Mandatory reporting of CPD: more than a record of your skills 

Many of the non-UK engineering organisations with which the Institution has relationships already have mandatory CPD reporting – acceptable submissions often linked to practice licenses. We may therefore appear to be falling behind others in maintaining and improving the professional and technical ability of our members.

The proposed mandatory reporting scheme is based around two forms, the Annual Declaration and the Activities Record. The Activities Record should be used on an ongoing basis throughout the year to detail all the CPD activities undertaken along with a brief description of the benefits gained (if any).

Ensuring that you fill in the Activities Record on a regular basis will make completion of the Annual Declaration much easier as all the information is immediately available.

All relevant members – Technician, Associate-Member, Associate, Chartered and Fellows who are practising structural engineers – will be obliged to submit their Annual Declaration every year. This is simply a statement of the hours of CPD undertaken against the four categories.

A random audit of relevant members will be conducted each year and if selected for audit you must submit the Activities Record for the year(s) requested.

The recommended minimum remains 30 hours CPD/year, but to take into account periods of low CPD activity this will be counted over a 3-year period, so the real figure that the Professional Development Panel will want to see is at least 90 hours over 3 years.

If you fail to comply with these requirements – and assuming you give no valid reason – you will be asked to submit a forward plan detailing your proposals for future CPD (in addition to your activities for the previous year). If you fail to submit this plan, you have to pay to cover the Institution’s costs as well as being liable to submit the Activities Record and forward plan.

A subsequent failure to respond will result in you being called before representatives of the Institution to explain why you have not submitted your Declaration. Advice and encouragement will be given regarding CPD generally and submission in future.

If you still do not respond or cannot demonstrate good reasons for not complying with these requirements you will face expulsion from the Institution.

As should be clear, the above disciplinary process is not a snap decision and there is ample opportunity for you to explain why you have not submitted a Declaration or why your CPD hours are low.

Relevant mitigating circumstances (e.g. career breaks, maternity leave, long-term illness, etc) will be taken into account when the documents are reviewed by the Professional Development Panel.

Timeline for introduction
EGM 2010 (exact date to be confirmed)

Key Facts

Who is affected?

Recommended CPD hours per year?

Submission of forms?

Are forms completed on behalf of other organisations acceptable?

Retirement, career breaks and CPD
Many members have raised concerns suggesting that they would be unable to comply with the proposed mandatory reporting scheme if they have retired or are approaching retirement. 

However, they need not worry: members who have retired or no longer practice as structural engineers do not need to comply with this proposal. And if you plan to retire before 2013 the scheme will not affect you in any way. You will of course have to inform the Institution if your circumstances mean you are no longer a practising structural engineer; this can be done via the Annual Declaration which will be sent to all relevant members in the event of the proposal being accepted.

Some members have also worried that they would be penalised for taking career breaks, if they should suffer long-term illness or in other circumstances where their ability or need to do CPD is reduced.  However, situations such as these will be taken into account when the Annual Declaration/Activities Record is assessed by the Professional Development Panel.

This is not to say that all mitigating circumstances justifying a low level of CPD will automatically be accepted – for instance a lack of time as a reason for not undertaking the expected level of CPD would not be satisfactory – but working part-time, illness, or not currently working due to maternity/paternity leave would be considered.

Members should also remember that the proposal stipulates 90 hours of CPD over 3 years, meaning you need not accrue 30 hours CPD every year if circumstances dictate that this is not possible – but those circumstances that have lead to the individual being unable to attain 30 hours CPD should be detailed on the Annual Declaration.  It is the expectation that only in exceptional circumstances will members gain less than 30 hours CPD a year.

In designing this scheme, the Professional Development Panel has tried to make it as simple and flexible as possible, by taking into account the situations of members including illness, retirement, etc, whilst ensuring that there is a sufficient degree of rigour.