Continued Professional Development Ltd t/a Open-CPD

Pricing is published at https://open-cpd.com/pricing/, accessible without login or payment. Three tiers are offered:
Pay-As-You-Go: £50 for 25 credits (one credit = one certificate issued); no subscription commitment; custom template available at an additional £250.

Business: £45 per month; 30 certificates and badges per month; custom template available at an additional £125.

Professional: £90 per month; 120 certificates per month; custom template included.

A 7-day free trial is also offered. Additional credits can be purchased at any time across all tiers. The pricing page includes explanatory notes covering platform access after subscription expiry, the availability of a platform-only pass at £20 per annum, and the treatment of web3 certificate components over time. Pricing is clear, tiered, and publicly accessible without a sales process.

Source: https://open-cpd.com/pricing/, accessed 28 April 2026.

Terms and conditions are published and linked in the footer of every page of the Open CPD website under the label "Terms". The document is dated 14 May 2025. However, it is hosted on Google Docs rather than on a page within the Open CPD website itself, meaning it is dependent on a third-party platform for its accessibility and is not versioned in a manner readily visible to a prospective customer.

Duration and access are covered: Clause 6 states that subscriptions are valid for 12 months from the date of last payment, and Clause 7 confirms that platform access is removed 12 months after the last successful payment.

Suspension and removal rights are set out in Clause 5, which gives Open CPD the right to suspend access if notified by a regulatory authority of a breach, to remove unlawful or abusive content, and to terminate accounts for repeated or severe violations.

Refund provisions are addressed in Clause 6, which states that no refund will be provided for certificates issued in error and that no credit adjustments will be made once a certificate has been issued. No broader cancellation or refund policy for unused credits or subscriptions is provided.

No complaints or dispute resolution procedure is described anywhere in the document; Clause 14 provides only that disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

Clause 2 contains a material disclosure that prospective customers should note: "Open CPD is a software platform provider only. We do not accredit, approve, validate, or take any responsibility for the content, accuracy, quality, or legal status of training delivered or certificates issued by users of the platform. The responsibility for all training materials, course descriptions, and certificate content lies entirely with the user." This is an accurate statement of the platform's nature. It is, however, confined to the terms and conditions document and is not disclosed on the organisation's public-facing website pages, where marketing language — including references to "accreditation", "recognised CPD", and "trusted and recognised" certificates — conveys a materially different impression to a prospective customer who has not read the terms. This disconnect is a concern under CAP Code rules 3.1 and 3.7 and is relevant to the findings at Sections 2 and 15 of this review.

A further inconsistency is noted: Clause 13 refers to "Open CPD Ltd" as the holder of the Open CPD trademark. The legal entity registered at Companies House and disclosed in the footer of the terms document itself is Continued Professional Development Ltd (Company No. 13198098). No company named "Open CPD Ltd" appears on the Companies House register. This discrepancy in the entity name used within the organisation's own contractual documentation is noted.

Source: Open CPD Terms and Conditions, last updated 14 May 2025, accessed via footer link at https://open-cpd.com/, 28 April 2026.

Open CPD's website does not use regulated qualification terminology such as "Level 2", "Level 3", or "Diploma" in a manner that could be confused with regulated qualifications. The organisation's marketing consistently refers to "CPD certificates", "CPD accreditation", and "professional development". No misuse of regulated qualification terminology has been identified.

However, the following observation is relevant. The term "accreditation" is used extensively throughout the website to describe a process that is, in substance, self-certification by the training provider. The FAQ states that "CPD self-accreditation allows training providers to issue CPD-accredited certificates independently, without relying on third-party accreditation bodies." A consumer receiving a certificate issued through the Open CPD platform — which carries Open CPD branding and a verification ID — may not readily understand that the underlying course was not independently assessed by any external party. The assurance conveyed by the certificate rests entirely on the training provider's own judgement.

CPD accreditation, whether independently issued or self-certified, does not constitute a regulated qualification. Open CPD does not imply otherwise. The concern recorded here is not about the CPD/qualification distinction but about the potential for the word "accreditation" to imply independent third-party assessment where none takes place. Consumers and training providers should note the distinction.

Sources: https://open-cpd.com/, accessed 28 April 2026; https://open-cpd.com/faqs/, accessed 28 April 2026; https://open-cpd.com/how-it-works/self-accreditation/, accessed 28 April 2026.

The following claims on the Open CPD website require scrutiny under the CAP Code (rules 3.1 and 3.7, which require marketing communications to be truthful and substantiated):

"Attract more learners with recognised CPD" (homepage, https://open-cpd.com/, accessed 28 April 2026). Under the self-accreditation model, the recognition derives from the training provider's own decision to self-certify a course and issue a certificate through the Open CPD platform. No independent body has assessed or recognised the course. The claim that CPD issued through this model is "recognised" is not qualified on the website and may imply a level of external validation that the model does not provide.

"Open CPD's certificates are trusted and recognised due to their unique verification system" (FAQ, https://open-cpd.com/faqs/, accessed 28 April 2026). The verification system confirms that a certificate with a given ID was issued through the platform and records the course details entered by the training provider. It does not confirm that the course content met any independently assessed standard. The characterisation of certificates as "trusted and recognised" implies a form of broader acceptance than the verification system alone supports.

"We've helped hundreds of providers across sectors" (self-accreditation page, https://open-cpd.com/how-it-works/self-accreditation/, accessed 28 April 2026). This claim is not substantiated on the website with any supporting figures, a provider register, or other verifiable evidence.

These observations do not constitute formal findings of CAP Code breaches. They are recorded as areas where the organisation's marketing language may not be fully supported by the substance of the service being offered, and which are relevant to a training provider's or consumer's assessment of the service.

Sources: https://open-cpd.com/, accessed 28 April 2026; https://open-cpd.com/faqs/, accessed 28 April 2026
https://open-cpd.com/how-it-works/self-accreditation/, accessed 28 April 2026. CAP Code rules 3.1 and 3.7
https://www.asa.org.uk/type/non_broadcast/code_section/03.html