Quality Assurance Program Requirements

If you are experiencing significant difficulties with completing your QA requirements by the end of the year, you may be eligible for a deferral or an extension. An extension allows you to extend your PD cycle by 60 days and a deferral allows you to defer your requirements to your next PD cycle (i.e. 80 hours of PD in four years). If you would like to request an extension or a deferral, you will need to submit “no” on your attestation form. Once you select “No” and submit the attestation form, a link to the deferral / extension form will appear.

Extension or deferral from requirements related to QA Program components may be granted for the following reasons:

1. personal illness;
2. selected to complete PPR activities but currently not practising due to parental leave;
3. not practising due to parental leave for one year or more during a reporting cycle;
4. pending resignation at the time they are due to complete PPR activities;
5. pending resignation within the four months following a reporting cycle deadline,
6. illness of an immediate family member, or where the registrant is the primary care giver;
7. bereavement; and personal crisis or other extenuating circumstances that impact the registrant’s ability to cope with additional responsibilities.

Yes, you are expected to participate in and document a minimum of 40 hours of professional development activities in a two-year-long “reporting cycle.”  At the end of each reporting cycle, you must report whether you have completed your PD activities by submitting an attestation form in your CRPO user account. Submission deadlines are based on your initial year of registration.

CRPO expects all registrants to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to professional growth and development so long as they practice the profession and are registered with CRPO.

The professional development component of the QA Program provides a general framework that is designed to help you reflect on your practice and consciously shape the course of your professional growth.

As a new registrant you will begin your participation in the QA program by completing a self-assessment within 60 days of your date of registration. The self-assessment is available to complete in your CRPO user account.

As a new registrant, you are encouraged to use the self-assessment tool to identify any gaps that may exist in your knowledge, skill, or judgement; set professional goals; and consider professional development, or learning, activities to achieve those goals. The self-assessment is meant to be a reflective and thought-provoking exercise. Completing the self-assessment could take an hour or longer.

The new registrant requirement is an introduction to your ongoing reporting obligations for the QA Program. All registrants are responsible for completing their professional development requirements on an ongoing basis and reporting to CRPO every two years.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your requirements, or your capacity to complete them on time, please contact QA staff.

If you are unable to complete a self-assessment within 60 days of your date of registration, you may be eligible for an extension. Requests for extension must be submitted in writing by completing the Deferral/extension form (PD) linked above, before your respective due date and must meet the criteria outlined on the form.

Yes, the self-assessment you complete within 60 days of your initial date of registration, can be counted towards your PD requirements due every two years. This means that when you complete your first attestation form, you can attest that you completed at least one self-assessment during the reporting cycle. However, you may and are encouraged to complete more than one self-assessment during your cycle. For example,

Your first two-year PD reporting cycle begins on your date of registration and ends December 31, two years after your year of registration.

Example: If your date of registration were January 1, 2023, your self-assessment would be due March 2, 2023. Your two-year PD reporting cycle would begin January 1, 2023 and end December 31, 2025.

Registrants of the College are asked to rely on their professional judgment to select, and then participate in, learning activities that are credible, related to the practice of psychotherapy, and that will meet their individual learning needs. At present, the College does not require that registrants engage in “pre-approved” activities, and so it is expected that registrants would rely on their own prudence and judgment to invest their time and financial resources in learning activities that meet their individual learning needs.

Learning activities reported in your professional portfolio must be:

• Relevant to the practice of psychotherapy.
• Credible and require some form of participation. Examples include: courses where a registrant must attend/participate in lectures, course readings, and evaluation; seminars or workshops, where a registrant  attends/participates in lectures, discussion groups or role playing; reading/study groups, where a registrant  must interact with learning materials and discuss the subject matter with others in the group; and so on. In the case of an independent study, participation may involve the reading of materials and engagement with other kinds of learning resources.
• Verifiable where some form of documentation exists that enables a registrant to demonstrate that they have completed the activity, and the College, if needed, to verify that the activity occurred. Ideally, this would be a letter or certificate of completion which identifies: the activity, the organization’s contact information, the date or period in which the activity occurred, the duration of the activity, and the name of the participant. Where a registrant engages in independent study, they should maintain careful records of learning resources that were used.

As a self-regulated professional, you have a responsibility to identify your own learning needs and invest in activities that will improve your practice and protect the public.

CRPO offers two tools to help you decide where to direct some of your professional development activities:

1. The self-assessment: This is an online questionnaire that you can complete at any time in your CRPO account.

The self-assessment will help you assess your knowledge, skill, and judgement in select competency areas related to professional regulation. The self-assessment also has series of reflection exercises designed to help you think about the more interpersonal aspects of your practice, such as your professional relationships, support systems, and safe and effective use of self (SEUS). After you complete the self-assessment, you are encouraged to identify learning activities that will allow you to address any opportunities for growth related to your professional obligations.

2. The case-based assessment (CBA): This is an online assessment, which is the first stage of a peer and practice review. You will be notified when you have been selected to complete the CBA.

After you complete the CBA, you will receive a feedback report. The feedback report outlines your performance and identifies where you might have gaps in your knowledge of the Standards. Where gaps are identified, you are required to dedicate some of your professional development activities to addressing those gaps.

You are only required to provide your professional portfolio if such evidence is requested by CRPO.

You must retain your learning record and documentation (e.g., certificates of participation) that can verify your participation in learning activities in your own professional portfolio.

Registrants are expected to retain their professional portfolio in their own records for at least 4 years.

Yes. We encourage registrants to use the learning record template available on our website.

To use the template, you must first download and save a copy of the file to your own device. The templates on our website are not linked to your CRPO account or automatically saved by CRPO.

As you engage in PD activities, keep track of the following details in your learning record:

• activity name and details;

• provider’s name and contact information;

• full date or date range in which the activity occurred; and

• specific number of hours spent engaging in the activity.

Most importantly, reflect on the impact the activity may have had on your practice and record any notable changes you may have made to your practice as a result of completing the activity.

Save your learning record and all supporting documentation in a professional portfolio.  Supporting documentation should verify your participation in an activity and can include things like completion certificates, journal entries, transcripts, receipts, etc.

If you do not report or complete your professional development activities on time, you may be asked to submit your professional portfolio for review.

No. In the same way that providing psychotherapy services to a client for a wage or fee cannot be counted, teaching programs, courses, workshops, seminars, conferences or webinars is also not an activity that may be counted towards your 40-hour PD requirements. Paid work does not qualify as a personal professional development activity. Preparation for teaching programs, courses, workshops, seminars, conferences or webinars can be counted towards your 40-hour PD requirement.

Information shared because of participation in the Quality Assurance (QA) Program is confidential and, with limited exceptions, the information provided can only be used for QA purposes. CRPO will not post QA review results on the public register or share your information with current or future employers.

You, as a registrant, are therefore strongly urged to provide honest responses that are an accurate reflection of your current level of knowledge, skill and judgment.

If the QA Committee believes that a registrant may have committed a serious act of professional misconduct, or may be incompetent or incapacitated, the QA Committee may disclose only the registrant’s name and the allegation against the registrant to the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee (ICRC). The ICRC may carry out an independent investigation if it elects to do so.  However, in cases where a registrant knowingly gave false information to the QA Committee or a peer assessor, the QA Committee may disclose this information to the relevant College Committee that is dealing with the matter.

QA Program staff will ask you to submit a learning record in the following situations:

1. PD audit 

Staff conduct PD audits in the following situations: if you request an extension or deferral for a PD cycle; or if you are returning to active practice and missed completing a QA Program requirement before you changed your registration category.

For a PD audit, your learning record must demonstrate that you completed 40 hours of learning activities during the PD cycle. If you received a deferral, your learning record must demonstrate that you completed 80 hours during your current and previous PD cycles.

Tip

During the 2023 PD cycle audits, a common oversight was not including details about the new requirement to review training on the duty to report. See “Duty to Report Training Review” for more information.

2. CBA self-directed review 

If you are in the self-directed review category after completing a CBA, you are required to submit a learning record for review. The learning record must demonstrate how you have addressed the knowledge gaps identified by the CBA.

Before the end of your PD reporting cycle, you must submit your learning record for review. If you are in the self-directed review category, and you are unsure when your learning record is due, please contact staff at QAassessments@crpo.ca

The Quality Assurance Committee requires that you focus some of your 40 hours of learning activities to address any gaps identified in the CBA during your professional development (PD) cycle.

Your learning record must demonstrate how you have addressed the gaps identified by your CBA results. This means that for Standards where your performance was lower than that of the successful average, you should complete learning activities related to those sections of the Standards, including a reflection on the impact the learning had on your practice or changes you might have made to your practice as a result of the activity.

When you receive your CBA feedback report, you are encouraged to begin planning and recording your professional development activities well in advance of your next PD reporting cycle deadline.

QA staff will write to you before your deadline requesting a copy of your learning record.

We have developed a sample learning record to assist you.

There are two assessment periods each year.

Those registered on or before December 31, 2022, will be randomly assigned to complete the CBA in one of the next five years (2023-2027).

Registrants registered on or after January 1, 2023, will be assigned to complete the CBA in the fifth year after their initial year of registration.

CRPO will notify registrants approximately 6 months in advance when they have been selected to take the case-based assessment.

We understand that registrants may have extenuating circumstances which might prevent them from completing the CBA when selected.

If you are unable to participate in a PPR activity when selected, you might be eligible for a deferral. To request a deferral, please contact QAassessments@crpo.ca before the CBA administration window begins.

No. The CBA is hosted on an external platform and is only available to selected registrants twice a year.

Other elements of CRPO’s QA Program (e.g., the self-assessment and attestation form) are available in your CRPO user account. Please see Professional development requirements and FAQs for information.

See the CBA Preparation Resources linked below.

The CBA is intended to be a low-stress, educational experience that inspires reflective practice. The CBA is an  “open book” assessment, which means RPs will be able to refer to the CRPO Professional Practice Standards and other resources they might want to use. The CBA is online and not proctored (i.e., it is not monitored or supervised).

The CBA consists of 30 situational judgment cases. Each case has five answer options numbered from A to E. You are asked to rank each option from most aligned with the applicable Standard to the least aligned. The CBA platform requires you to type your answers in an answer field. For example, if you determine the correct rank is ABCDE, you will need to type “ABCDE” in the answer field.

We have used the term “open book” to indicate that CBA takers will be able to refer to the Professional Practice Standards and other resources they might want to use during the assessment. See “How do I prepare for the assessment” above.

The CBA is on-line and is not proctored (i.e., supervised or monitored). Registrants will be able to complete the CBA at any point during the 10 days of each assessment sitting and are encouraged to have whatever materials they wish available to them.

Most registrants successfully complete the case-based assessment (CBA) in less than four hours. Nevertheless, in the interest of using universal design to make the CBA as accessible as possible and to support registrants in approaching the CBA as a learning opportunity, the Quality Assurance Committee decided to increase the time allotted for completing the CBA to 7 hours. This way, anyone who needs more time will not have to make a separate request.

For clarity, the number of cases is not increasing. Rather, the time window to complete the CBA is now longer.

The CBA is an open-book assessment that is not proctored (i.e., registrants are not monitored during the assessment). This means registrants are provided the opportunity to think about each situation, look at resources for guidance, and consider the proposed options. In fact, registrants are encouraged to refer to the Professional Practice Standards and any other relevant College resources as they complete the assessment.

Data from the pilot and first three CBA administrations indicates that the average time to complete the CBA is less than 3.5 hours. While we are confident most registrants can complete the CBA within a 4-hour period, the evidence also demonstrates there is little correlation between the time it takes to complete the CBA and someone’s outcome. Meaning, people who performed well on the CBA did not do it more quickly or more slowly than those who did not perform well.

We understand from registrants that there are varying approaches to how RPs complete the CBA. Given the interest we had in increased time for the 2023 administrations, and to support RPs in using the CBA as a learning exercise, the Quality Assurance Committee decided to increase the time so anyone can access more time without having to make a separate request.  Increasing the time for everyone allows for individual needs, such as taking breaks or needing time to process information.

The Quality Assurance Committee is determined to support registrants in using the CBA as an opportunity to engage meaningfully with regulatory-specific professional development. The intention of this open-book, non-proctored assessment is to give RPs a chance to review the Professional Practice Standards and any other relevant College resources. The additional time for the assessment is not an indication that the assessment has proven to be overly difficult or that we have seen registrants struggling to complete the assessment successfully in a 4-hour window.

What is ‘universal design’?

“Universal Design is the design and composition of an environment so that it can be accessed, understood, and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age … ability or disability. An environment (or any building, product, or service in that environment) should be designed to meet the needs of all people who wish to use it. This is not a special requirement, for the benefit of only a minority of the population. It is a fundamental condition of good design.”

[Source: https://universaldesign.ie/about-universal-design]

As the cornerstone of CRPO’s Quality Assurance Program, the case-based assessment (CBA) is intended to assess registrants’ knowledge, skill and judgment (i.e., competence). It is designed to identify potential risks in practice, so the College can direct its resources where they are most needed and where they will be most effective.

CRPO registrants work in various employment and practice settings with individuals, groups, couples and families. CRPO registrants also work with a wide variety of psychotherapy techniques and modalities. Any assessment method must consider this complexity and nuance.

To ensure a fair assessment process that is not setting- or modality-specific, CRPO based the CBA on the CRPO Professional Practice Standards. The Standards represent foundational knowledge that all registrants are expected to meet, regardless of modality, setting, or clientele.

A situational judgment assessment presents a series of practice scenarios or cases. For each case, registrants are asked to rank five answer options from most aligned to least aligned with the Standards. The cases reflect actual situations registrants encounter in practice, and registrants must apply their knowledge and judgment to specific situations.

Given the diversity of practice settings and modalities described above, CRPO recognizes there may be more than one correct course of action or way to apply a Standard. Offering five responses, instead of three, allows the CBA to

• offer a broader range of possibilities, requiring a higher level of judgment when selecting responses

• encourage a balanced thought process when considering responses

• present realistic complexity, in an open-book setting

• engage registrants with the material at a level beyond guessing and the “process of elimination”

A five-option assessment is a very common format and reflects the complexity of practice facing Registered Psychotherapists. Five answer options ensure that the CBA is a robust and reliable assessment.   

As noted above, each case in the CBA presents a practice scenario and five possible answer options.

Registrants must judge the appropriateness of each response and rank, or prioritize, them from most aligned to least aligned with the Standards.  Ranking all options, including incorrect ones, helps CRPO highlight areas where some participants might have a gap in their understanding or application of a Standard in their practice.

All possible answer combinations on the assessment are assigned a score. Since partial marks are awarded for each answer position, the assigned score depends on how close the answer is to the most and least aligned options.

The case-based assessment (CBA) consists of 30 situational judgment cases.

The number of cases was reduced from 40 to 30 after reviewing data and feedback from registrants who participated in standard-setting workshops and the November 2022 pilot assessment.

30 is the minimum number of cases needed to assess registrants across all areas of the Professional Practice Standards. (See “What is the blueprint?” below.)

The cases are written, reviewed, and tested by members of the profession. CRPO aims to include and represent multiple perspectives and communities of practice. To date, over 50 RPs have been involved in various stages of the Quality Assurance Enhancement Project.

CRPO has taken an iterative approach to case development. This means each case goes through several stages including writing, revising, and testing before being finalized and added to the CBA.

The case-based assessment (CBA) consists of 30 situational judgment cases. Each case has five answer options. RPs are asked to rank all five options from the most aligned to the least aligned with the relevant CRPO Professional Practice Standard.
The current version of the CBA platform requires you to type your answers in an answer field. For example, if you determine the correct rank is ABCDE, you will need to type “ABCDE” in the answer field.

The CBA is scored by applying the registrant’s responses (ABCDE for example) to a pre-determined answer key or ‘ideal sequence’. Points are awarded to registrants responses for each element (letter) of their sequence in accordance with their alignment with the key sequence. For example, a perfect match for any given element would result in 4 points (Registrant placing A in the first position where the key also has A in the first position) with the number of points awarded diminishing as respondent response position moves further away from the key position. This occurs for each of the five sequence elements (A, B, C, D, and E). The points awarded for each sequence position are totaled which provides the case score. For example, if the key sequence for a case is A-B-C-D-E and the registrant’s response sequence is A-B-C-D-E (identical) then these responses would earn 20 points, or 100%.

This type of ranking is typical of “situational judgement scenarios,” which are designed to recognize that in many situations, there is more than one correct answer. For example, this means that if an RP selects the top two answers, but has them in a different order, they will still do very well on the assessment.

The College has adopted an 80% mastery level as the cut score for registrants completing the CBA.

The online CBA will be used by the College to identify risks in practice and direct resources where they are most needed to help registrants provide safe and effective care. The cases in the CBA are based on the CRPO Professional Practice Standards.

Practice standards for any regulatory body represents essential foundational knowledge that members of the profession must be aware of and uphold. Therefore, the required assessment score of 80% is in the interest of the public and the profession itself.

Accordingly, registrants achieving a score of 80% or higher on the assessment will be classified as “successful”.

The Quality Assurance Committee established a blueprint for the CBA using a risk register (risk frequency and risk severity) based on data as described below:

Risk frequency is based on how often the issue arises within:

• College committees (e.g., complaints, applications for registration)
• Practice advisory inquiries
• System partner input (e.g., reports of ‘horizon’ issues or emerging risks)

Risk severity is determined by reviewing:

• Significance of outcomes (e.g., referring complaints to the Discipline Committee, refusing applications for registration)
• The priorities of stakeholders (e.g., the public, government, registrants, Council and committees)

Registrants completing the case-based assessment are presented with proportionally more cases corresponding to “high-risk” Practice Standards. The number of cases for each section of the Standards corresponds to the level of risk identified by the risk register.

The blueprint below outlines the Professional Practice Standards that are being assessed in the 2023 CBA:

Standards Section 1: Professional Conduct

Weight – 29%

Number of Cases Selected – 10

Standards Section 2: Competence

Weight – 20%

Number of Cases Selected – 4

Standards Section 3: Client-Therapist Relationship

Weight – 21%

Number of Cases Selected – 6

Standards Section 4: Clinical Supervision

Weight – 11%

Number of Cases Selected – 3

Standards Section 5: Record-Keeping & Documentation

Weight – 12%

Number of Cases Selected – 5

Standards Section 6: Business Practices

Weight – 7%

Number of Cases Selected – 2

Approximately six weeks after the CBA administration window closes, you will receive information about your result. See CBA Outcomes above.

The CBA is part of CRPO’s Quality Assurance Program and differs significantly from the Entry-to-Practice Registration Examination, which is offered by the COMPASS Centre for Examination Development, a national body established to develop and administer the exam.

The CBA does not affect your registration status. The CBA is designed to be an educational tool to help you identify potential gaps in your knowledge, skill and judgment and make effective use of your professional development activity hours.

In addition, the CBA is intended as a tool to help CRPO identify potential risks in practice and determine where and how to direct College resources in a way that ensures registrants are providing safe and effective care to Ontarians.

Information shared through participation in the QA Program is confidential and, with limited exceptions, the information provided can only be used for QA purposes. CRPO will not post CBA or other PPR activity results on the Public Register or share your information with current or future employers.

If the QA Committee believes that a registrant may have committed a serious act of professional misconduct, or may be incompetent or incapacitated, the QA Committee may disclose only the registrant’s name and the allegation against the registrant to the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee (ICRC). The ICRC may carry out an independent investigation if it elects to do so.  However, in cases where a registrant knowingly gave false information to the QA Committee, QA staff, or a peer coach, the QA Committee may disclose this information to the relevant College Committee that is dealing with the matter.

Yes. As part of the College’s QA program under the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 (RHPA), starting in 2023, CRPO began assigning approximately 20% of registrants to complete the case-based assessment (CBA) each year. The CBA is the first stage of a peer and practice review (PPR). Being selected to participate in a PPR is a normal part of being a regulated health professional in Ontario.

The CBA will help determine which registrants would benefit most from engaging in peer coaching.

CRPO aims to assess all registrants over a 5-year period.

Registrants in the peer-assisted review category may be re-assessed in fewer than 5 years. For example, registrants in the peer-assisted review category will be offered support and an opportunity to be reassessed. Registrants whose reassessment results are in the peer-assisted review category will be assigned a peer coach. Once a registrant has completed peer coaching and any associated learning plan, they are required to complete the CBA again.

Once a registrant is placed in a cohort, they will be assessed approximately every 5 years, subject to any reassessment as described above.

The CBA is an online, open-book format and will be available 24-hours a day for 10 days.

When selected to complete the CBA, registrants are required to sign in once during the 10-day period and complete the assessment in one sitting. In other words, the CBA cannot be completed over several days or in multiple sittings.

The CBA can be completed comfortably within a 4-hour timeframe. However, the window to complete the assessment is 7 hours. Registrants who need time beyond 4 hours, for any reason, have access to extra time without having to submit a separate request.

CRPO will send you your feedback report by email approximately six weeks after the CBA administration window closes.

The College is gradually eliminating the random selection process for registrants to participate in peer and practice reviews. Instead, all registrants will be required to complete the CBA, an online, “open-book” assessment, on a regular and recurring basis, approximately every five years. The CBA will be used by CRPO to identify risks in practice and direct resources where they are most needed to help registrants provide safe and effective care.

As the cornerstone of CRPO’s QA Program, the CBA is a sustainable resource that assists CRPO with identifying risks in practice and directing resources where they are most needed to help registrants provide safe and effective care.

The CBA is intended to provide evidence-based feedback that will encourage registrants to engage with the Practice Standards and continue to think critically about their practice, their professional growth, and their obligations as regulated health professionals. The CBA supports reflective practice and life-long learning, critical components of providing safe and effective care.To date, CRPO has engaged with over 50 RPs in various stages of the Quality Assurance Enhancement Project. These registrants attended training workshops and contributed their time as case writers, reviewers, standard setters.

CRPO has taken an iterative approach to case development. This means each case goes through several stages with different groups of RPs, including writing, revising, and testing, before being finalized and added to the CBA.

Yes. We will send you a link to a feedback survey once you have received your feedback report. CRPO welcomes respectful, constructive feedback.

There is no cost to registrants participating in the case-based assessment or in peer-assisted reviews. These activities are a core part of CRPO’s work of public protection. Registrants who receive coaching from a trained peer coach will not be charged a fee. As well, since RPs will continue to be able to choose which educational activities they undertake as part of the existing required biennial 40 hours of professional development, it will be up to the individual registrant to decide whether they want to engage in activities that have an associated cost.

Registrants may be charged fees for non-compliance. Please see Quality Assurance Program Policy 5.0 for compliance expectations.

All regulated health professionals are expected to participate in their regulatory college’s Quality Assurance (QA) Program, as required by the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 (RHPA). CRPO’s QA Program includes the following activities:

• professional development (self-assessment and 40 hours of learning activities every two years);
• peer and practice review; and
• professional improvement.

The case-based assessment is the first stage of the peer and practice review activity. It is a risk-assessment activity that has been developed with members of the profession and is based on the CRPO Professional Practice Standards. The intention is to engage registrants with the Standards, help them reflect on their practice, and identify where they might need to focus some of their professional development (learning activities). It will also help identify which registrants might be at risk of not understanding or applying the Standards in their practice. Registrants at risk will be provided with supportive coaching and guidance from a peer to address potential gaps in their knowledge, skill, and judgment before the gaps develop into a risk that might result in harm to the public.

All registrants are expected to participate in a peer and practice review approximately once every five years.