CPD for Midwives in the UK

Best practices in healthcare are always evolving. Midwifery is practiced in an ever-changing environment, with many factors contributing to the need for ongoing learning to make sure they are delivering the best care possible.

The number of midwives in the UK increased from 35,830 in 2018 to 36,916 in 2019, and nurses and midwives registering to work in the UK from outside of the EU, increased by 126%, rising from 2,720 to 6,157 over this same period. Increasing patient expectations, a focus on patient safety, technological developments, and changes in the way health professionals relate to each other have combined to deliver powerful incentives as to why nurses and midwives undertake CPD.

The Importance of CPD for Midwives

The importance of Continuing Professional Development in nursing and midwifery is to enable professionals to meet their obligation to provide ethical, effective, safe and competent practice. Just as important, CPD allows health professionals to react and respond to changes and advances in midwifery so they can be at the forefront of their practice, with the potential for service improvement and better quality of care as a consequence.

Taking a proactive role in your Continuing Professional Development

People tend to learn better when they take an active role in their own development – which is where Continuing Professional Development (CPD) comes in. In the midwifery profession, CPD aims to assist nurses and midwives to respond to the changing needs of the healthcare system and their patients to ensure the best possible health outcomes. Driven by innovation in medical and nursing science, Continuing Professional Development is crucial to midwives who wish to further their knowledge and skillset. Not only is CPD useful for remaining up-to-date on the latest developments in healthcare, it is part of a midwife’s professional duty of care. Midwife and nursing professionals have a duty to patients to continuously provide the best quality of care available and to guarantee their safety and well-being. CPD is a transparent and reliable way to signal to colleagues, regulators, and most importantly patients that this duty is being fulfilled.

Continuing Professional Development differs from ad-hoc or other types of informal learning, as when CPD is undertaken as a process, there is an often conscious, deliberate focus on further learning, experienced in a structured, practical and relevant way to promote learning. It also enables an individual to apply attention to areas of development and take appropriate action to reduce any shortfalls in knowledge.

Who are the governing professional bodies for Nurses and Midwives?

The Nursing and Midwifery Council are an organisation which regulates nurses and midwives in the UK, and nursing associates in England. The NMC’s role is to protect the health and wellbeing of the public, set standards of education, training, conduct and performance so that nurses and midwives can deliver high quality healthcare consistently throughout their careers.

CPD Requirements for midwives on the NMC register

CPD requirements apply to all 684,000 registered nurses and midwifes on the NMC register. Professionals must have undertaken 35 hours of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) relevant to their scope of practice as a nurse, midwife, in the three year period since your registration was last renewed, or when you joined the register in order to be eligible for revalidation. All CPD must be relevant to the nurse or midwife’s scope of practice, and 20 of the 35 hours must be participatory training.

Types of CPD

The Nursing and Midwifery Council does not specify the type of training, nor does it require that CPD take place in a classroom. Nurses are given full discretion in the choice of training that they attend and are encouraged to determine for themselves what kind of CPD will benefit them the most.

Of those 35 hours of CPD, at least 20 must have included participatory leaning. You must maintain accurate records of CPD you have undertaken. These records must contain:

• the CPD method
• a description of the topic and how it related to your practice
• the dates on which the activity was undertaken
• the number of hours (including the number of participatory hours)
• the identification of the part of the Code most relevant to the activity
• evidence that you undertook the CPD activity

It is important to remember that the NMC doesn’t prescribe any particular type of CPD, it is up to you to decide what activity is most useful for your development as a professional. To meet the participatory requirement, you simply have to undertake activity that involves interaction with one or more other professionals. This can be in a physical environment or a virtual one, you don’t have to be in the same room as the people you undertake the activity with.

While 35 hours may sound like a lot, remember that CPD can include a variety of activities – it’s not just about attending courses and conferences.

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM)

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) is the only professional organisation and trade union dedicated to serving midwifery and the whole midwifery team in the UK. The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has launched a set of principles for Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

The five principles are that CPD should;

• Be owned by the individual and be supported and facilitated by the employer.
• Benefit the service user.
• Improve the quality of service delivery.
• Be balanced and relevant to the individual’s scope of practice.
• Be recorded and reflect the impact on the individual’s practice.

While there is no specific approved activities which count towards this CPD requirement, it will need to be relevant to the particular practice or may not be counted.

What is Revalidation CPD?

In November 2015, the Nursing and Midwifery Council introduced a triennial revalidation process to encourage registrants to stay up-to-date in their professional practice by developing new skills and understanding the changing needs of the public and fellow healthcare professionals. Revalidation CPD is the process put in place by the Nursing & Midwifery Council to ensure that nurses and midwives undertake the practice, CPD and other requirements for reregistration. All nurses and midwives in the UK need to follow this process to maintain their registration with the NMC.

NMC revalidation requires registered nurses to renew their registration with the NMC every three years and demonstrate that they, as professionals, are living by the standards of practice and behaviour set out in the Code. In the new process, nurses and midwives are encouraged to seek regular feedback from colleagues and patients, to reflect on the principles of the Code, and to obtain third-party confirmation that they have met the necessary requirements. A key requirement of revalidation is Continuing Professional Development.

Revalidation CPD will help demonstrate that you practise safely and effectively. It will encourage you to reflect on the role of the Code in your practice and demonstrate the standards set out within it. CPD has always been an important part of nursing, CPD is even more important now NMC revalidation is in place.

Nurses and midwives will need to sign up to the Nursing and Midwifery Council online to find out their renewal date and to complete the revalidation process.

Participatory and Non Participatory CPD

Participatory learning – The Nursing and Midwifery Council defines participatory learning as “any learning activity in which you personally interact with other people”. Participatory learning is typically undertaken with one or more professionals, or in a larger group, and the activity must be relevant to scope of practice.

Examples of participatory learning activities include attending a conference or participating in a clinical workshop. The group does not need to always be in a common physical environment, it could exist in a virtual environment such as an online discussion group.

Participatory CPD can also include conferences, webinars, peer reviews, teaching, mentoring, in-person or virtual group meetings. It is important to note that any learning activity in which there is personal interaction with other people will fulfil the requirement of participatory training, including in a virtual environment such as online discussion groups and social media.

Non-participatory learning

Non-participatory learning – Non-participatory learning takes place in isolation and does not involve any interaction with other people. Other types of CPD may or may not be participatory, and include reading and reviewing publications, research, structured learning, relevant mandatory training, and accredited higher education. There is, however, no requirement that the CPD training that midwives choose to attend must be accredited.

Other types of learning

While the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) does not specify exactly what types of CPD activity you should complete, you are expected to undertake learning that is “directly related” to your practice. Things like health and safety or IT training don’t count, but note-taking and safeguarding training do.

Mandatory training days related to a formal aspect of your role can be included. For example, if you are the lead for safe handling and lifting then a mandatory training day on this topic is relevant. However, you cannot count fire training or health and safety training as part of your CPD, because this is not directly related to your practice.

• Work-based activity – Work-based learning can also count towards CPD. For example, if you have spent time shadowing a senior colleague or someone in a different role to you. Secondments, job rotation, or supervising fellow staff and students also counts.
• Professional activity – such as teaching, mentorship or running a course, can be included in your CPD hours. Learning something new in practice or from reading journals or research papers also counts.
• Formal learning – relates to courses or modules undertaken at an educational institute, such as studying for a Master’s degree at a UK university. You can include individual modules you have completed, even if these do not carry any points or credits.

Recording your CPD

CPD is a really important part of nursing – so it has to be recorded properly. All nurses need to keep evidence of their CPD activities to show to their confirmer for revalidation. CPD records must include:

• Details of the activity
• How it relates to midwifery or nursing practice
• When the activity took place
• The number of participatory and non-participatory hours
• How the activity relates to the Code
• Evidence of the activity (like a certificate or recording)

There is a lot of information to record for 35 hours of CPD activity, so having a written or online portfolio to record CPD is a good idea. Nurses and midwives can build a portfolio to prove their CPD activities, and can take photos, videos or audio recordings using any device.

In addition to completing the required number of hours and reflecting on how each activity relates to the Code, nurses and midwives must also record the dates, topics and duration of their CPD. The NMC has published a useful template which you can download and save electronically or print off and complete. You can record your CPD evidence without using a template if you prefer – just be sure to include the above information.

While all of this must be documented and reviewed by a confirmer, the NMC does not require evidence of CPD to be uploaded to their system upon revalidation. Nurses and Midwives simply need to tick a box on their application to declare that the CPD requirement has been met.

CPD Courses for UK Midwives

We hope this article was helpful. This article begins to outline the Continuing Professional Development of a Nurse or Midwife based in the UK, the governing professional bodies for these professions, as well as the various CPD requirements across the industry. For more information please visit the CPD Industry Hubs for more CPD articles, courses and events relevant to your Continuing Professional Development.

Become a CPD certified training provider

Certifying your CPD materials follows a simple process. CPD Members are able to utilise key features of membership to help support business and training objectives. The CPD Certification Service helps organisations to formalise knowledge into a structured and recognised approach to meet CPD expectations.

Established in 1996, The CPD Certification Service has over 27 years’ experience providing CPD accreditation. With members in over 100 countries, our CPD providers benefit from the ability to promote themselves as part of an international community where quality is both recognised and assured.

If you are interested in offering training courses, seminars, workshops, eLearning, or educational events suitable for Continuing Professional Development, please visit the Become a CPD Provider page or contact our team to discuss in more detail. 

Alternatively, if you are looking for a free online CPD record tool to help manage, track and log your ongoing learning, as well as store your professional training records and attendance certificates in one simple place, go to the myCPD Portal page.