What’s changing with CPD?

Over a year ago, ICAEW announced that changes to CPD were on the horizon. These changes were finalised and announced just last week and will be effective from 1 November 2023. Full details of the changes together with the revised regulations can be found on the ICAEW website but the below summarises some of the key elements for members in practice.

There are three key changes:

• 1. Introduction of a minimum number of CPD hours, both verifiable and non-verifiable

  For those of you that have been members for a while, this is more of a reintroduction rather than a completely new concept and so tracking CPD will already be familiar to you.

  A proportion of your CPD needs to be verifiable although it is worth noting that this is not limited to structured training and may also include (but is not limited to) technical research and peer group discussions. Verifiable evidence is described as being:

  • Objective – fact-based rather than based on personal perspectives;

  • Corroborable – can be confirmed to be accurate; and

  • Retained – documented and stored in observable format.

  ICAEW makes it clear that for CPD to count, members are required to demonstrate how it is relevant to their role and how it has contributed to their development and learning. This is similar to the ‘impact’ section of the current CPD record-keeping requirements.

• 2. Level of CPD is determined by your role

  Three categories have been introduced which determines how much CPD (minimum) is required by members and this will depend on the role you have in practice.

  The table below shows the minimum CPD requirements in each of the 3 categories for members in practice:

  CPD Category Min hours …of which verifiable

  Category 1 40 30

  Category 2 30 20

  Category 3 20 10

  The default category for all practice members is category 3 but it is likely that if you work in a regulated sector and/or hold a more senior position in a firm, you will fall into categories 2 or 3.

  A detailed table of all positions can be found on the ICAEW website here but these are some of the common positions falling into categories 1 and 2.

  Category 1

  • Responsible Individuals and/or Engagement Quality Control Reviewers of PIEs

  • Those spending 30% or more of their time on PIE audits

  • Those working on CASS audits (signing reports and/or spending more than 30% of time on CASS audit)

  Category 2

  • Responsible Individuals and/or Engagement Quality reviewers of audits of large companies

  • Those spending 30% or more of their time on large company audits

  • Those providing probate services

  • Those performing DPB activities

  • Those working in direct or indirect tax (self-assessment, VAT, Payroll etc).

  ICAEW has provided a useful online CPD checker to ensure that you assess yourself in the correct category and we would advise all members to refer to this tool at least every year.

• 3. Introduction of mandatory ethics training

  The new regulations require members to allocate at least one hour of verifiable CPD to ethics training per year.

  ICAEW has plans to launch free ethics CPD later in the year and Apex also offers tailored ethics training for you firm which can be delivered either remotely or in-person. If this is of interest to you, please contact us at hello@apex-professional.com

Whilst this article summarises the three key changes, as with anything the devil is in the detail and so it is definitely worth the time to review the ICAEW website and the revised Regulations to fully understand how the changes impact you and your firm.

And in the meantime, Apex has a full range of CPD which can be tailored specifically for your firm and delivered in a format which suits you best. Find out more on our website.