CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
POLICY

Version February 2012

Introduction – page 1 of 1

INTRODUCTION
A Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Working Party was set up by Professor Robert
Curnow during his Presidency of the Society. Its Final Report was considered by the
Professional Affairs Committee of the Society (PAC) at its meeting on 10 September 2003.
PAC recommended it to Council for implementation from 1 January 2004. Council accepted the Report and the recommendation at its meeting on 15 October 2003. Thus the Society's formal CPD Policy came into being with effect from 1 January 2004.
The Final Report, as accepted in 2003, is included as Appendix 2 to this document.
Although that Report has been partly overtaken by events since then, it is a seminal paper in the Society's CPD history and much of what it says remains in place in the evolved Policy.
A revision of the CPD Policy took place following the Society's admission as from 1 February
2009 as a Licensed Body of the Science Council for the award of Chartered Scientist (CSci) status. CSci is an award that recognises professionalism widely over the science disciplines.
The Science Council has its own CPD policy and evidence of compliance will be necessary for annual revalidation of CSci status. The Society has engaged vigorously and to mutual benefit with the Science Council in promoting the importance and value of CPD.
The PAC found that the Society's CPD Policy and the Science Council's were in accord except in the categorisation of CPD activities. The Science Council's categories are similar but not quite identical to those of the Society as in the 2004 Policy. The PAC took the view that, because the categories are very similar and it would not be sensible to have one set for the Society's internal purposes and another for Science Council purposes, the Society should adopt the Science Council's categorisation. PAC also took the view that a formal split into statistical and non-statistical CPD, as in the 2004 Policy, was not needed, as all CPD should enable the practitioner to be more effective as a professional statistician to employers or clients; even non-statistical CPD must focus on ability to function as a professional statistician or as a manager of statisticians. PAC wished to retain the Society's requirement for 60
("notional" or "learning") hours of CPD per year overall, with at least three of the new categories engaged in, even though the Science Council had no quantitative time requirement. At its meeting on 23 September 2009, PAC recommended accordingly to
Council, which accepted the recommendation at its meeting on 14 October 2009.
The current (with effect from October 2009) CPD Policy of the Society is therefore as below.
The text was updated in January 2012 to reflect subsequent developments (e.g. the implementation of the RSS online CPD system and the introduction of revalidation for
Chartered Scientists and Chartered Statisticians). However, the principal requirements of the
Policy have remained unchanged since the 2009 revision.

Policy – page 1 of 3

CPD POLICY

It is important, for the development of the profession and the maintenance of modern standards, that all practising statisticians should view CPD as a vital part of their personal review process. CPD enhances the credibility of the profession. The Royal Statistical Society encourages all its members, and requires its professionally qualified members, to follow a process of continuous professional review through CPD. The Society provides guidelines on minimum targets at which to aim.
Holders of Chartered Statistician (CStat) status (including Members and Fellows of the
Institute of Statisticians (MIS and FIS) this applies throughout this document) may, if they wish, apply periodically for a Maintained Professional Certificate (MPC) as recognition of having engaged in appropriate CPD.
This Certificate can be viewed as a