Course and Provider Accreditation

1. Application

   In order for a course to be awarded with CPD point(s), a separate application for accreditation of each course must be made by the provider of the course to the CPD Accreditation Sub-Committee. The application must be made on the Society's standard form and sent to the Assistant Director, Professional Development at least 4 weeks before the scheduled date of the course. If the application is incomplete, accreditation may take 4 weeks from the date of submission of the complete application.

   All changes to the information submitted to the Society in relation to an application for CPD course accreditation shall be notified to the Society as soon as the changes are made and in any event prior to the commencement of the course.

2. No Retrospective Accreditation

   It is not possible to accredit CPD point(s) after any course has taken place. However, in exceptional circumstances, the Society may accredit an overseas course on a retrospective basis, subject to certain conditions. Please refer to Guideline 6 on page 12 and page 13 of this Information Package for details.

3. Documents and Information Required on Application for Course Accreditation
   

   (a)	a detailed outline of what will be covered in the course and by whom;
   (b)	a programme showing the sequence of speakers, the method(s) of teaching, e.g. lecture, participatory case study, role-play, discussion, question and answer, and the amount of time which each speaker will spend on each area;
   (c)	an outline of the course materials which will be provided to participants; and
   (d)	a brief up-to-date resume of each speaker's professional qualifications, legal background and any teaching experience which they each have.

4. Honour-based CPD Scheme

   (a)	Course providers should note the Society's introduction of an honour-based CPD Scheme with effect from 1 November 2008 as set out on page 2 of this Information Package.
   (b)	Under the honour-based CPD Scheme, the scanning system becomes optional. Unless the Society has made a specific request, course providers are no longer required to submit the attendance records of each accredited course to the Society within 7 days of the course.

   (c)	Course providers are required to keep the attendance record of an accredited CPD course for 4 CPD practice years from the end of the CPD practice year during which the course is held.
   (d)	The attendance record kept by a course provider may be in any form as decided by the course provider on condition that it is sufficiently clear to support the entitlement to the number of CPD point(s) claimed by a participant for his attendance.
   (e)	A participant shall not be entitled to claim any CPD point(s) if he is absent from the course (excluding scheduled breaks) for more than 10 minutes for a course of less than 3 hours or for more than 30 minutes for a course of 3 hours or more.
   (f)	By way of reference, the Society as a course provider requires attendees to register their attendance upon arrival at the venue by production of their Law Society membership card or Hong Kong identity card.  Attendees are no longer required to sign out at the end of the courses.
   (g)	Course providers shall not be deemed to have failed to comply with their obligation to maintain attendance records merely by reason of the absence of any sign out record.

5. Administrative Matters

   (a)	Course providers should note the attendance policy and policy on segmented accreditation of CPD courses contained in pages 55 to 59 of this Information Package. The requirement for course providers to submit all computerised attendance records generated from a computerised scanning system in respect of an accredited course to the Assistant Director, Professional Development within 7 days of the course in order for the participants to gain their CPD points applied until 31 October 2008. Upon the implementation of the honour-based CPD Scheme on 1 November 2008, the scanning system has become optional. Unless the Society has made a specific request, course providers are no longer required to submit the attendance records of each accredited course to the Society within 7 days of the course.
   (b)	All accredited courses must be evaluated by participants attending the course in a manner approved by the Society.
   (c)	Course providers shall promptly submit a full set of course materials to the Society upon request by the Society at any time after application for accreditation has been submitted or within a reasonable period after the course is held. A summary of evaluation forms must be forwarded to the Assistant Director, Professional Development within 7 days of the course.
   (d)	Course providers must carefully monitor the delivery of the course. If the course finishes more than 30 minutes before its scheduled finish time, ½ CPD point will be deducted for every half hour. By way of example, take the case of a course which started at 9:30 a.m., was scheduled to finish at 12:45 p.m. and was accredited with 3 CPD points:
   	(i)	If it finished at 12:30 p.m., i.e. 15 minutes before the scheduled finish time, no CPD points will be deducted. Participants who had not been late for more than 10 minutes and who stayed until the course ended at 12:30 p.m. would be awarded with 3 CPD points.
   	(ii)	If it finished at 12 noon, i.e. 45 minutes before the scheduled finish time, on the basis of the shortened duration of the course, ½ CPD point will be deducted.
   (e)	(i)	Course providers are required to state clearly in their CPD course promotional materials: the course objectives; the course coverage; the intended learning outcomes; the target audience and the level of prior knowledge / experience assumed; and a description of the presenters’ areas of practice.
   	(ii)	Course providers are required to ensure that presenters of the same course do communicate with each other to discuss how the course is to be conducted and that steps be taken to ensure that the course information on the promotional materials are accurate and reflect truly how the course is to be conducted.:
   (f)	A demerit points system is in place to promote quality control and efficient administration of CPD courses by accredited course providers. (Please refer to pages 68 to 69 of this Information Package for details.) The performance of course providers including any irregularities in the conduct of accredited courses will be taken into account when their accredited course provider status is reviewed annually.
   (g)	A course number will be generated and given to a course provider once a course has been accredited with CPD point(s). Course providers should not assume that a course will be accredited with CPD point(s) unless and until they receive, from the Society, the respective course number and/or a confirmation of the number of CPD point(s) accredited to the course.

6. Prescribed Fee

   A fee will be charged on course-by-course accreditation of CPD courses. The rates vary for commercial and non-commercial providers. Course providers may be requested to produce a copy of their constitutional document to confirm the applicable rate of prescribed fee.

7. Provider Accreditation

   The Society is also implementing an accreditation scheme for organisations. In order to be considered for Provider Accreditation, it will be necessary for the organisation to:

   (a)	have established a suitable track record of
   	(i)	obtaining individual course accreditation for CPD courses;
   	(ii)	providing a reasonable number of accredited courses over a reasonable period (usually at least 10 hours of courses over 12 months); and
   	(iii)	compliance with course-by-course accreditation criteria and conditions.
   (b)	have a suitable training infrastructure; and
   (c)	have a general favourable assessment of the accredited courses by the participants.

   The number of courses held by an accredited course provider is a factor which will be taken into account when considering an application for renewal of its accredited course provider status. The general guideline is that an accredited course provider should hold at least 10 hours of courses in a CPD practice year.

8. Monitoring of Accredited Courses by the Society's Representatives

   Course providers shall permit any person nominated by the Society to attend any CPD courses free of charge for the purpose of monitoring the CPD course to ensure the course provider's compliance with the Guidelines and Rules as set out in this Information Package.

Any enquiries on course accreditation should be directed to the Assistant Director, Professional Development on 2805 9105 or e-mail to adpd@hklawsoc.org.hk.