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CPL 2025 Critical thinking, professional judgement and decision making
This Open Badge recognises Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) registered social workers, including Newly Qualified Social Workers (NQSWs), who have demonstrated a commitment to developing their skills in the crucial area of critical thinking, professional judgement, and decision making. This badge focuses on one of the core learning elements of Continuous Professional Learning (CPL), which is fundamental to enhancing analytical skills, promoting sound professional judgement and ensuring effective decision-making in social work practice.
While this badge is not a mandatory part of your CPL requirements, it offers several benefits for those who choose to pursue it.
- Recognition of your extra effort: This badge acknowledges your dedication to going above and beyond in your professional development.
- Tangible proof of learning: It provides concrete evidence of your learning which you can showcase to employers, colleagues and others.
- Reflection and growth: The process of earning this badge encourages deeper reflection on your learning, helping you to better integrate new knowledge into your practice.
- Career development: Demonstrating your commitment to ongoing learning can support your career progression and professional goals.
- Improved services: By focusing on critical thinking, professional judgement, and decision making, you’re investing in skills that directly impact the quality of your practice.
By pursuing this badge, you’re not just fulfilling CPL requirements, but actively engaging in a programme of open recognition that values lifelong learning and continuous improvement in social work.
You can apply for this badge once per year. If you need to record further learning under the same core learning element within the same year, you can apply for a CPL+ badge.
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To achieve this badge you must:
- put your SSSC registration number, register part and name of your employer (if any) at the top of your evidence submission (Required)
- tell us about the topic and learning activity you have chosen (50 words minimum)
- explain why this learning activity is relevant to your development under the critical thinking, professional judgement and decision making core learning element of your CPL (25 words minimum)
- tell us about three things you learned and why each of these is important to (a) you as a social worker and (b) the individuals, families, or communities you work with (150 words minimum)
- explain how you will apply what you’ve learned to improve the quality of your social work practice and decision-making in your day-to-day work (150 words minimum)
- reflect on how this learning experience has increased your confidence (75 words minimum).
There is a maximum word count for this badge of 900 words.
To help write your submission, you can download a template with these questions in Open Document Format (ODT) and open it in a word processor like Microsoft Word, Open Office or Apple Pages.
Your application will be returned to you with a request for further evidence if it does not meet all the above criteria or is unclear which of these questions you are answering within your evidence.
Submit your application
Terms and conditions
1. I have read, understood and completed all activities listed in the badge criteria. The evidence I have provided answers each question from the criteria.
2. I confirm that the evidence I have submitted is free from personally identifiable information of others. Nobody can be identified, directly or indirectly, from any examples I provide.
3. I wrote or recorded my evidence, and I have not copied it from anywhere else. The core content, ideas and examples are my own original work. I agree that I will only use AI tools under the rules outlined by the SSSC, and if I do so, I will explicitly declare this use in my submission and provide a valid link to the chat history for the assessor to review.
4. I give consent for the SSSC and the people I share this badge with to use plagiarism and AI detection tools to validate the authenticity of the evidence I have submitted.
5. I understand that it may take up to 28 days to assess my application and that feedback cannot always be provided if it is unsuccessful.
Your evidence, name, and email address will be sent to the organisation who issue this badge