Conferences, reflecting on an article in a journal or a book, checking IMI National Guidelines, browsing websites or considering the use of a new technique. All these items can be recorded in your CPD portfolio.

For those of you registered with the AHCS you may also be asked to submit your CPD portfolio for audit. Approximately 3% of those registered will be randomly selected by the AHCS. The IMI CPD team carry out the audit on behalf of the AHCS, so here are a few pointers of what to expect if you are one of the lucky people to be selected!

  1.  You will receive an email from the AHCS registrar which will guide you through to the audit section that you need to complete. There will also be some attachments giving you guidance on what to submit and the information required. You will have eight weeks from receiving your email to complete this and upload your evidence. Paper copies are no longer accepted.
  2. Once you have submitted your CPD you will be assigned an assessor from the IMI CPD team. They will then carry out the audit and send feedback to the AHCS. When this has been received, the AHCS registrar will email you letting you know if you have passed (with feedback to help improve your CPD for the future), partially passed, or failed. If you have partially passed or failed, there will be further guidance on what you need to do next to get the CPD up to standard for passing.
  3. If you are chosen for audit your submission will include:


Summary of Practice History (500 words)

This should reflect what you have done in your day-to-day practice for the previous two years only.

Personal Statement (1500 words)

This part of the CPD profile requires you to write a statement about how your CPD meets the AHCS CPD standards. The following questions are provided to help with this.

Standard 1

To meet standard 1, registrants must maintain a continuous up-to-date and accurate record of their CPD activities in whatever form is best for you.

Main question:

  • Does your evidence include a summary sheet of all your CPD activities undertaken in the last two years?

Extra question:

  • How have you kept an up-to-date and accurate record of your CPD activities?
  • How did you record your CPD activities?
  • Who (if anyone) approved your plan for undertaking CPD activities?

Standard 2

To meet standard 2, registrants must demonstrate that their CPD activities are a mixture of different kinds of learning activities, not just one kind of learning.  It could be relevant to your current role or to a planned future role. 

Main questions:

  • What different types of learning activity have you undertaken?
  • How is your CPD relevant to your work?
  • What parts of your role are affected by your CPD?

Extra questions:

  • How did you identify your learning needs?
  • How did you decide on what CPD activities to undertake?
  • How did you make sure your mix of CPD activities is appropriate to meet your needs?
  • How has the mixture of learning activities been relevant to your current or future work?

Standard 3

To meet Standard 3, registrants must seek to ensure that their CPD has contributed to the quality of their practice and service delivery.  The aim is for your CPD to improve the quality of your work.  If this hasn’t been the case due to factors beyond your control, the intention for it to improve your work should be there when choosing your CPD activities.

Main questions:

  • How have you updated your knowledge and skills over the past two years?
  • How has this learning affected how you work?

Extra questions:

  • How does your learning relate to your ability to work safely, effectively and legally?

Standard 4

To meet Standard 4, registrants must seek to ensure that their CPD benefits the service user. You should aim for your activities to improve the quality of your work and to benefit the service.  If this hasn’t been the case due to factors beyond your control, the intention for it to benefit service users should be there when choosing your CPD activities.  Service users may include patients, clients, your team or students, depending on where and how you work.

Main question:

  • How has your learning benefitted your service users?

Extra questions:

  • How does your professional development relate to your changing work?
  • What aspects of your work have changed as a result of your CPD?

Standard 5

This applies only to those registered with the AHCS

To meet standard 5, registrants must present a written profile containing evidence upon request by the AHCS. By filling in your CPD profile (if you are audited) and sending it to AHCS on time, you are showing that you meet this standard.

Main question:

  • Have I included all the parts to the profile with evidence that supports my personal statement?


This should include:

  • A table of activity stating the date, activity description, reflection/what I have learned, time spent learning, type of activity
  • Evidence of each activity

Examples of evidence are: information leaflets, case studies, user/student notes, policies, procedural documents, reports, guidance materials, clinical audit tools, course assignments, action plans, course programme, learning contracts, contributions to work of a professional body or special interest group, business plans, emails, diary entries, protocols, presentations, personal development plans, appraisal, journals, certificates, testimonies, letters. 

This isn’t an exhaustive list and can be anything that shows you have carried out an activity.

Any queries about submitting your CPD or the audit results should be sent to the AHCS registrar at

For more general CPD advice and support, please contact the CPD team at


AHCS Standards of Continuing Professional Development