Spencer Moore, Chief Strategy Officer, CIMSPA
In a sector that plays a critical role in supporting national health, wellbeing and economic outcomes, professional recognition must be more than symbolic. It must be earned, verified and aligned with standards that the sector itself has endorsed. True professional status is not about titles, labels or marketing, it is about credibility, competence and trust.
CIMSPA is the chartered professional body for the sport and physical activity workforce, recognised by government as a regulatory body. This recognition carries real responsibility to define what good practice looks like, to safeguard the integrity of the workforce and to ensure that professionals are equipped to deliver effective and high-quality services to the public.
Professional status, issued by CIMSPA, is not a loose badge. It is a nationally aligned, rigorously validated credential, underpinned by rigorous policy and rigorous standards. It confirms that an individual has been assessed against the sector’s recognised professional standards, which set out the knowledge and skills required to be competent in a specific role. These standards are developed and governed in partnership with employers, deployers, commissioners and training providers, ensuring that they are fit for purpose and rooted in real-world practice.
Crucially, real professional statuses are aligned to endorsed learning and skills development pathways, qualifications and training that are robustly quality assured and formally mapped to the professional standards. This means that the learning underpinning professional recognition has been scrutinised for relevance, depth and delivery quality. Professionals holding CIMSPA-issued professional status have followed a trusted, transparent route to recognition and have demonstrated that they meet the standards the sector has agreed are essential – within a scope that is evidence-based, clearly defined and ethically bounded.
At the heart of this sits a valid ‘scope of practice’ which must consider both expertise and professional boundaries. Professional status, which is aligned to recognised professional standards, is the assurance that an individual has the competence to work within a clearly defined scope. The scope set out by the professional standards provides the boundaries of effective practice, and professional status provides the proof that those boundaries are respected. One without the other lacks meaning.
Public Health Scotland stands out as a leading example of how explicitly connecting a scope of practice to the recognised professional standards of the sector and professional status is essential for underpinning public and stakeholder confidence in both the quality and professionalism of physical activity professionals. Their updated Tiered Approach to Physical Activity Interventions guidance highlights this by explicitly referencing professional standards, which are managed by CIMSPA, ensuring that all scopes of practice and interventions are underpinned by clear, evidence-based competence frameworks. Through this guidance, Public Health Scotland are stating specifically the professional statuses that are required to deliver the scope of practice for specific roles, populations and environments, making clear the value of real professional status.
Through this approach, Public Health Scotland demonstrates how professional standards and professional status are not just aspirational but are embedded within clinical and community practice. By requiring alignment with these standards and the statuses, the guidance provides healthcare professionals and physical activity providers with a robust basis for referral, signposting and intervention planning, thereby strengthening confidence in the delivery and outcomes of physical activity programmes for the population. This model shows the critical role that national, standards-led frameworks, and the professional statuses that they underpin, play in raising professionalism, ensuring quality and driving effective collaboration across sectors.
A true scope of practice is not a wish list or a broad job description and can’t be valid if it isn’t aligned to the rigour of sector-recognised professional standards. It is the foundation of professional credibility. It protects the public, provides clarity to employers and commissioners, and gives practitioners a framework within which they can confidently operate. When underpinned by acknowledged professional standards and rigorously independently verified through professional status, it elevates both the individual and the profession. Without this rigour, recognition risks becoming inconsistent, confusing and unsafe.
By contrast, any approach to professional recognition that does not require individuals to be measured against sector-recognised standards, that bypasses quality-assured education and training, or has a pick-and-mix approach to scope of practice in pursuit of adding names to a list or generating profit undermines the very concept of professionalism and those dedicated professionals who are committed to investing in ensuring that they have the highest quality skills and expertise. It blurs scopes of practice, inflates claims and risks eroding public trust.
The act of supporting someone to move their body, improve their wellbeing or fitness, or manage a health condition is not trivial. It requires expertise, judgement and responsibility, hence Public Health Scotland’s strong emphasis on this professional approach. Inconsistent practice, delivered by individuals without the right knowledge or ongoing verification of skillset, can result in harm, exacerbate existing health issues or damage a person’s confidence and willingness to be active in the long term. It’s why people wouldn’t, and shouldn’t, allow just anyone to guide them on something as personal and powerful as physical activity. Professional recognition must provide genuine reassurance that an individual is qualified, competent, and working to the highest standards.
CIMSPA’s role is to bring clarity and consistency to the concept of professionalism. Our model for real professional recognition connects professionals, employers and education providers through a unified, standards-led framework. It supports career development, drives quality and provides assurance that individuals recognised as professionals are not only qualified, they are competent, current and committed to ethical, evidence-based practice.
Colleagues across the globe understand the value and importance of rigour when recognising professionals and the scope of their roles. Through the International Confederation of Registers of Exercise Professionals (ICREPs), an international partnership between registration bodies around the world that register exercise professionals, there is work underway to use the approach that CIMSPA is leading in the UK to align professionalism and recognition internationally.
As a sector, we simply cannot afford to dilute what professionalism means. The public, our partners in the health profession, and our workforce deserve better. True professional recognition must be underpinned by independent verification, industry-wide consensus and robust assurance mechanisms, all of which CIMSPA is proud to lead and uphold on behalf of the sector.