CPD and supervision standards

Continuing Professional Development Requirements

CPD activities must be directly relevant to clinical practice in counselling and psychotherapy and/or the research evidence base for counselling and psychotherapy. 

Annual CPD requirement - minimum 20 hours

There are 2 categories from which the 20 hours may be accrued:

Category A (mandatory): Minimum annual requirement – 10 hours
Category B (optional): Maximum annual allowance - 10 hours

The annual requirement of 20 CPD hours may all be accrued from Category A, as Category B is optional.

CATEGORY A: minimum requirement of 10 hours per year.

Category A CPD requires you to be an active participant in activities such as:

- Attendance at in-person courses, workshops, seminars and conferences;
- Participation in online facilitated learning.

For online facilitated learning, the presence and contribution of an online facilitator is required, providing interaction between the facilitator and the participants, either during the event, or after via forums or email. This involves interactive learning where participants carry out a number of learning activities, rather than passively listening to a lecture or presentation. Examples of online facilitated learning can be Zoom webinars, conferences, workshops, or Q&A sessions, that include facilitated discussions or forums, and may also include assessment components.

Category B CPD is classed more as 'passive learning', examples including watching a recorded webinar, and reading journal articles or books related to your practice. It can also include any supervision hours done in excess of the annual requirements, any teaching or formal presentations, and peer learning groups, who meet to discuss and explore counselling and psychotherapy topics or resources, without a formal facilitator.

A reflective review is to be written using the PACFA CPD Reflective Review Template to provide evidence of your participation in a Category B CPD activity. Registrants are required to complete a reflective review for each CPD Category B activity listed in their annual CPD log in the PACFA Member Portal, and keep the copy in their professional portfolio for audit purposes.

A reflective review is a written record that provides opportunity to ponder and synthesise the knowledge and skills gained from your engagement in the activity, and how that learning relates to, might be applied to, and might enhance, your professional practice. 

For further information, read the PACFA CPD Standards

†CPD and Supervision Pro-rate Exemption table for New members

If you joined PACFA for the first time during the membership year, you have a pro-rata exemption for some of the standard required CPD and supervision hours, based on the month you joined. Information about how to calculate the exemption hours is below. The exemption will be automatically applied based on your join date and you are required to enter only the pro-rata hours.

 

Annual Supervision Requirements

The annual requirements for Certified Practising and Registered Clinical members are:

- 10 hours of formal supervision (on client case load, not managerial supervision) in the last 12 months
- Where a practitioner has accrued over 400 client practice hours per annum, they must have undertaken 15 hours of formal supervision 

Supervision may, for the purpose of PACFA Registration renewal, take the form of one-on-one or small group (6 or less supervisees) sessions. It is strongly recommended that practitioners with a full practice seek additional hours of supervision.

You can use PACFA's template to have your supervision and client contact signed off by your supervisor. Please note, you do not need to submit these form for renewal purposes, but just keep them in your files in case you are audited. 

For further information, read the PACFA Client Contact Standard

For further information, read the PACFA Clinical Supervision Standard , 

For further information, read the Supervision Training Standards.

While PACFA requires its members to fulfill annual supervision requirements of 10 hours, which can be met through either group or individual supervision, applicants seeking progression to the more senior Clinical registration must provide evidence of 75 post-graduation supervision hours, with a minimum of 50% conducted as individual supervision

Supervisor

A supervisor is a practitioner with a minimum of 5 years’ clinical experience who has supervision competencies which are equivalent to the requirements of the PACFA Supervision Training Standards. The supervisor is generally seen to have more experience than the supervisee with regard to professional seniority, skill development, and possibly within a particular specialty. Your supervisor does not have to be a PACFA registrant but ideally is so. Your supervisor may be from a cognate field.

Your supervisor of choice must nonetheless meet the criteria outlined above. If you are a Certified Practising registrant, you are, however, encouraged to use a Registered Clinical registrant as your supervisor

Peer Supervision

Members who are eligible to claim Peer Supervision may claim a maximum of 50% of the required 10 or 15 hours as Peer Supervision. Peer supervision is for senior practitioners only, who have been Clinical Members with PACFA for 5 continuous years. Please only undertake peer supervision if you are eligible to do so. 

Where a Registrant has not been listed as a Clinical Registrant with PACFA for 5 years prior to the commencement of peer supervision, evidence of prior eligibility for clinical registration (i.e. evidence that the Registrant had completed 750 post-qualifying client contact hours linked to 75 hours of post-qualifying supervision hours) AND evidence of the 5 years supervised practice since becoming eligible for clinical registration is to be provided in order to be eligible to claim Peer Supervision.

Peer supervision is a formal process where therapists contract to provide collegial critiquing and enhancement of each other’s clinical client work. Colleagues or peers work together for mutual benefit, rotating the roles of supervisor and supervisee. Peer supervision can be undertaken as a dyad or within a small group of no more than 6 members.

PACFA does not specify the requirements for the training and experience of the other participants in the Peer Supervision arrangement, but they would need to be counsellors, psychotherapists or therapists of a similar kind. They may be from outside PACFA and its Member Associations.

Additional Requirements for Accredited Supervisors and Mental Health Practitioners

There are some variations to the registration renewal requirements for Mental Health Practitioners and Accredited Supervisors.

The table below summarises the requirements for all registration categories.

Registration Category	Professional Development	Supervision
Certified Practising or Registered Clinical	20 hours (minimum 10 hours from Category A)	10 hours, or 15 hours for more than 400 client hours
Mental Health Practitioner	20 hours (minimum 10 hours from Category A) of which it is recommended that 5 hours relate specifically to mental health practice	15 hours supervision, of which it is recommended that 5 hours relate specifically to mental health practice
Accredited Supervisor	20 hours (minimum 10 hours from Category A) of which it is recommended 5 hours relate specifically to supervision practice	15 hours supervision, of which it is recommended 5 hours relate specifically to supervision practice

Other requirements

As part of the annual renewal process, all Members and Registrants are also required to:

(i) Complete a signed agreement to adhere to the PACFA Code of Ethics
(ii) Retain evidence of current membership of a PACFA Member Association (if applicable)
(iii) Retain evidence of continuing professional indemnity and public liability insurance