CPD Requirements may be becoming more stringent.

Make sure you are ahead of any changes by getting a good mix of CPD including attending a reasonable number of structured and certificated sessions.

The indications I am picking up are that accreditation schemes are going to be tightening up on the need for CPD to be demonstrated to be of suitable content and value. It is likely that assessors will increasingly see requirement for a significant proportion of CPD to be formal sessions with confirmed attendance. The proportion that you can claim for things like self-guided reading is likely to be capped. 

I suspect assessors will also be seeing more of a requirement to show your CPD is relevant to all your strands. If you do 2 strands you will need to show at least 5 hours are relevant to each, you will not be able to just do 10 hours relevant to one and claim it covers both. 

The purpose of this is obviously to ensure that scheme members are getting good relevant CPD across all their disciplines. The driver for it, many will immediately assume is so the schemes can sell you more CPD. Actually, the schemes are themselves audited by government and this is likely to be one of the actions they are being told to take and audited against. 

In the government’s EPC Action Plan, there is specific reference to work with Schemes “to improve the training and strengthen the continuous professional development evidence requirements for energy assessors”. This will be why you are going to be seeing a more stringent approach to CPD evidence requirements. 

Schemes also want members to have a good level of appropriate CPD because it reduces the amount of support they have to provide, and it reduces the audit failures they get. Contrary to popular belief schemes do not want to fail assessors, it creates a lot more work for them and looks bad on when they themselves are audited for the government. 

It is worth noting that there is no requirement to use all or any of the CPD provided by your scheme, although there are benefits to doing so. There should be a high level of consistency between their CPD and their expectations at audit. You are free to choose where you get your CPD, but if it is not provided or pre-approved by your scheme, you will be responsible for providing reasonable evidence of its suitability. 

At Proficiency, we are already working with several of the schemes to make sure there is sufficient low cost and easily accessible, formal CPD available to meet the strand specific needs of their members. You can see current examples at https://proficiency.services/events and there will be more similar events added to the list soon. 

We have a rolling programme of online CPD events with a baseline of 1 hour per month being provided free of charge to members (and at a relatively low cost to non-members). This will be interspersed with additional event targeted at specific strands or topics. Some of these may also be free to members or will be relatively low cost. The emphasis however is always on quality, relevance and accessibility. 

As a final point, I have already heard suggestion in meetings that a top-up qualification could be developed for DEAs to be able to continue to practice when the next version of RdSAP is released. (A repeat of the 2012 DEA Upgrade*).  That is also referred to in the EPC Action Plan where government state “We will consider the option of amending the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for energy assessors”. I have not seen any enthusiasm for this from the schemes. In fact, I have witnessed them arguing against it on the basis that it can be handled through CPD and support. 

My takeaway from this last point is quite simple. It is better not to push back too hard against a tightening of the CPD requirements if it is saving us from the cost and inconvenience of an extra qualification every time there is a significant software update. 

* The 2012 qualification was the L3 Award in Domestic Energy Assessment Professional Development

Ian Sturt,
Chairman, Proficiency
05 January 2023