Episode 150 - *Bonus* RIBA New CPD Requirements

This week is a bonus episode talking about the RIBA's new CPD Requirements. This episode content meets PC1 - Professionalism of the Part 3 Criteria.

Resources from today's episode:

Websites:

• https://www.architecture.com/knowledge-and-resources/knowledge-landing-page/cpd-requirements-and-mandatory-competencies-for-riba-members-and-architects
• https://www.architecture.com/knowledge-and-resources/knowledge-landing-page/learn-about-the-relaunched-riba-health-and-safety-test?srsltid=AfmBOoqY65a4hIYDy4nW2w25fMDH5ZeUVz7ahK4T5X5cAkZeoEnis42U

Thank you for listening! Please follow me on Instagram @part3withme for weekly content and updates or contact me via email me at part3withme@outlook.com or on LinkedIn. 

Join me next week for more Part3 With Me time.

If you liked this episode please give it a rating to help reach more fellow Part3er's!

Transcript

Episode 150:

Hello and Welcome to the Part3 with me podcast. 

The show that helps part 3 students jump-start into their careers as qualified architects and also provides refresher episodes for practising architects. I am your host Maria Skoutari and this week is a bonus episode on the RIBA’s new CPD Requirements. Todays episode meets PC1 of the Part 3 Criteria.

As of the start of this year, the RIBA, similar to the process ARB went through last year, will be introducing new CPD requirements for its members. 

As of January 2025, all practising RIBA Chartered Members will be required to not just undertake a minimum of 35 hours of relevant CPD each year to maintain their professional competence but also to record their CPD activities using the RIBA online CPD recording tool. Similar to what architects are required to do with the ARB. Although with RIBA you won’t be able to record it on the ARB’s portal and simply ask them to refer to that, you will have to record your CPD on the RIBA’s website. The RIBA will be unable to accept alternative forms of records or proof other than in exceptional circumstances, at the discretion of the RIBA Practice and Professional Standards Departments. So if you are registered with both the ARB and the RIBA, probably best to record your CPD on the RIBA’s website as ARB accepts members to use RIBA’s platforms. 

Key thing to highlight with the new system, is that now RIBA will be moving to a new system of CPD compliance checking. Meaning that members that persistently fail to complete the electronic CPD record automatically triggers membership sanction, meaning they will be expelled from Chartered Membership. 

RIBA will of course have a notification set up whereby they will notify members in January of each year and must submit their completed records for the previous CPD recording cycle and pass any Relevant Tests due in the previous cycle by 31 March. Then they will receive another notification by the 31st of March that their record for the previous calendar year is incomplete. Then they will be given a further cycle to comply and get up to date. Failure, however, to satisfy the CPD compliance policy for a second year, meaning failure to complete two consecutive CPD recording cycles and/or failure to pass any mandatory competence tests that are due, would be considered to be in breach of the Code of Professional Conduct and would trigger the automatic suspension. The suspension will be lifted if the practising member becomes compliant fro the previous two CPD cycles. 

These notifications will officially begin from April 2025. 

Members can of course ask the RIBA to defer completing their record under exceptional circumstances. These might include long term sick leave, maternity or parental leave or other carer leave. Practising Chartered Members with personal circumstances can chose to register a deferral on the RIBA CPD Recording Platform promptly. Registering a deferral will mean that the Practising Chartered Member is exempted from their CPD obligations during the period of deferral. Deferrals can be made for up to 1 year at a time and can be renewed annually. 

In cases where Chartered Members return to practice, after their personal circumstances no longer apply, should attend a RIBA return to practice course if their deferral was longer than 2 complete CPD recording cycles. Any Relevant Tests due during a registered deferral must be passed before the end of the CPD recording cycle following the practising Chartered Members return to practice. 

Now in terms of what members will need to undertake in terms of meeting the RIBA’s Mandatory Requirements includes:

• As mentioned, undertaking and recording annual CPD which the basic requirements of undertaking and recording at least 35 hours of CPD every year and at least 20 of those hours to be directed to the ten mandatory RIBA core curriculum CPD topics, and the other mandatory requirement is 
• Passing the Mandatory Competence Tests, which for 2025 is taking the RIBA Health & Safety Test. The first of the mandatory competencies planned by RIBA. 

So looking at the Health and Safety test in more detail:

From 1st of January 2025, practising Chartered Members must take and pass the RIBA Health and Safety test if their work and organisation requires them to carry out ‘designer’s duties’ under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and Building Regulations (Amendment) Regulations 2023. Meaning that if a Chartered Member undertakes design work for any buildings constructed in England, this requirement will apply to them. For this requirement, members will have a full year to undertake the test. The test will help members to ensure they are safe on site and able to demonstrate that they are competent to design buildings that are safe to construct, inhabit, use and maintain.

The test will be free for all RIBA Chartered Members and must be passed every five years. 

So what does the test actually cover:

The first half of the test covers personal safety on construction sites and other professional environments. The second covers the wider design processes, requiring an understanding of the principles that guide CDM regulations, the Building Safety Act, building safety design, and design for fire safety covering:

• Preparing to visit site
• Undertaking site visits
• Site hazards
• Design risk management
• Statute, Guidance, Competence and Codes of Conduct
• CDM Regulations
• The Building Safety Act & Building Safety Regulations
• Building Safety Design
• Principles of Fire Safety Design

The pass mark for the Health and Safety Test is 80% across the personal safety and design risk management sections and members receive their score immediately on completion. In the event a member doesn’t pass, the test can be retaken up to five times and receive feedback on the areas of further learning that may be helpful based on the chapters of the RIBA’s Health and Safety guide book.

And lastly let’s look at how the RIBA’s new CPD requirements fit in with the ARB’s new Code of Practice that we covered under Episode 133:

As we discussed in Episode 133, the ARB is developing a new Code of Practice in response to the new Building Safety Act. The RIBA also aim to update their Code of Practice and Conduct one the ARB have completed the process with their renewed code. 

The ARB has also confirmed they will accept the RIBA CPD records for their own future CPD auditing purposes and members’ CPD choices continue to be flexible and personal to them and relevant learning from any source can count towards the CPD requirement. 

The CPD Compliance Policy does recognise that some members will be carrying out only specialised work that may make some core topics irrelevant for them. In such circumstances, from 2025, practising Chartered Members are advised to contact the RIBA before taking any decision not to cover one or more of the core topics. As the RIBA may grant an exemption at the discretion of the RIBA Practice and Professional Standards Departments if it can be shown that the nature of a Chartered Member’s practice makes a mandatory topic clearly irrelevant to them.

To sum up what I discussed today:

• As of the start of this year, the RIBA has introduced a similar process ARB went through last year, in introducing new CPD requirements for its members.
• Members will be required to record their mandatory 35 hours of CPD on the RIBA’s online CPD Recording Platform and undertake the RIBA’s Health and Safety test.
• A new CPD compliance checking system will begin in April 2025, with members who fail to complete records facing automatic suspension after two consecutive non-compliant cycles. Although members will be notified of incomplete CPD records and given opportunities to comply before sanctions are applied.
• From January 2025, all practising Chartered Members must pass the RIBA Health & Safety Test every five years if their work involves "designer’s duties" under CDM Regulations and Building Regulations. The test will be free for members. 
• Members can defer CPD obligations for up to 1 year at a time due to exceptional circumstances such as sick leave or parental leave and a return-to-practice course and completion of missed mandatory tests may be required after long deferrals.