1.    Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Policy for Accredited Individuals

Rationale for CPD Requirements

1.1.1 The Government Commercial Function’s (GCF) vision is to be the best commercial function in the UK. In order to help it to achieve this it has invested heavily in increasing commercial and contract management capabilities across government through a number of routes, including professional standards for commercial and contract managers, learning and development interventions and programmes of individual accreditation.

1.1.2 This accreditation activity provides a snapshot in time of an individual’s capability and skills in commercial and contract management activities. However, there are a number of reasons why it is now appropriate to introduce a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Policy for those individuals that have been accredited by the GCF.

• The world in which government operates, and the policies, regulations and practices that govern commercial and contract management evolve and change over time and the GCF’s vision therefore recognises the need to undergo continuous improvement in order to achieve its vision. Continual improvement of the capability of those involved in commercial and contract management activities is therefore also required and CPD is the ideal activity to support this ongoing personal development.
• All civil servants are actively encouraged to develop their skills on an ongoing basis. GCO and other government departments already provide individuals with an annual budget to support their personal development activities. Supporting personal development is the right thing to do as an employer in order to help with their personal growth and to help them meet their career aspirations. It has also been shown to lead to improved staff motivation and engagement. For most accredited individuals CPD will only be recognising learning and development activities that they are already undertaking as part of their annual development plans.
• The Commercial ADC started providing accreditations in 2015/16 and accreditation is valid for a period of five years. Therefore, the period of validity for those first accredited is ending shortly and there is currently no process for re- accreditation of individuals. The introduction of a CPD requirement would provide a way for individuals to demonstrate their continued ability to meet commercial and contract management professional standards without placing an undue level of additional burden on them.
• Whilst most accredited individuals exercise their skills and capabilities on a daily basis in their existing roles, delivering the ‘day job’ does not provide an individual with sufficient opportunity to learn new skills and approaches that will help to support their own development or the continual improvement of the government’s approach to commercial and contract management. Therefore, other learning and development activity is needed.

What constitutes CPD activity?

2. CPD is not confined to paid formal training and development. Opportunities that could contribute to a CPD requirement are wide and varied. CPD activity can be split into two broad categories – structured and self directed.

2.1.1 Appendix 1 to this policy provides more detailed examples of what can be considered as CPD activity to contribute towards the meeting of the requirements in this policy.

2.2 Structured CPD

2.2.1 This is an activity that takes place in a more formal learning environment. It includes training programmes and exams and assessment programmes, but also includes online eLearning, conferences, workshops and seminars. Generally, this type of CPD includes a two-way interaction, although the increasing use of digital learning packages means some is one-way, and usually follows a structured approach to learning or a clear agenda.

2.2.2 Structured CPD often, but not always, provides a participant with a certificate or some other form of document     confirming attendance / completion. This type of CPD may also involve the payment of a fee for access to the learning, or could be provided through membership to a professional body, although there are many free courses available which would also be considered to be structured CPD.

2.2.3 It may involve some form of assessment to test for learning, but there are many structured CPD activities where there is no assessment.

2.3 Self-directed CPD

2.3.1 This type of activity is much more informal and is often more one-way learning that does not follow any form of methodical approach. It is often completed alone, although can involve discussions and conversations with others. It includes a wide range of activities such as reading articles or thought leadership, reading books or listening to podcasts or watching relevant videos. It might also include actively sharing one’s own learning with others, through presentations or delivering training interventions, or perhaps through targeted coaching of individuals.

2.3.2 It could also be some form of on-the-job development, for example where an individual takes a stretching role or project specifically designed to help them to learn and practice new skills or knowledge.

2.3.3 It is less likely to involve a fee or any form of payment, unless it includes the purchase of reading materials or subscription costs for a journal / magazine.

2.3.4 Self-directed CPD is unlikely to provide documentary evidence of participation, the onus is on the individual to keep a log of such activity for themselves, and given the very diverse nature of what could count as self-directed CPD to record what new knowledge or skills have been obtained as a result of the activity.

3. CPD Policy Principles

3.1.1 The CPD policy has been designed, based on the following eight principles.

4.3    Validity of accreditation

4.3.1    Individuals who achieve accreditation will remain accredited for a period of five years from the year in which they achieve accreditation at a Commercial ADC, through the CMCP, or through any other form of accredited assessment event which the GCF may introduce in the future.

4.3.2    The ‘year’ of accreditation refers to the financial / performance year, i.e. from April 1st to March 31st. The period accreditation will remain valid for an individual until 31st March five years later. See the table in paragraph 4.5.1 for a detailed illustration of the application of the five-year period.

4.4    CPD Requirements

4.4.1    Every accredited individual is required to complete a minimum of 150 hours of CPD activity over the five-year period of their accreditation validity in order to be re- accredited at the end of that period. GCF recommends that individuals should aim to achieve around 30 hours each year in order to distribute their learning and ensure continuous personal development. Over the course of a five-year period this equates to only 2.5 hours per month, less than half a day.

4.4.2    Of these 150 hours, a minimum of 50 hours should be structured development, as defined in section 2.2. The remaining 100 hours can be structured or self-directed, as defined in section 2.3, and should comprise a mixture of different types of activities.

4.4.3    All CPD activity should be focused on supporting an individual to continue to demonstrate how they meet the People Standards for Commercial or the Contract Management Professional Standards, but activity can comprise a wide mix of technical, professional and business acumen skills, and leadership, relationship and judgement skills.

4.4.4    Any CPD activity undertaken by an accredited individual to comply with CPD requirements of other organisations, such as a professional body of which they are a member can be used to contribute to their GCF CPD requirement.

4.4.5    Any individual who is accredited under both the Commercial ADC and the CMCP is only required to demonstrate 150 hours over the five-year period, or the prorated amount from the year they achieved their first accreditation. (See section 4.5 below).

4.4.6    GCF will provide a range of activities which can be completed by individuals to contribute towards meeting their CPD requirement and will also maintain a catalogue of other suitable CPD activities that individuals may wish to undertake.

4.4.7    However, accredited individuals are free to identify activities to support their CPD requirements from any other source, including the Learning Platform for Government, professional or other membership bodies, and academic and other external learning bodies. Many external programmes have ‘CPD’ accreditation which clearly states the ‘value’ of the programme (in terms of hours of CPD that can be claimed), but individuals may also choose learning and development activities which do not have such accreditation.

4.4.8    Appendix 1 to this policy provides more detailed examples of what can be considered as CPD activity to contribute towards the meeting of the requirement in this policy.

4.5    CPD Requirements for those already accredited

4.5.1    As stated above CPD requirements will apply to all those already accredited from 1st April 2021. All of these individuals will already be some way through their five-year period of accreditation validity.

4.5.2    For these individuals there will be no retrospective requirement for CPD and requirement will be prorated to the number of years of validity remaining. For the avoidance of doubt the following table sets out the number of hours required before the end of the five-year period, based on the year in which accreditation was achieved.

4.6    Exemptions

4.6.1    As set out in section 4.1, this CPD policy applies to all individuals who are accredited by the GCF through a Commercial ADC, the CMCP, or any other assessment event that the GCF may introduce in the future. There are no exemptions to the requirement to complete CPD.

4.6.2    However, a reduction in the number of hours of CPD required will be available for any accredited individual who has an extended period of absence from work due to parental or carers leave, or sick leave of over one month. Those individuals will receive a prorated reduction in the hours required based on the time spent not at work, e.g. an accredited individual who has a year’s maternity leave will have their requirement reduced by 30 hours.

4.6.3    Individuals wishing to claim a reduction should notify the GCF in advance of their absence where possible. If the reduction relates to an unexpected period of sickness, the individual should inform the GCF upon their return to work. Notifications can be sent to CommercialCPD@cabinetoffice.gov.uk for commercial professionals and to ContractMgtCPD@cabinetoffice.gov.uk for contract managers

4.6.4    In exceptional circumstances where an accredited individual is absent from work or unable to undertake CPD for over one month for any other reason they may submit a request for a reduction to the Accreditation Board for consideration, outlining the exceptional reason for their request and any supporting evidence.

4.7    Accredited Individuals not in GCO or a Contract Management Role

4.7.1    Individuals not in GCO or a contract management role at the time of the introduction of this policy will be notified of the introduction of the CPD policy2 and informed of the number of hours of CPD required before their accreditation expires. GCF will not monitor annual compliance for these individuals, but should they wish to be re- accredited upon expiry of their accreditation they will be required to submit a CPD record with supporting evidence to demonstrate compliance. Otherwise they will be deemed to be NOT ACCREDITED after their five-year period.

4.8    Non-compliance

4.8.1    Accredited individuals in the GCO or in a contract management role will be required to report their CPD hours to the GCF each year in a manner to be specified by GCF. GCF will keep a record of the total number of CPD hours recorded per five-year validity period (or for those already accredited prior to 01/04/21, the relevant proportion of their validity period as shown in section 4.5.1).

4.8.2    The GCF will encourage those who are not completing around 30 hours each year, to consider reducing the gap to the total number of hours required and will provide signposting to available sources of suitable CPD activities.

4.8.3    Specifically, GCF will remind any individual in the final year of their accreditation validity that is more than 30 hours away from their CPD requirement of the need to meet their CPD requirement by 31st March of the next calendar year.

4.8.4    Individuals that have met their CPD requirements by this date will be deemed to be re-accredited and their accreditation will be valid for a period of a further five years.

4.8.5    Any accredited individual that has not completed their required CPD hours by 31st March of the year in which their accreditation expires will receive a non-compliance notice which will explain the consequences of non-compliance as set out in paragraphs 4.8.8 and 4.8.9 apply.

4.8.6    In exceptional circumstances, which will be detailed in the non-compliance notice, an individual who fails to meet the requirement by the 31st March may present an appeal to the Accreditation Board, within two weeks of receiving their notification, stating the reasons for non-compliance and outlining any exceptional circumstances that they wish to be considered.

4.8.7    The Accreditation Board may appoint a Panel to consider the appeal or delegate to a member of the GCF Faculty for consideration. All appeals will be considered within one month of submission to the Accreditation Board. That Panel will consider the particular circumstances of the appeal, including the amount of CPD activity already achieved, and may reach one of three conclusions:

• the appeal is rejected, and the individual must achieve complete their CPD requirement within six months, as per paragraph 4.8.5
• the appeal is upheld, and the individual is deemed to have met their CPD requirement and will be re-accredited
• the appeal is upheld, and the individual will be given a revised CPD requirement and timescale for completion.

4.8.8    If no appeal is received, or if the appeal is not upheld, individuals within the GCO will be deemed to be NO LONGER ACCREDITED, and will not have achieved the mandatory objective on CPD being introduced for the 2021/22 performance year onwards. This will result in the individual no longer being eligible for a bonus under the GCO non-contractual Performance Related Pay Scheme or GCO Existing Equivalent scheme.

4.8.9    Individuals accredited via the CMCP, will be deemed to be NO LONGER ACCREDITED for the purposes of GCF reporting of accredited individuals responsible for departmental Gold and Silver contracts, which will be prepared annually for Accountable Officers, until such as time as they have completed their CPD requirement.

4.8.10    In both cases individuals will be re-accredited (and for GCO staff re-admitted to the performance related pay scheme) upon completion of their CPD requirement.

4.9    The CPD Process

4.10    The Annual CPD Cycle

4.10.1    The following diagram sets out the recommended annual cycle for planning, undertaking and reviewing CPD activities. It has been designed to fit with the current standard appraisal process for staff but can be adapted to meet individual and departmental practice if required. It is not intended to add significant additional requirements to accredited individuals and the vast majority of accredited individuals will already undertake learning and development activities throughout the year which can contribute to their CPD requirements.

4.10.2    It is recommended that at the start of the year as an individual sets their objectives for the year they also consider their development aims for the year and what learning and development activities will help them to meet those needs. These activities will contribute towards their CPD targets.

4.10.3    Progress against the development plan and CPD targets should be reviewed mid- year and amendments made if required. For example, if planned activity hasn’t taken place in the first half of the year or if new development needs have emerged.

4.10.4    The end of year review meeting should then be used to review completed development activities during the year and agree the total number of hours of CPD achieved.

4.10.5    Once this has been agreed then the accredited individual should notify the GCF of the number of hours of CPD that they have undertaken during the year.

4.11    The role of the line manager

4.11.1    Whilst the responsibility for meeting CPD requirements rests with the accredited individual, their line-manager has an important role to play in the CPD process.

4.11.2    At the start of the year they should support the individual to identify their development needs and aspirations and identify how those needs can be met. They should encourage the individual to think of a wide range of activities, not just training courses. They should encourage the individual to aim to complete at least 30 hours each year, in order to spread their CPD requirements to ensure they are achievable.

4.11.3    The line manager should meet frequently with the accredited individual and discuss the impact of and knowledge gained from CPD activities undertaken, and in particular at mid-year, should support them in reviewing their plan and refining it if required.

4.11.4    As part of the end of year review, the line manager should review with the individual their CPD record for the year and discuss the impact of their learning and development. They should then confirm with the individual the number of hours of CPD activity ensuring that all hours claimed do represent valid CPD activity that has contributed to improved knowledge, skills and capability.

4.11.5    Line Managers should use their own judgement as to what does and does not constitute valid CPD but can use the table in Appendix 1 as a guide to support them in their assessment.

4.12    Recording CPD

4.12.1    Accredited individuals should keep a log of their CPD activities during the year, both as a formal record of activities undertaken, and to aid reflection on their learning from those activities. Individuals can use any template they wish for a CPD log, but an example template is included in Appendix 2.

4.12.2    Whatever template individuals choose to use they should ensure that it includes, as a minimum, the following details:

• Details of the CPD activity – title, date, source (if applicable), learning time
• Evaluation of the CPD activity – learning points, key benefits

4.12.3    Accredited individuals should keep this template for the full period of their CPD requirement as it may be requested by GCF as part of their programme of audits of compliance with CPD requirements.

5.    Consideration of CPD requirements in recruitment campaigns

5.1    CPD based accreditation is not currently supported for recruitment campaigns.

6.    GCF’s role in Supporting and Monitoring CPD Requirements

6.1    Providing and Signposting CPD activity

6.1.1    GCF is committed to ensuring that it supports all individuals to be able to continue to develop their skills to excel in their current role and in their career and to meet their CPD requirements. It already provides a large number of learning and development activities, which can be accessed by all accredited individuals in government (and wider government bodies?) via the Government Commercial College. It will continue to develop learning materials dealing with new and emerging commercial and contract management issues and trends. A significant proportion of these activities will be free to use to ensure that they are accessible for accredited individuals.

6.1.2    It will also maintain a catalogue of other suitable CPD activities delivered by GCF partners, such as CIPS, World Commerce and Contracting (formerly the IACCM), the Learning Platform for Government and other external providers.

6.2    Recording CPD activity

6.2.1    GCF will provide support to individuals to keep a record of their CPD. A standard CPD Log template is provided in Appendix 2 of this document, which individuals can use to record their on-going CPD activity and learning outcomes.

6.3    Accreditation Board

6.3.1    The GCF’s Accreditation Board holds ultimate responsibility for all matters relating to CPD and commercial and contract management accreditation. It may delegate some, or all, of those responsibilities to others, including Panels comprising members of the Accreditation Board and / or GCF accredited assessors and the GCF Accreditation Lead.

6.3.2    Specifically, the Accreditation Board will:

• consider requests from accredited individuals for a reduction in the target number of CPD hours required, as set out in section 4.6
• consider appeals from accredited individuals who have not met their CPD requirement by the end of their period of accreditation validity, as set out in paragraph 4.7.6
• confirm re-accreditation for individuals who reach the end of their period of accreditation validity and have met their CPD requirement
• review this CPD and Accreditation Policy from time to time to ensure that it continues to reflect current good practice.

6.4    Annual CPD record audits

6.4.1    GCF may conduct audits of CPD logs from time to time for accredited individuals who do not use the GCC CPD log, in order to understand the nature of CPD activity they have undertaken and to verify that they are completing activity as required.

2.    Appendix 1 – Forms of Continuing Professional Development

1.    Examples of structured or ‘formal’ CPD activity

•    Conferences, including GCF annual conference

•    GCF all staff calls

•    GCF training programmes / events

•    Attending a GCF Summer Series Webinar or listening to the recordings

•    Other blended and open-learning courses, including those on the Government Commercial College and Learning     Platform for Government

•    CIPS exams and other training

•    World Commerce and Contracting assessments and other training

•    Other commercial and contract management related accredited qualifications

•    On-line interactive webinars / seminars / workshops

•    GCO Masterclasses e.g. Coaching Skills

•    Participant on a Civil Service Accelerated Development Schemes e.g. FLS, SLS, HPDS.

2.    Examples of self- directed or ‘informal’ CPD activity

•    Attendance at the Commercial Capability Working group and other cross functional boards, workshops, groups and forums

•    Member of the GCF North, South, Scotland or Regional Steering Groups / Councils

•    Time spent as a ‘representative’ for a professional institute / organisation

•    Being a Red Team Reviewer or Host Team Member

•    Coaching / mentoring of others (not line management)

•    Helping to lead GCF D&I groups or KHUB groups

•    Lectures / training given to others

•    Presentations / speaking slots on commercial or contract management topics

•    On-the-job learning through stretch roles on projects

•    Workplace shadowing of managers / colleagues

•    Reading GCF news and contributing stories

•    Reading relevant articles / blogs / thought pieces / journals

•    Listening to relevant podcasts / recorded webinars etc

•    Talent conversation with a GCO Leadership & Career Coach

•    Coachee in a 1:1 Coaching Programme

•    Being a mentee

•    Participant in a Team Coaching programme

•    Member of an Action Learning Set

•    Being a Sponsor / Sponsee in a GCO or wider Civil Service Sponsorship Programme

•    Attend SCS Career Management series (for directors only)

•    Speaker at a Fast Stream event

3.    What is not CPD?

•    Activities under 30 minutes (time spent reading relevant materials or listening to podcasts etc. can be aggregated)

•    Day-to-day line management of direct reports – e.g. appraisals, setting objectives

•    Normal ‘day job’ activities

3.    Appendix 2 – Example CPD Log Template