Please start now: go to www.amtra-academy.org.uk and login in with your SQP Number (starting with a Q) as both the username and the password. Do not use your password from the main AMTRA website. You do not need to register as a new user. |
For the vast majority of farm SQPs, the period of the compulsory farm CPD is over.
Not completing the compulsory CPD by the deadline means immediate loss of the farm-animal element of the SQP registration: for instance, an R-SQP becomes an E-SQP, or an L-SQP ceases to be an SQP altogether. In all cases, prescribing and supplying POM-VPS medicines for farm animals becomes unlawful. VMD have been informed of the details of such people, and are targeting their inspections accordingly.
The farm-animal registration may be regained by sitting and passing a written exam at a cost of £200 (VAT exempt, fee subject to revision). Exams must be booked at least three weeks in advance and can take place at any venue (subject to space) where ordinary SQP exams are taking place – see the exams and course dates page. Book by completing the compulsory farm CPD exam booking form and returning it to AMTRA with payment.
AMTRA agreed with VMD that all farm animal SQPs qualifying before April 2017 should undergo some compulsory farm-animal CPD, focused on resistance and parasite control. (This is different from the compulsory CPD on legal and professional duties of SQPs which was due by 30 June 2017 – that obligation is complete and not being repeated in the current CPD period.)
Several things have changed:
With these changes in mind, AMTRA has agreed with VMD this new farm-animal CPD requirement. You must gain 32 points of this material, which includes some multiple-choice questions to check understanding. The 32 points of this compulsory material will count towards your normal overall CPD points requirement in the current 2-year period, so isn’t an extra amount of CPD, just bringing some of it forward to earlier in the two-year CPD period.
More than 90% of you have already started and about 80% finished, which is great to see, but we want to see that number climbing towards 100%. All four modules are available online for you to access now.
Please start now: go to www.amtra-academy.org.uk and login in with your SQP Number (starting with a Q) as both the username and the password. Do not use your password from the main AMTRA website. You do not need to register as a new user.
You must watch all of the video, and also get at least 80% right on the questions asked, though you can have as many goes at the questions as are necessary. As with all CPD, points will be added to your record when we’ve received the information and processed it – this is not immediately. We generally advise you allow 6 weeks for CPD points information to reach your AMTRA CPD record, and though it should be quicker than that here, it will not be immediate so please don’t chase us for missing points.
AMTRA originally agreed a deadline of 30 September 2017 with VMD. We are sorry that it took longer than we expected for us to get the online CPD provision up and running. Bearing in mind that delay and after listening to feedback from SQPs and employers, and bearing in mind that very little of these medicines will be prescribed over the winter, we have now agreed with VMD that all farm SQPs will complete by 31 January 2018.
There have been various options available during the period May 2017 to January 2018, but at this late stage the only remaining one is to do the CPD online.
So if you haven’t yet finished get online now: don’t leave it till the last minute and have to do it all in one go.