Managing CPD for a team is not about buying courses. It is a simple yearly cycle: know what each role must do (legal training, regulator CPD and your own standards), agree a short plan with each person, protect time to do it, record evidence as you go and review it at appraisal. Staff on a professional register, such as nurses, social workers and accountants, own their CPD and answer to their regulator for it. But managers can make or break it, because they control the rota, the budget, supervision and, for nurses, usually the revalidation sign-off.
At a glance: Nexis CPD sells CPD-accredited online courses at £9 each, with any three for £18; teams of 5 or more pay £6 a course place, with a portal to assign courses and track completion.
This guide is for managers of small and medium UK teams where some staff are on a professional register and others are not. To get a whole team through compliance training quickly, see how to roll out compliance training to a team. For each profession’s hours, see CPD hours by profession.
What does managing CPD for a team involve?
Continuing professional development (CPD) is the learning people do to keep their skills current. In a mixed team it comes in three layers, and most problems start when they are treated as one:
- Legal or mandatory training: what the employer must provide because of the work, such as health and safety, safeguarding or anti-money laundering. The duty sits with the employer.
- Regulator CPD: what a professional must do to stay on their register, such as NMC revalidation for nurses. The duty sits with the individual.
- Employer standards and development: what your organisation expects of the role, and what each person wants to grow into.
The yearly cycle has five steps: know what each role needs, plan it with each person, protect time and budget, record evidence as it happens, and review it at appraisal.
Who is responsible for CPD: the employer or the employee?
Both, for different things. A registered professional’s CPD is their own duty, and their regulator holds them to account for it, not you. Employers carry duties of their own:
- In England, care providers registered with the Care Quality Commission must, under regulation 18 of the Regulated Activities Regulations 2014, give staff “appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal”, and enable registered professionals to provide evidence to their regulator.
- ICAEW’s firms’ guide to CPD says member firms must ensure their ICAEW Chartered Accountants and relevant persons meet at least the minimum verifiable hours for their CPD category, and keep records.
- Firms covered by the Money Laundering Regulations must train relevant employees regularly and keep a written record (see AML training requirements).
Our pillar guide sets out four habits for employers of regulated staff; this guide turns them into a yearly routine. The person owns their learning; you own the conditions that make it possible.
How do you work out what CPD each person on your team needs?
Start from roles, not courses. For each person, note the training the law requires for the role, any register they are on with its CPD rules and renewal date, and what the role expects of them this year. Your training matrix answers the first (see building a training matrix), the regulator answers the second and the appraisal answers the third.
A mixed team might look like this:
| Role | Mandatory training (employer’s duty) | Regulator CPD (the person’s duty) | What the manager tracks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Care worker | Training the role needs, such as safeguarding, moving and handling and infection control | None in England | Refresher dates and one or two development goals |
| Registered nurse | The same mandatory training as the team | NMC revalidation every three years, including 35 hours of CPD | Revalidation date; confirmation in the final year |
| Social worker (England) | Mandatory training such as safeguarding | At least two pieces of CPD a year, one with a peer reflection | The 30 November deadline; supervision used for reflection |
| Accountant | AML training where the firm is in scope | ICAEW hours by category, or ACCA’s annual declaration | CPD year end and verifiable hours |
| Office administrator | Health and safety, fire safety, data protection | None | Development goals in the plan |
Check the regulator’s public register on renewal dates: a lapsed registration is far easier to prevent than to fix.
What should a personal development plan include?
A personal development plan (PDP) is a one-page agreement between you and the person about what they will learn this year, why and how. A workable PDP has:
- Role and registration: job title, any register, its CPD rules and the next renewal date.
- Two or three goals: tied to the role, a gap seen in practice, or where the person wants to go.
- Activities for each goal: a mix of shadowing, supervision, case reviews, reading, projects and courses.
- Required items: mandatory refreshers due this year, listed separately from development.
- Time and budget: how many hours, when on the rota, and what you will pay for.
- Evidence: certificates, reflective notes and feedback.
- Review dates: a short check at each one-to-one, with a full review at appraisal.
For registered staff, the plan should serve the regulator’s requirements. The NMC requires 35 hours of CPD over the three years since registration was last renewed, at least 20 of them participatory, meaning they involve interaction with other professionals. An online course done alone does not count towards those 20, so a nurse’s plan should say where the participatory hours will come from. Agree the plan rather than writing it for them: people follow through on goals they chose.
How do you link CPD to appraisals and supervision?
Use the appraisal to set the plan, and one-to-ones or supervision to keep it moving:
- At appraisal: review last year’s PDP, agree this year’s goals and check the registration timeline.
- At each one-to-one or supervision: a five-minute check on what has been done, what is stuck and what has changed in practice.
- At mid-year: a fuller review and, where needed, a catch-up plan.
Appraisals are not a general legal requirement, although regulation 18 names supervision and appraisal for care providers in England; see are appraisals a legal requirement? In care settings, our guide to supervision in care covers frequency and what to record.
Supervision can also do double duty. Social Work England’s peer reflection guidance lists a line manager or supervisor as someone who counts as a peer, and gives supervision with your manager as an example. A short CPD conversation in supervision can therefore give a social worker the peer reflection they need, provided they record what they learned and give your job role rather than your name.
How do you support staff through revalidation and registration renewal?
Know every deadline, and where you have a formal role:
- Nurses, midwives and nursing associates: the NMC’s confirmation guidance says the confirmer should, where possible, be the line manager, who does not have to be an NMC-registered nurse or midwife. Confirmation should be obtained in the final year of the three-year renewal period. The confirmer looks at the evidence and confirms that the requirements have been met. Separately, the reflective discussion must be held with another NMC registrant. More detail is in CPD requirements for nurses.
- Social workers in England: Social Work England requires a minimum of two pieces of CPD each registration year, at least one with a peer reflection, recorded on the online account by 11.59pm on 30 November. See CPD requirements for social workers.
- ICAEW Chartered Accountants: the ICAEW CPD year runs from 1 November to 31 October. ICAEW’s CPD FAQs say there is no separate active declaration: renewing membership confirms the member has complied.
- ACCA members: ACCA’s CPD guidance requires an annual CPD declaration by 1 January of the following year, and asks members to keep CPD records for three years in case of review. See CPD requirements for accountants.
Your part is practical. Put each date in the team calendar, start the conversation six to twelve months ahead, and protect time for anything that depends on other people’s diaries. If you are a confirmer, never confirm anything you have not seen.
How much time should staff get for CPD, and how do you budget for it?
There is no general legal minimum for CPD time, but two rules apply. Health and safety training an employer must provide has to happen in working hours, and required training counts as working time for minimum wage purposes; our rollout guide covers both. And GOV.UK’s guide to training and study at work explains that in organisations with at least 250 people, an employee with 26 weeks’ service can ask for time off for training that helps them do their job better. The employer has 28 days to respond, can refuse only for listed business reasons, and does not have to pay; the time off is usually unpaid.
For everything else, set a policy and stick to it:
- Protect a set number of hours per person each year, on the rota rather than in people’s evenings.
- Hold short team learning sessions, such as a monthly 30-minute case review. The NMC gives group meetings to discuss a specific event or a new way of working as an example of participatory learning.
- Split the budget into three pots: mandatory training (paid first), regulator support (time for revalidation and participatory learning) and development (allocated through each PDP).
Thinking of asking staff to repay an expensive course if they leave? Read can an employer make you pay back training costs? first. For costs and free options, see how to train staff on a budget.
Training a team? From 5 staff, Nexis CPD course places cost £6 each, however many you buy. Places last 12 months. Pay once by card with no quote needed, then use your own portal to add staff, choose their courses and track who has finished. Under 5 staff, every course is £9 in the shop, and any 3 cost £18. See team pricing and work out your total.
How do you build reflective practice into a team’s routine?
Reflection is what turns an activity into CPD, and several regulators want it in writing. The NMC asks for five written reflective accounts at revalidation, Social Work England asks social workers to explain how learning has had, or will have, an impact on their practice, and ICAEW asks to see CPD reflection when it samples records. To make it routine:
- Ask three questions after any learning: what did you learn, what does it mean for your work, and what will you do differently?
- Run short debriefs after incidents, complaints or near misses that focus on learning, not blame.
- Pair people up for peer reflection, especially those who need it for their register.
- Give reflection time, not just encouragement. Fifteen quiet minutes straight after a course beats “write it up later”.
Reflections on real cases must not identify the people involved. Social Work England says all CPD must be anonymised, and the NMC publishes guidance on keeping revalidation evidence non-identifiable.
What CPD evidence and records should a manager keep?
Keep two kinds of record, and keep them apart.
The organisation’s training record is yours. It shows who completed which required training, when, how it was assessed, the certificate ID and the renewal date. It is the evidence an inspector, insurer or tribunal will ask for. Our rollout guide explains what each training record should include.
The individual’s CPD record belongs to the professional. The NMC, for example, requires nurses to record each activity’s method, topic and relevance to their practice, the dates, the hours (including participatory hours), the most relevant part of the Code and evidence that it took place. You rarely need copies of anyone’s reflective accounts; you need confidence that the deadline will be met.
In between sit the PDP and appraisal and supervision notes; keep them with the person’s employment record, not in email threads. Nexis CPD certificates carry an ID that anyone can check on our certificate verification page.
How should you handle staff training records under UK GDPR?
Training and appraisal records are personal data, and the regulator’s guidance on keeping employment records covers both. That regulator is now the Information Commission, which replaced the Information Commissioner on 30 September 2026 under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025; its guidance is still at ico.org.uk. For managers:
- Hold only what you need. The guidance says you must identify the minimum personal information you need, and not hold more.
- Keep it accurate. Correct wrong completion dates and missing certificates promptly.
- Set a retention period. Data protection law sets no specific time limit for employment records. You decide, based on your purpose and any legal or regulatory requirements, and must be able to justify it.
- Limit access. Managers should see only the information they need. A shared spreadsheet of everyone’s appraisal notes fails that test.
- Expect access requests. Workers can make a subject access request for their records, verbally or in writing.
- Check your training provider. If a platform processes staff data on your behalf, the guidance says you need a written contract with that processor.
Tell staff what you record and why, usually in your workforce privacy notice.
How do you measure whether CPD is making a difference?
Completion rates show activity, not impact. The HSE’s brief guide to health and safety training (INDG345) ends with a step called “Check that the training has worked”, asking whether people are working as trained, whether performance has improved and whether behaviour and practice have changed. Those questions work for any CPD. In plain terms, check four things:
- Did they do it? Completion dates and certificates.
- Did they learn it? Assessment results, or a short conversation about what they took from it.
- Are they using it? Observation, supervision discussion, and audits of records or practice.
- Has anything improved? Incidents, complaints, audit scores, customer feedback or time saved.
You do not need to measure every course to the fourth level. Pick one or two goals a quarter and look for a change you could point to at appraisal.
What should you do when someone falls behind on their CPD?
Act early and privately, and work out which kind of “behind” it is.
- Overdue mandatory training is your problem as much as theirs. Our rollout guide covers chasing completion and handling refusals.
- Regulator CPD at risk is theirs to fix, but you can help. Ask what is in the way, such as workload, confidence in writing reflections or caring responsibilities, then agree a short catch-up plan with protected time.
- Disability: if a disability is part of the reason, consider reasonable adjustments, such as extra time or different formats.
- A deadline that will be missed: encourage them to contact their regulator early. ACCA, for example, asks members with problems to tell it as soon as possible, and still requires a declaration that the requirement was not met.
- A lapsed registration: the person cannot work in a role that requires registration until they are back on the register.
Repeated failure to keep up is a performance matter for your usual fair procedure, not a surprise to spring at appraisal.
What does an annual CPD calendar for a team look like?
Here is a calendar-year version. Shift it if your appraisals run from April.
| Quarter | Whole team | Regulated staff | Records and budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 (Jan to Mar) | Appraisals; agree PDPs; book mandatory refreshers due this year | Confirm ACCA declarations went in by 1 January; list every revalidation and renewal date for the year | Set each person’s time and budget; refresh the training matrix |
| Q2 (Apr to Jun) | Monthly team learning session; PDP check at each one-to-one | Anyone revalidating within 12 months gathers evidence and books their reflective discussion and confirmation | File certificates as they arrive |
| Q3 (Jul to Sep) | Mid-year PDP review; catch-up plans | Social workers check both CPD pieces and a peer reflection are on track; ICAEW members check hours | Review spending against the budget |
| Q4 (Oct to Dec) | Look back with the INDG345 questions: what changed in practice? | ICAEW CPD year ends 31 October; Social Work England deadline 30 November; remind ACCA members of 1 January | Set next year’s budget; delete records past your retention period |
What should be on a manager’s monthly CPD checklist?
- Training matrix checked for anything expiring in the next 90 days
- Registration and revalidation dates in the next six months noted, with a conversation booked
- Protected learning time used, not swapped for shifts
- A PDP check in every one-to-one or supervision this month
- Anyone overdue spoken to in person
- New certificates filed, with IDs and renewal dates in the matrix
- One person asked what they have done differently since recent learning
- Team learning session held
- Spending checked against the budget
- New starters and anyone changing role given a PDP
Which courses help managers lead their team’s development?
These three £9 courses cover the skills behind this cycle, each with an instant, verifiable certificate:
- Introduction to Leadership: setting direction, delegating, one-to-ones and feedback, managing performance fairly and supporting wellbeing.
- Health Safety and Welfare for Managers and Supervisors: the legal framework, duties and responsibilities, risk assessment and managing health and safety day to day.
- Mental Health Awareness for Managers: understanding mental health, reducing stigma and supporting your team’s wellbeing.
For one manager, any three courses cost £18 with the pay-for-2-get-3 offer; add them to the cart and the discount applies automatically. They are CPD-accredited awareness courses. They can support a manager’s own self-directed CPD where a professional body accepts it, but they do not replace regulator-specified CPD, revalidation activities or practical certification.
How can you start managing your team’s CPD this month?
List everyone, their register and their next deadline. Book a PDP conversation with each person, and put protected time on the rota. Then let the yearly cycle do the work.
£9 per course. CPD accredited, 100% online, verifiable e-certificate. Pay for 2, get 3 — any 3 courses for £18. Managing 5 or more staff? Team pricing starts at £6 a course place, with a portal to assign courses and track who has finished.
Frequently asked questions
Do employers have to pay for staff CPD?
Not as a general rule. Employers must provide training the law requires of them, such as health and safety training, in working hours and at no cost to staff. Professional CPD for registration is the individual’s duty, although many employers fund some of it.
Can a line manager confirm a nurse’s revalidation if they are not a nurse?
Yes. The NMC says the confirmer should be the line manager where possible, and that the line manager does not have to be an NMC-registered nurse or midwife. Confirmation should be obtained in the final year of the three-year period. The separate reflective discussion must be held with another NMC registrant.
How long should we keep staff training records?
Data protection law sets no fixed period. You must decide how long you need the records for your purposes, taking account of any legal or regulatory requirements, and be able to justify it. Write the period and the reason into your retention policy, then delete or anonymise records when it ends.
How much time should staff get for CPD each year?
There is no general legal minimum. Health and safety training must take place in working hours, and in organisations with at least 250 people, employees with 26 weeks’ service can make a statutory request for time off to train. Beyond that, set a policy: a protected number of hours per person, on the rota, reviewed at appraisal.
Do Nexis CPD courses count towards professional CPD?
They can count as self-directed CPD where a regulator or professional body accepts it, logged with the certificate and a short reflection. They are awareness-level courses: on their own they are not participatory learning for NMC revalidation, and they do not replace regulator-specified CPD, revalidation activities or practical certification.
This article is general information about managing staff CPD in UK workplaces and is not legal advice. Professional requirements change, so check your regulator’s or professional body’s current rules. Regulation 18 applies to providers registered with the Care Quality Commission in England, and Social Work England regulates social workers in England only; the other UK nations have their own regulators. Prices are those published on nexiscpd.co.uk in October 2026. Nexis CPD courses are CPD-accredited awareness training, not regulated qualifications, and do not replace regulator-specified CPD, revalidation activities or practical certification.