The Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists has a long standing commitment to Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
IASLT first introduced CPD guidelines in 2006. A process of auditing members CPD to ensure compliance with CPD Standards was implemented in 2008.
In October 2014, statutory registration opened for Speech and Language Therapists. All Speech and Language Therapists working in Ireland must be registered with CORU and are bound by CORU’s Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics for Speech and Language Therapists. CPD is a requirement under the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics adopted by the SLT Registration Board. All registered Speech and Language Therapists must:
The Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists (IASLT) also requires an ongoing commitment from all members to participate in continuing professional development. All members are required to keep up to date with evidence-based clinical approaches and methodology, current thinking on best practice and legislative requirements. CPD involves IASLT members identifying their own development needs and planning a programme of education and learning to meet these needs. It involves members taking responsibility for the content, relevance and quality of their own professional development. Reflection on learning and relevance for professional practice is a fundamental component of effective CPD.
IASLT launched an online CPD Portfolio in 2014 to support members to meet their CPD requirements for IASLT membership.
IASLT members are advised to familiarise themselves with CORU’s CPD requirements for Speech and Language Therapists. CORU’s CPD requirements are subject to change without the prior knowledge of IASLT. It is a member’s responsibility to ensure that they are up to date with requirements at any one time and to ensure that their CPD record reflects CORU’S requirements. The SLT CPD requirements for CORU can be accessed on the CORU website.
IASLT Position Statement. Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
Professional development refers to a process whereby individual members of a professional organisation or association update their level of knowledge and refine or learn new skills for application in relevant professional practice and the associated workplace. Continuing professional development (CPD) is the ongoing process of developing and updating the knowledge and skills necessary to ensure competent professional practice. All speech and language therapists have an ethical and professional responsibility to actively engage in CPD throughout their working lives. Lifelong learning is a key concept of CPD because it emphasises that each professional needs to continually update their professional knowledge, skills and competencies for practice. It also embraces the idea that each professional is responsible for their own learning.
IASLT Standards for CPD require that all members must:
Standard 1
Maintain a continuous, accurate and current record of their CPD activities using the IASLT Online CPD Portfolio.
Standard 2
Demonstrate that CPD undertaken is relevant to the scope of speech and language therapy (SLT) practice and seeks to improve the quality of SLT practice or service delivery with the aim of benefiting the SLT service user.
Standard 3
Demonstrate that they have participated in CPD activities in two categories in the membership year. Members must show evidence of a minimum of 10 examples of CPD activities with a minimum of 1 example from the Professional Activities category.
Standard 4
Members must show that the activity has resulted in new learning and that reflection on the learning has taken place.
Standard 5
Members must participate in an audit of CPD on request from IASLT.
Overview of the CPD Process
The CPD Process sets out the stages that members is required to undertake to meet the IASLT CPD standards and requirements for statutory registration.
There are 5 stages in the CPD Process:
The 5 stages of the cycle are presented in sequential order in the graphic above. However additional learning can arise at any time that may not have been planned.
The IASLT online CPD Portfolio is designed to enable members to complete the CPD process and meet IASLT and CORU requirements.
It contains the following:
Professional Role and Practice Setting
In this section members will be asked to describe their current professional role and practice setting, main responsibilities, any specialist areas of work and service users.
CPD Planning
CPD planning is a critical part of the CPD cycle. It is important that members are able to demonstrate to IASLT and the regulator, that the goals each member sets are relevant to your professional practice. Each IASLT member must therefore plan a CPD programme based on the identification of their learning needs and the appropriate methods to meet these needs. IASLT members should:
The planning stage can be carried out independently or in consultation with a manager, supervisor or colleague.
Members should use the IASLT online CPD portfolio to plan their CPD and develop a personal development plan. The personal development plan includes the following headings:
CPD activities should be linked to the personal learning needs as much as possible, however IASLT also acknowledges that spontaneous learning opportunities may arise during the course of work and they too can be added to the CPD Plan.
Implement
IASLT recommend that all members show evidence of a minimum of 60 CPD hours in each two year CPD cycle. An ‘hour’ is the time spent engaged with an activity where a member is learning. One hour equals one credit. A member must be able to show evidence that the activity has resulted in new learning and that reflection on the learning has taken place. It is the members responsibility to reflect on their learning and to allocate the appropriate number of credits to each CPD activity and to record learning in the CPD reflective record.
Reflect and Demonstrate
All CPD undertaken must involve reflection on the learning and evidence of how the learning has been integrated into practice. The IASLT Reflective Record links to outcomes (reflection and behavioural change) rather than participation alone.
The Learning Cycle outlines the process of learning from an activity or experience.
Key features of the IASLT reflective record include the following:
Maintaining Records
IASLT members must maintain clear and accurate records of their CPD. Members are responsible for completing each section of the online CPD portfolio. Paper records will not be accepted.
Two Categories:
Required evidence: IASLT recommend that all members show evidence of a minimum of 60 CPD credits in each two year. An ‘hour’ is the time spent engaged with an activity where a member is learning. One hour equals one credit. A member must be able to show evidence that the activity has resulted in new learning and that reflection on the learning has taken place.
Required evidence: you must be able to show evidence that this activity has resulted in new learning and that reflection on the learning has taken place. Participation alone is not sufficient.
Active participation in professional body.
Courses – attendance at courses, study days, conferences, seminars all directly related to SLT practice
Course - attendance at multidisciplinary and subject sepcific conferences e.g. stroke conference.
Further Education – Studying for a higher degree or qualification relevant to the profession of SLT, e.g. PhD, Masters, post-graduate diplomas
Active enagagement in research – relevant to the practice of speech and language therapy
Lecturing/ Teaching – on a training course relevant to the practice of speech and language therapy.
Publication of book or full article in peer reviewed journal.
Publication of book review, course review in professionally relevant newsletter Publication of an opinion piece, clinical audit, case study or research article.
Organiser of training courses directly relevant to speech and language therapy practice – May involve project management including preparing learning materials and resources and / or teaching and supporting learners and / or planning,delivering and reviewing courses and/or designing, planning, implementing and evaluating courses.
Providing supervision to SLT students
Required evidence: you must be able to show evidence that this activity has resulted in new learning and that reflection on the learning has taken place. Participation alone is not sufficient.
Case studies – clinical case presentation
Reflective practice – engaging in structured reflection
Clinical audit
Case/practice discussion with colleagues – aids reflection of practice, develops and affirms knowledge
Peer review, coaching, mentoring
Work Shadowing – learning from more experienced colleagues and / or as part of working in a team and understanding the roles of other team members.
Job rotation / role expansion across different areas of speech and language therapy practice
Journal club – providing or attending journal reviews relevant to the practice of speech and language therapy. Journal articles must be referenced
In-service training – providing or attendance at training relevant to the practice of speech and language therapy
Site visits to liase with other Speech and Language Therapists or professionals relevant to SLT work or planned role.
Critical incident analysis
Reading journal articles/book chapters – must be referenced
Learning through online resources such as HSELanD, forums and online discussion groups.
Writing clinical protocols, policies or procedures manual (Accepted by CORU only). Maintaining CPD portfolio on a regular basis (accepted by CORU only).
Development of information/support resources for service users (accepted by CORU only).
Designing and providing a CPD activity for colleagues.
Sharing information/learning from CPD activities with work colleagues.
Professional reading and study eg CORU website and publications, IASLT publications, journal articles, webinar, online libraries, educational videos.
IASLT members are advised to familiarise themselves with CORU’s CPD requirements for Speech and Language Therapists. It is a member’s responsibility to ensure that they are up to date with requirements at any one time and to ensure that their CPD record reflects CORU’S requirements.
Periods of Leave
IASLT recognises that there may be extenuating circumstances in any one year that may prevent a member achieving their CPD requirements.
IASLT carry out a bi-annual audit of the CPD records of 5% of full membership categories. This is completed in order to demonstrate compliance with CPD Standards and to ensure that all members are maintaining and continue to develop a high standard of professional practice.
Members should read the IASLT CPD Standards, 2017 in detail prior to completing their online portfolio.
Members should pay particular attention to their learning outcomes and application to practice ensuring that these reflect the fact that new learning has taken place. Engaging in the CPD activity alone is not sufficient it must result in new learning or will not be accepted as CPD.
Standard |
Standard Achieved |
Standard Not Achieved |
1. A member must maintain an up-to-date record of CPD activities. |
The member has provided evidence of their CPD record. |
The member has failed to provide evidence of a CPD record. |
2. A member must demonstrate that CPD is relevant to current or future scope of practice. |
The member has provided clear evidence of how CPD undertaken is relevant to scope of SLT practice. |
The member has provided limited or no clear evidence of how CPD undertaken is relevant to SLT scope of practice. |
3.A member must demonstrate that they have participated in CPD activities across 2 categories: 1. Professional Activities (SLT Specific), 2. Self-directed Learning in the membership year. A member must show evidence of a minimum of 10 examples of CPD activities with a minimum of 1 example from the Professional Activities category. |
The member indicates sufficient participation in CPD activities across the two categories in the membership year. The member shows evidence of a minimum of 10 examples of CPD activities with a minimum of 1 example from the Professional Activities category. |
The member does not indicate sufficient participation in CPD activities across 2 categories in the membership year. |
4. Members must show that the activity has resulted in new learning and that reflection on the learning has taken place. |
The member has indicated that their CPD activities have resulted in new learning and has improved the quality of their practice or service delivery which has benefited the service user and this is supported with evidence . OR The member has indicated that their objective in undertaking the CPD activity was to improve the quality of their practice or service delivery to benefit the service user but this was not the outcome. The member has indicated that they have reflected on why this has happened and what they would need to do differently to improve the quality of their Practice or service delivery. |
The member has provided limited or no evidence that their CPD has improved their work. OR The member has not demonstrated that they have reflected on why CPD may not have improved the quality of their work and what action would need to be taken to ensure the quality of their work improved. OR The member has not shown that the activity has resulted in new learning. |
5. A member must participate in an audit of CPD on request from IASLT. |
Standard Achieved. |
Not achieved. |
Once the information supplied has been assessed against the standards, there are three possible outcomes:
Members will be unable to renew their membership until their portfolio has been audited. If this does not occur there will be a break in membership which will impact on the provision of insurance and letters of good standing.
Appendix 1
Differences between IASLT and CORU CPD Standards
IASLT |
CORU |
The Irish Association of Speech and Language Therapists (IASLT) requires an ongoing commitment from all members to participate in continuing professional development. |
CPD is a legal requirement under the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics adopted by the SLT Registration Board. |
IASLT members must engage in a range of CPD activities from 2 categories on an ongoing basis. |
A registrant must engage in a range of CPD activities on an ongoing basis. |
A full member must complete 60 CPD credits in each 2-year cycle. |
A registrant must complete 30 CPD Credits in each 1-year cycle (accurate as of 31st May 2017) |
A member must maintain their online CPD portfolio which includes;
|
A registrant must maintain an up to date CPD portfolio which must include;
|
CPD: Recognition is not given to meetings relating to organisational/departmental or any activities relating to the day to day business of your job eg mandatory training, parent training. |
Recognition is given to meetings relating to organisational/departmental or business matters. |
IASLT audits: Record of professional practice and practice setting, CPD Activities and reflections from 10 activities. |
CORU at present will not conduct audit (Accurate 31st May 2017) |