CLEAR

UK: proposed changes to architect regulation

The UK Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government is conducting a consultation on proposed amendments to the Architects Act 1997. The Building Safety Bill would allow the Architects Registration Board to set requirements and criteria for continuing professional development and establish the power to remove architects from the register for failure to comply. The ARB website would also be updated to allow disciplinary orders to be listed next to the name of the architect. The proposal also presents two options for the recognition of architects qualified in the EU and other countries.

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UK: NMC launches code of practice campaign

The Nursing and Midwifery Council in the UK has launched "Caring with Confidence: The Code in Action," a series of short animated videos focused on several themes in the code of practice. The NMC intends for the videos to show how the code is a "friend and guide to support professional judgement during situations where there may not be any obvious right or wrong answer," especially in situations related to care during the pandemic.

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Social Work England upholds CPD requirement

The 3-month renewal period for social workers in England begins soon, and almost 80% of practitioners have not yet met continuing professional development requirements. Upon the renewal date, social workers have an additional 21 days to record CPD. Social Work England has indicated that there will be no concession on the 21-day limit. Practitioners have raised concerns about technical issues with the online CPD system.

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Philippines: amendments sought to CPD Act

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has asked Congress to amend the Continuing Professional Development Act of 2016, with a possible suspension of CPD training for three to five years until a new and less burdensome system can be put in place.

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Georgia Board of Massage Therapists upholds in-person CE requirements

The Georgia Board of Massage Therapists has voted to uphold requirements for licensees to obtain 12 CE hours of direct hands-on supervised instruction for license renewal.  Concern has been raised by licensees due to the coronavirus pandemic. The decision will be reviewed again at the Board's August 28 meeting.

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Philippines: CPD for frontliners and essential service workers

The Professional Regulation Commission in the Philippines has announced that frontliners and essential service workers during the COVID-19 pandemic will be granted 25-45 continuing professional development units under the Self-Directed Learning modality. Credits can apply towards renewal of Professional Identification Cards during two consecutive renewal cycles.

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Illinois alters teacher professional development requirements

The Illinois Educational Association has announced that teachers can count time spent transitioning from in-person to remote learning as part of their professional development hours towards license renewal.

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Health policy researcher calls for making changes permanent

A health policy researcher with the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice calls for some state actions and changes to the healthcare system in response to COVID-19 to be "boundless and permanent." In this article, he focuses on deregulatory trends in healthcare policy: reciprocity of occupational licenses, relaxing requirements for inactive licensees to return to practice, expanding scope of practice, lifting telemedicine regulations, and temporarily suspending continuing education requirements.

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Australia: higher threshold for reporting concerns about impairment

The mandatory reporting requirements for doctors who treat other health practitioners have changed, with the threshold raised to "substantial risk of harm" to the public. The previous threshold was "risk of harm."  The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency recognizes that "mandatory notifications are an important part of patient safety" but also wants to "ensure that practitioners with health issues feel safe to seek treatment."

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ARPL: "rigorous licensing is . . . appropriate and necessary"

In response to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's State of the State address calling for occupational licensing reform, John Johnston and Skip Braziel with the Alliance for Responsible Professional Licensing explain in this article that "rigorous licensing is not only desirable, but appropriate and necessary" for some professions and urge lawmakers to be mindful of unintended consequences of licensing reform. They refer to rigorous and ongoing education, examinations, and experience as standards for entry rather than "barriers" to entry. They claim it is unreasonable to expect the public to be able to determine if a professional has the qualifications necessary to do a job safely and competently.

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And also be on the lookout for a CLEAR podcast episode in February featuring Skip Braziel and David Cox with ARPL.