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Standards, Rules & Guidance

As an AHCS CRP registrant you are expected to abide by the following standards:

Standards of Proficiency for CRPS
The Scope of Practice for CRPS
Standards for Continuing Professional Development

It is important that you read through all the documentation for each of the standards as you join the register for the first time and remain familiar with the contents in the maintenance of your registration. Registration is a commitment to complying with these Standards. For more detailed information on the individual standards please see the sections below.

Standards of Proficiency for CRPs

These Standards of Proficiency set out the minimum standard that a person must meet in order to first register and maintain registration with the Academy for Healthcare Science (the Academy).

There are 16 standards for CRPs, which fall into one of the following 2 key areas:

Professional responsibility (standards 1-6)
Behaviours, Knowledge and Skills – (Standards 7 -16)

You are also advised to familiarise yourself with the Registration Rules, AHCS Fitness to Practise procedure and related documentation, and the Terms and Conditions of your registration.

The Terms and Conditions of registration can be found by logging into your AHCS registration account and reading the declaration section of your application. This includes but is not limited to your commitments to:

Continuing Professional Development to keep my practise up-to-date, safe and effective; and understanding that I may be required to submit this information within 21 days, on request by the Registrar, and provide any other evidence as may reasonably be required;
Understanding and complying with the standards expected as a condition of registration
Informing the Academy for Healthcare Science of any change to the information I have provided within four weeks of the change, including, but not limited to, changes in name, home address, email address, employer and those related to my good character and health self-declaration;
Confirming that you are covered by professional indemnity insurance, either by my employer’s scheme or other appropriate insurance.

Scope of Practice for CRPs

The scope of practice is described for Clinical Research Practitioners working as members of the research delivery workforce. The Scope of Practice document outlines a scope of practice for Clinical Research Practitioners (CRPs) working in the delivery of research in the NHS and other health and social care settings. The CRP role involves direct contact with study participants and the term ‘registered Clinical Research Practitioner’ refers to eligible practitioners working at autonomous practitioner level, within the context of research delivery, wherever that research occurs. All Clinical Research Practitioners will be expected to monitor and deliver care and be aware of care that is planned and implemented by others.

Continuing Professional Development

Continuing professional development (CPD) is the way in which our registrants continue to learn and develop throughout their careers, so that they keep their knowledge and skills up to date and are able to practise safely and effectively. We set our CPD Standards that every registrant should meet, to ensure that their activities are effective.

CPD helps you maintain or develop your competence and fitness to practise, whether your development needs are:

for the purposes of your role or profession;
required by your employer;
required to meet a specific career goal; or
aspirational, to meet your own personal goals.

CPD is an important and essential requirement for registration with the AHCS. If you do not maintain your CPD, you will be removed from the register.

The Academy standards require that you continue to develop your knowledge and skills while you are registered, these are:

Maintain a continuous, up-to-date and accurate record of their CPD activities
Demonstrate that their CPD activities are a mixture of learning activities relevant to current or future practice
Seek to ensure that their CPD has contributed to the quality of their practice and service delivery
Seek to ensure that their CPD benefits the service user
Present a written profile containing evidence of their CPD upon request

This means that to meet these standards:

You must keep a record of your CPD, in whatever format is most convenient for you.
You must make sure your CPD is a mixture of different kinds of activities – not just one kind of learning – and that it is relevant to your work. It could be relevant to your current role or to a planned future role.
You should aim for your CPD to improve the quality of your work. It may not actually improve your work, due to factors beyond your control, but when you choose your CPD activities you should intend for them to improve your work.
You should aim for your CPD to benefit service users. You may not be able ensure directly that this happens, but you should have the intention of benefiting service users. Depending on where and how you work, service users might include patients, clients, your team, or students.
If you are selected for audit, you will need to send us a CPD profile to show how you have met our standards. This process will be undertaken via our online registration system.

Each year, we audit a random sample of our registrants to make sure our standards are being met. If you are selected for CPD audit, we will write to you and ask you to send us information showing how you have met the CPD standards over the previous two years. The AHCS Registration Rules also allow for the AHCS Registrar to send a notice to a you, at any time, requiring you to submit your continuing professional development record for inspection within 21 days of the notice.

Full information can be found in the Continuing Professional Development: Standards and Guidance document, which offers guidance on how to keep a record of your CPD activities and the types of activity that are eligible to included in your profile.

The following documents are also relevant to your registration:

* Developed in collaboration with NIHR Clinical Research Network colleagues, this quick reference table offers suggested criteria that may be useful in making an evaluation of evidence being put forward as part of your portfolio of evidence to join the CRP Accredited Register.

For help regarding training on reflective practice writing to support CRP’s towards gaining their CRP registration, please refer to CRN East Midlands resources here.

Please see the below, these need to be completed and uploaded into your Portfolio:

Using Generative Artificial Intelligence

The use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is growing rapidly. AI can be used for a variety of purposes see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/generative-artificial-intelligence-in-education/generative-artificial-intelligence-ai-in-education for some examples. However Generative AI can be used in ethical and unethical ways. For example, it can be used as a source of inspiration and help create ideas, or as a source of information, or to help with planning and management.

In the context of assessment, however, the unethical use of Generative AI can be considered to be a form of plagiarism and therefore if found could lead to the rejection of an Equivalence application, or an application for the Clinical Research Practitioner Registration, or the Experience Practitioner Gateway.

If you are on an AHCS accredited programme with a higher education provider please also refer to the institution’s guidance.

For further details in relation to AHCS assessment processes please refer to the relevant guidance statement:

Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in AHCS Clinical Research Practitioner Registration

Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in AHCS Experienced Practitioner Gateway