Continuous Professional Development

Attendance at conferences and training events

Continuous professional development (CPD) points are allocated for hours spent attending any conference or training event relevant to the clerk's work. Every two hours of content at a conference or training event carries one CPD point.

For example:

• A one-day county association training event is approximately five hours of content carrying two and a half points.
• The Society of Local Council Clerks National Conference is approximately 15 hours of content carrying seven and a half points.
• An evening briefing is approximately two hours of content carrying one point.

Developing the sector

A range of activities contribute to the development of parish and town councils, clerks, and the sector as a whole. These activities require a clerk to remain up-to-date and informed about events.

Continuous professional development (CPD) points can be allocated up to six for three months of regular work during the year in any formally recognised roles: mentor, trainer, community governance tutor, assessor, advisor, speaker and writer.

Regular work means at least one activity every four weeks. A single activity (e.g., writing an article, making a presentation, contributing to a training day, or spending a day doing the marking) carries two points.

As a guide, CPD points can be allocated up to a maximum of four for 12 months of regular contributions to the sector through the membership of a national or local organisation. If a clerk calculates that they have not worked regularly in this role throughout the year or if their contributions have been limited, they reduce the number of CPD points from four accordingly.

Examples of such contributions include:

• Membership of a NALC committee
• Membership of a county association committee
• Membership of a Society of Local Council Clerks county branch committee
• Membership of a Society of Local Council Clerks National Executive Council

In-house assessment

Working with Your Council and its successor, the Introduction to Local Council Administration (ILCA) are not accredited qualifications, but students undertake an assessment that, when completed, carries continuous professional development points.

Working with Your Council:

• Two points per topic (total 12)
• If a clerk reads the whole Working with Your Council but does not complete the assessment, then Working with Your Council counts as a book.

ILCA:

• The total number of points for doing all three activities for all five units is 20.
• For activities one and three, each unit is allocated either one or two points:
  • Core roles — One point
  • Law and procedures — Two points
  • Finance — One point
  • Management — One point
  • Community — Two points
• Completing activity one earns you an extra point. For activity two, each unit is allocated one point.

Keeping a record

The continuous professional development (CPD) scheme helps clerks to self-assess their own personal development. Learning and development are subjective experiences and it is for clerks to consider how much they have benefited from each activity.

It is good practice to consider your learning needs, research the options to meet them, discuss with your parish or town council what training or learning you plan to undertake and why it will support the work of the council.

Keeping a log of your activity can be useful to help reflect on what you have learnt. This can be a personal record or something you share with your council. If you choose to keep a record please note that clerks cannot count any activity twice. For example, books which are read while studying for a qualification cannot be counted as separate reading, a training event in preparation for the Certificate in Local Council Administration (CiLCA) contributes to 20 points and cannot be counted separately.

Clerks can allocate all 12 points to a qualification or to a number of training events. Clerks cannot count more than six (of their 12) points each to reading, online courses without accredited assessment or learning from new activities and no more than four contributing to the development of the sector over a 12-month period.

At least three points must come from a qualification, in-house assessment or a training event.

Learning at work

It is appreciated that clerks always learn on the job. Still, continuous professional development (CPD) points can be allocated only for learning from contributions to a new project, event, service, or other activity significantly different from the specific clerk’s normal work.

The clerk can allocate up to six points for learning at work from a new activity and must justify the allocation by explaining why it is new and summarising what has been learnt. Note that a clerk can gain 15 points by taking a Community Governance module (CG4011) that reflects on learning at work.

A clerk can also gain 15 points by taking a Community Governance module (CG4013) that reflects on any CPD experience, including courses, qualifications, conferences or reading.

Online courses

Points can be allocated to relevant online course other than the Introduction to Local Council Administration (ILCA). If the online assessment is accredited then it should carry a specified number of credits (see qualifications). If it is not accredited then it carries points similar to attendance at training events or reading. For example, one point can be allocated to two hours of online courses up to a maximum of six points in a 12-month period.

Qualifications

Most qualifications accredited by an awarding body already carry a number of credits based on the total number of hours involved in studying, work-based learning, teaching support and assessment activity.

The number of continuous professional development (CPD) points for qualifications are the same as the number of credits awarded. Credits in higher education are usually called Credit Accumulation and Transfer System (CATS) points.

Where a module, unit or course has been partly studied in the year of application, the clerk should allocate CPD points pro-rata. They must take care not to count the same CPD points in another year.

Community Governance and Certificate in Local Council Administration (CiLCA) are recognised qualifications tailored for the sector. Other qualifications which are relevant to the work of a clerk are equally valid.

Community Governance:

• 15 or 30 points per module
• Modules are studied during a calendar year.
• Most modules are 15 CATS points but some are double modules worth 30 points.
• Modules from the Community Engagement and Community Governance programme at the University of Gloucestershire also apply.

CiLCA 2015:

• Core roles — Three points
• Law and procedure — Five points
• Finance — Five points
• Management — Two points
• Community — Five points
• CiLCA 2015 carries 20 points in total with a number of credits/points per unit.

CiLCA (before 2015):

• This version of CiLCA carries 15 points in total. Points are not allocated to separate topics.

Reading materials

Reading sector publications and online research is important for keeping up-to-date, while relevant books can inspire innovative thinking and provide specialist knowledge.

Clerks can allocate six points in 12 months for relevant reading. When submitting a record of continuous professional development (CPD) points, clerks should identify the publications they have read and the websites they have visited.

As a guide, CPD points are self-allocated as follows:

• Reading a whole textbook — Four points
• Reading all six editions of The Clerk — Three points
• Researching government policy on community rights — Four points
• Reading a set of publications in preparing for a neighbourhood plan — Six points