Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for staff is an essential component of the clinical governance structure of the Service. A national CPD programme equips clinicians and scientific staff with the necessary knowledge and expertise to provide accurate, evidence-based and consistent advice. This includes education on new poisons, antidotes and other emerging treatment modalities. The meetings provide an ideal forum to educate staff about strategic developments within the service, discuss challenging clinical cases and debate new research proposals. The meetings also offer the chance for face-to-face contact and social networking between clinical and scientific staff who may previously have only had contact via the phone. It is the responsibility of the CPD lead, an NPIS consultant appointed by the Directors every three years, to organise the rolling programme of meetings. An NPIS scientist is also appointed every two years to ensure the needs of the scientific staff are well represented within the educational programme. All NPIS staff unit are encouraged to participate in research,submit papers to peer-reviewed journals and contribute to national and international toxicological societies (See the International Conferences section).