The future of professional CPD training

Introduction: The recent increase in calls for certification and accreditation for forensic practitioners has created a surge in requests for training and Continuous Professional Development (CPD) courses. For many disciplines the choices in relation to CPD courses are limited in both subject and scope, if indeed, they exist at all. Adding to the challenge is the limited interactivity that exists between each forensic discipline and the ultimate end user, the court within the training scenarios.

Aims: At the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science (LRCFS), part of our aim is to cross the gap between these often disparate groups, ensuring that judicial and legal professionals gain an understanding of forensic disciplines, the science underpinning forensic evidence and the research upon which expert opinions are based. Equally, it is critical that forensic scientists understand the ways in which their science could and should be presented within the courtroom. Most importantly the communication of science within the courtroom is a critical skill that often goes unaddressed in either formal training or CPD provision. LRCFS is funded to disrupt positively the forensic science ecosystem and does so by bringing together forensic scientists, law enforcement, academic researchers, the judiciary with leading scientists and designers to discuss the scientific, interpretation and communication challenges we all face together.

Conclusion: In order to address these challenges we need to think differently about how we train our practitioners across the criminal justice ecosystem into the future. This presentation explores the ways in which this new interactivity will feed into the development of new and exciting CPD courses which will bring together practitioners from both areas of the judicial process and allow them to work together in new ways.