Who is HandyCPD for?

You may already have the raw material for useful CPD: a few notes after a course, a saved article or feedback you want to think about. HandyCPD helps you bring that material together and turn it into a record you can return to.

• You forget useful learning: capture the activity and your first thoughts while they are fresh.
• Your notes stop at what happened: explore why the experience mattered and what you might do next.
• Your evidence is scattered: keep relevant files and links connected to the activity.
• You need to review your development: revisit your records and export reviewed PDFs for a portfolio, appraisal or supervision discussion.

AI enrichment can suggest activity details and a summary from your notes and readable supporting material. The Reflection Engine helps you develop the learning through guided stages. You choose the insights that fit your experience, build on them and review the resulting draft. You remain the author of the record you approve.

The three short scenarios below are fictional illustrations of how that can look in different roles.

For HCPC professionals, including physiotherapists and occupational therapists, HandyCPD can help you keep teaching, reading, discussions and other professional learning connected to your own practice. Record the activity, develop your reflection and keep the evidence you may want to revisit when reviewing your CPD.

A physiotherapist follows up a journal discussion

After a team discussion, a physiotherapist has a paper and a rough note: “The study population differs from the people I work with. I need to think about how relevant the findings are.” They log the discussion, attach the paper and use the Reflection Engine to explore that question. Their reviewed reflection identifies what they learned and what they still need to investigate.

Start with the HCPC CPD guide for organising records and preparing a profile. The physiotherapy examples and occupational therapy examples show more detailed fictional situations.

If you are keeping records for revalidation, HandyCPD provides separate workflows for CPD, practice hours and feedback. Each type of record has its own place, so you can review your learning alongside the other information you are collecting.

A nurse brings learning and feedback into a reflection

A nurse attends a communication workshop and records the time spent, their learning notes and the certificate. Later, a colleague gives feedback on how they explained an unfamiliar process. They save a separate feedback record without identifying details, then draw on the relevant points when reflecting on their communication. They distinguish what the colleague observed from what they would like to improve.

The NMC revalidation guide explains how these records can support preparation. Check the current NMC requirements and use the required forms and submission process.

Supervision, peer discussions, feedback and training can all give you something useful to reflect on. HandyCPD helps you record the learning while it is fresh, explore what it means for your practice and identify something to follow up.

Start with the question or assumption a discussion helped you reconsider. Explain what changed in your understanding and keep any planned action separate from an outcome you have already observed. Focus on your learning and leave out unnecessary identifying details.

For Social Work England users, the CPD recording guide covers describing learning, its relevance to practice and peer reflection. Other social-work professionals can use the core workflow while checking the support available for their own regulator.

Whether you work in education, management, consultancy or another field, you can use HandyCPD to build a personal development record. An educator might reflect on feedback from a teaching session; a consultant might record what a project review changed in their approach. Learning notes, structured reflection and supporting evidence can be useful for your own development as well as a formal portfolio.

A manager reflects on a mentoring discussion

A manager notices that they tend to offer solutions before asking colleagues for their ideas. After discussing this with a mentor, they record the insight and use guided reflection to consider a different approach. Their next step is to ask an open question before offering advice in their next one-to-one. They can return to the record afterwards to consider what happened and what they learned.

Using HandyCPD outside the UK

The core logging, reflection and evidence workflow is available for professional learning beyond the UK. HandyCPD is UK-built, with enhanced support for selected UK regulators. Profession-specific standards, wording and reflection options depend on the support available in the app; check your settings and whether the records suit your local requirements.

If you want help developing your notes, start with how to write a CPD reflection. If your learning involves reading, see how to organise research papers alongside your CPD notes.

Choose one recent activity and bring the notes or evidence that matter to it.

1. For scattered notes: try CPD Logging and review the suggested activity details and summary.
2. For learning you want to explore: use the Reflection Engine to consider its significance, develop relevant insights and review the draft in your own words.
3. For hard-to-find evidence: add relevant files or links to the Library and connect them to the record.

Then assess the result. Does the record accurately explain your learning? Can you find the supporting evidence? Has reflection helped you identify a useful question or next step? Use that experience to decide whether HandyCPD fits the way you want to work.

Read how to use HandyCPD for free for the Free plan's limits and how it differs from the Pro trial.

If your current spreadsheet or notes already meet your needs, consider what you would want an app to improve. You might value guided reflection, help drafting records or keeping evidence connected. Try one activity and compare the experience before moving your wider collection.

Our CPD spreadsheet or app guide compares a spreadsheet, building your own app and using HandyCPD, including the work involved in maintaining each approach.