Overview

To give clear support to staff development it is critical to encourage self-reflection about jobs and career progression and, as a result, provide a focus for development needs. This reflection should be supported by awareness of the options available for progression (such as training and support tools, e.g. mentoring).

As a professional working in the NHS you are required to keep up to date in your professional practice and show that you are developing and utilising your skills, knowledge and competence within your professional role. In order to demonstrate this you need to provide evidence of your Continuous Professional Development.

It is therefore recommended that you maintain a personal portfolio. This will provide you with a record of your career to date, detailing your achievements, skills, qualities and qualifications. It will bring together all the evidence that reinforces what you have achieved in terms of work activities and attainment, using testimonials, appraisals and other forms of personal feedback.

You should consider skills and competencies gained both within and outside of the NHS work environment.

Resources

A comprehensive resource on personal portfolios is available from the Finance Staff Development Network (you will need to register to their website to be able to use it). It has been designed as a framework to help individuals set up their own personal portfolio and contains suggested formats and supporting materials to help you:

• Develop awareness of your own skills and competences;
• Understand your learning needs;
• Plan your personal learning and development opportunities;
• Identify learning resources that are available to you;
• Analyse and plan your chosen career pathway;
• Market yourself effectively to potential employers.

The resource has been designed for finance staff and some of the development opportunities are specifically aimed at finance staff. However, if you combine this resource with other information available through the portal, you should find the personal portfolio guidance extremely useful.

Further Information

Should you wish to access the latest Belbin® SPI (Self Perception Inventory) questionnaire, or receive team-role advice, you can visit Belbin Associates' web site to obtain details of how this can be done. Belbin® is a registered trade mark of Belbin Associates.

Should you wish to find out more about Honey and Mumford learning styles you can visit the Honey and Mumford website to obtain further details of how this can be done.