Introduction to CPL




Continuous professional learning (CPL) is the learning we do for work which helps us develop our knowledge, skills and professional behaviour so we can deliver our best practice.

Overview

CPL is necessary for the development of everyone who works in social work, social care and the children and young people workforce. CPL supports a workforce that is capable of designing, delivering, evaluating and improving high quality care and service.

The workforce operates in a constantly changing, challenging and complex environment. Developing new knowledge, understanding, skills and ways of thinking will help you to adopt new and flexible ways of working which are based on evidence and contribute to improving services. To do this, there needs to be investment in effective, supported and quality CPL and lifelong learning for everybody.

How will the CPL work?

The new CPL process means you will have to show that you have engaged in CPL every year but doesn’t specify the number of hours of learning. As part of your annual declaration, you will be asked to confirm that you have undertaken relevant CPL which covers all of the core learning elements in the CPL model. If we choose to sample your CPL, this will be submitted through the current process on MySSSC and endorsed by your supervisor or line manager.

There are four parts to the new CPL model which align with the new Register parts:

  • social worker (including Newly Qualified Social Workers NQSW)
  • social care workforce
  • children and young people workforce
  • Care Inspectorate authorised officer

There are eight career pathways in each part which link to your role:

  • I am new to my role
  • I want to return to practice after a career break
  • I want to complete a professional qualification
  • I want to keep my practice up to date
  • I want to specialize
  • I want to change jobs
  • I want to retire
  • I want to take a career break

Social work has an additional pathway for NQSWs which encompasses the Supported First Year in practice. The return to practice pathway for social work will be linked to the registration application process.

Core learning elements

Social care and children and young people workforce

Your learning is based on seven core learning elements:

  • Rights based and ethical practice
  • Communication and relationships
  • Wellbeing and support
  • Protection
  • Knowledge for your role
  • Reflective practice
  • Leadership and quality assurance

Each year you will choose the career pathway most relevant to you which will direct you to the core learning elements and suggestions for learning. If one pathway does not suit you, you can choose learning from different ones as long as you cover all of the core learning elements each year.

Our new CPL process will give you both mandatory and suggested areas of learning and your workplace may need you to take part in their own organisational training.

Social workers (including NQSW) and Care Inspectorate authorised officers

There are a specific set of core learning elements for social workers that incorporate the core learning elements for the wider sector but reflect the range of clear and reserved functions social workers and Care Inspectorate authorised officers are accountable for. The core learning elements also provide the framework for the NQSW supported Year.

Your learning is based on eight core learning elements:

  1. Ethics, values and rights-based practice
  2. Communication, engagement and relationship-based professional practice
  3. Critical thinking, professional judgement and decision making
  4. Promoting wellbeing, support and protection
  5. Working with complexity in unpredictable and ambiguous contexts
  6. Use of knowledge, research and evidence in practice
  7. Self-awareness and reflexivity
  8. Professional leadership

Mandatory learning

For every registrant we have identified the need to complete some mandatory CPL relating to trauma and protection of both children and adults, no matter what area you work in. This means that each year you will need to either attend a training course or complete a learning log that demonstrates your reflective practice about being trauma aware and the protection of children and adults. We have signposted to the resources for the National Trauma Transformation Programme in the Core learning element for communication and relationships, and you should work through each level to reach the level appropriate for your job role if you have not already done so. The levels are: trauma informed, trauma skilled, trauma enhanced and trauma specialist and this tool can help you to understand the level of practice required for your role.

Very few social workers work at specialist level. This level is for staff who have a remit to provide specific, evidence-based treatment and therapies for those affected by trauma and with complex needs. This includes, for example, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Trauma Focused Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and other evidence based treatments as outlined in the Psychological Therapies Matrix.

Learning and support at trauma enhanced practice level for social workers continues to develop. Information on how this work is progressing, through the TRSWS team, is available in the link provided.

Where local areas are developing or commissioning training, you may wish to consider if the provider can evidence that the training:

  • has been developed in alignment with the Transforming Psychological Trauma: A Knowledge and Skills Framework for the Scottish Workforce
  • and delivery is in keeping with the Scottish Psychological Trauma Training Plan.

Ensuring Scotland's social work services are able to recognise where people are affected by trauma, and respond in ways which reduce risks of retraumatising and supports recovery is a priority for the Office of the Chief Social Work Adviser. We are aware that the resources available are currently mostly at trauma informed and skilled levels and that further resources are being developed and links added here when available. The Trauma Responsive Social Work Services team have been established to improve access to all appropriate levels of trauma training and promote resources for social work services and deliver a cohesive programme for the social work workforce, including support for operational middle and front-line social work leaders. For more information on this programme specifically for social workers, please see the National Trauma Transformation Programme website

Where local areas are developing or commissioning training, you may wish to consider if the provider can evidence that the training:

  • has been developed in alignment with the Transforming Psychological Trauma: A Knowledge and Skills Framework for the Scottish Workforce and delivery is in keeping with the Scottish Psychological Trauma Training Plan.

NQSW Supported Year

All NQSWs must use the NQSW continuous professional learning (CPL) review template and are asked to list and/or link any relevant learning activity on the review template. It is the NQSWs responsibility to ensure that their evidence is accessible and easily shared with their supervisor and employer. The NQSW could use a digital solution such as the SSSC MyLearning app or an identified secure folder on Microsoft Teams to store and share evidence that is not contained within supervision notes or records.

Suggested learning

The suggested learning is just that. You can choose to use the recommended resources and topics or use different pathways to look for additional suggestions. If your employer requires you to take part in specific learning this can be used to meet your CPL requirement of completing learning under each core learning element. If your learning covers several areas of core learning, then that is fine too. We have detailed many ways you can engage in CPL in the 'What counts as CPL?’ section below.

The links we have included are to nationally developed and recognised resources written for a specific purpose from national bodies such as Care Inspectorate, Scottish Government, NHS Education Scotland (NES) and SASW. There are a wide range of resources available from training organisations and your employer that we have not listed but which may fit your training needs more than those we have identified. We would expect that you use the most beneficial to you, your workplace, and the individuals you work with.

Professional qualifications

If you are completing a professional qualification for your role or for a promoted post, then you can use this to cover your CPL for the year. You can use the pathway 'I want to complete a professional qualification' before starting the qualification to begin to develop some of the skills and knowledge you will need to complete at each job role level.

Moving across the Register

If you have a qualification that has been accepted as flexible and you are able to move across the Register from adults to children or children to adults without completing a further qualification, you will need to follow the pathway for 'I want to change jobs'. This identifies extra learning themes that are essential for your CPL in the first two years on the new part of the Register. (More information on flexible qualifications is available here: https://www.sssc.uk.com/the-scottish-social-services-council/registration-is-changing/).

As part of completing the core learning elements each year, you will be required to cover the following learning themes to allow you to move across to the new part of the Register.

The mandatory themes for those moving across the register from Children and young people workforce to Social care are:

  • Rights based and ethical practice: Equality, diversity and inclusion and Human rights
  • Communication and relationships: Trauma informed and/or Trauma skilled care and Person-centred/ outcomes focused approaches
  • Protection: Adult support and protection and Child protection
  • Knowledge for my role: Record keeping and care planning and Knowledge for my specific setting as defined by my employer eg policy, frameworks
  • Leadership and Quality assurance: Care inspectorate Quality frameworks

The mandatory themes for those moving across the register from Social care to Children and young people workforce are:

  • Rights based and ethical practice: Child centred approaches and key worker system
  • Communication and relationships: Trauma informed and/or Trauma skilled care and Developmentally appropriate behaviour
  • Protection: Adult support and protection and Child protection and Getting it Right for Every Child and Wellbeing indicators
  • Knowledge for my role: Record keeping, and care planning and Child development and attachment and Knowledge for my specific setting as defined by my employer eg policy, frameworks
  • Leadership and Quality assurance: Care inspectorate Quality frameworks

Annual declaration and sampling

We will ask you to complete an annual declaration each year, when your fee is paid, which will include information about how you have completed your CPL. If you are then chosen for sampling, you will be asked to provide additional information about how you have demonstrated your learning against the core learning elements.

Recording CPL

You can record CPL the same way you do now. You can use the MyLearning app, your workplace systems, an online learning log or pen and paper if it suits you best.

When we ask for your annual declaration, we will ask some questions which will require you to have kept a record of your CPL.