Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to clarify the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) system for social workers in England. The method of analysis is historical analysis and interview to the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and social worker. HCPC is a regulator of health professions and social welfare professions, and the HCPC sets standards of continuing professional development that standards must meet to be renew registration. Based on the results, there were three findings as described below:
The first is that CPD was related with renewal process that was minimum quality of social worker. Government, employer, and service user was made impact to CPD system.
The second point is that CPD system was double structure. That was "improvement of quality" (the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment and Professional Capabilities Framework) and "maintenance of quality" (renewal). CPD system was impacted to government policy.
The third is that standards of continuing professional development say that a registrant must: 1. maintain a continuous, up-to-date and accurate record of their CPD activities; 2. demonstrate that their CPD activities are a mixture of learning activities relevant to current or future practice; 3. seek to ensure that their CPD has contributed to the quality of their practice and service delivery; 4. seek to ensure that their CPD benefits the service user; 5. upon request, present a written profile explaining how they have met the standards for CPD.
