Developing a Personal Development Plan and Reflective Analysis for Health and Social Care Profession

Task 1: Developing a Personal Development Plan

Writing Your Assignment:
• This assignment must be completed individually.
• You must use the Harvard referencing system.
• Your work must indicate the number of words you have used. Written assignments must not exceed the specified maximum number of words. When a written assignment is marked, the excessive use of words beyond the word limit is reflected in the academic judgement of the piece of work which results in a lower mark being awarded for the piece of work (regulation 6.74).

• Assignment submissions are to be made anonymously. Do not write your name anywhere on your work.
• Write your student ID number at the top of every page.
• Where the assignment comprises more than one task, all tasks must be submitted in a single document.
• You must number all pages.

Submitting Your Assignment:
In order to achieve full marks, you must submit your work before the deadline. Work that is submitted late – up to five working days after the published submission deadline - will be accepted and marked. However, the element of the module’s assessment to which the work contributes will be capped with a maximum mark of 40%.

Work cannot be submitted if the period of 5 working days after the deadline has passed (unless there is an approved extension). Failure to submit within the relevant period will mean that you have failed the assessment.

Context
Across the health and social care sector, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is an essential requirement for all health and social care professionals enabling them to work in a safe, effective and person-centred manner. CPD facilitates professionals to ‘acquire new knowledge and skills, as well as to maintain and improve standards across all areas of practice’ (BASW 2020). CPD also plays a major role in career planning for individuals seeking to work or currently employed within the health and social care sector (BASW 2020; HCPC 2020; NMC 2018). A CPD portfolio allows individuals to evidence their professional development journey and tailor goals to meet their career plans (NHS Health Careers 2019).

Assignment Question
A CPD portfolio allows you to store and evidence your learning experiences throughout your health and social care career. It is an essential resource when preparing for applications and interviews, both for post-graduate education and employment opportunities. A vast range of experiences and activities can be included within a CPD portfolio, however each requires some element of reflection to establish the learning you have gained from the activity and the value it has to your ongoing development. An important inclusion within the CPD portfolio is a Personal Development Plan (PDP) which allows you to draw upon your reflections to identify your strengths, set goals for your further development and career planning.

This assignment has two tasks which should be submitted as a single document. Guidance of the approximate word count for each task has been provided, although the overall word count should not exceed 3000 words. One Harvard- formatted reference list should be included at the end of the submission, which incorporates citations from both tasks.

Task 1: (approximately 1300 words)
Develop your own Personal Development Plan (PDP) using the template provided below. 

Points to consider:

When creating your PDP, you should consider the following questions which can help you to develop your responses:
• What are my ambitions and goals?
• What are the standards, skills and knowledge needed to achieve my goals and do I have any gaps?
• What are the learning and development opportunities needed for me to achieve my goals?
• Am I making the best choices to allow me to achieve my ambitions?
You should ensure that your goals are written in the SMART format.

Task 2: (approximately 1700 words)
Using the Gibbs’ reflective cycle, undertake a critical reflective analysis of your learning and development based on one of the following classroom activities you have engaged with during the delivery of this module:
• Roles and responsibilities activity
• Codes of conduct activity
• Culture and Diversity activity

Points to consider:
Your reflection should be based on one of the above classroom activities. You should select the activity which has the most significant learning experience related to your career ambitions outlined within your PDP in Task 1.

You should apply the Gibbs’ reflective cycle when undertaking your reflection, ensuring that you address all aspects of the reflective cycle and clearly label each section accordingly:

• Description
• Feelings
• Evaluation
• Analysis
• Conclusion
• Action plan

The analysis and action plan sections should be supported with relevant evidence and literature. Within your action plan, you should explain how reflecting upon this learning event relates to your career ambitions and goals identified in the PDP created in Task 1.