CPD for Certified practitioners

Certified practitioners must complete a minimum of 20 hours of CPD per financial year. Practitioners can attain the required hours from agency mandated training and refresh requirements, performance in the designated IMT role in high impact. high consequence emergency events (actual or simulated), performance in an operational environment in a role at Regional or State level aligned to the designated IMT role, for example as State or Regional Controller during a period of significant operational activity, and participation in relevant theory-based professional development activities.

Hours spent mentoring another practitioner in an operational environment can also be counted towards CPD requirements in some circumstances. In order for mentoring hours to be eligible to be counted towards CPD, the mentor needs to be physically present at the incident or exercise, and to be closely enough involved in overseeing the management of the incident and relevant decision-making to be able to say that they were involved in performing the role in a meaningful sense.

Following a recent review, the EMPS Panel has determined that performance in roles at the Regional or State level should count towards CPD requirements for certified practitioners. This recognises that, while performance in an incident management role at incidents is required to obtain certification, many of the senior practitioners who have attained this level of expertise are subsequently assigned to roles above the incident level, at regional or state control centres. These roles still allow the practitioner to maintain their knowledge of contemporary incident management practice and accordingly, performance in a role such as regional or state controller at times of significant operational activity can count towards the CPD requirements for the aligned certified role (for example, working in a state-level public information officer role can be counted towards the requirements for Certified PIO).

Practitioners can accumulate hours through a combination of CPD activities. The following must be demonstrated: at least ten hours from performing the role (actual or simulated), and at least five hours of professional development activities other than performing the role. Practitioners who are certified in multiple roles must complete the minimum CPD requirement for each. Theory-based hours may be counted against more than one role if they are relevant to each role. However, the minimum practical requirement must be met in relation to each role and you cannot count the same practical hour against more than one role.