Council agreed at its 8 December meeting to amend the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) framework to reflect a new approach to how CPD records are called for review.
We received over 2,200 responses to its consultation on sampling CPD records, the most responses it has ever received to a consultation, and a significant majority of respondents supported the proposed changes.
We will now amend the wording of its CPD framework to indicate that a random sample (a minimum of 2.5%) of pharmacy professionals will have their CPD records called for review on an annual basis.
We will also extend the amount of time a registrant is exempt from having their CPD records called after successfully meeting CPD requirements from one year to two, in response to feedback from some respondents which suggested this change in order to reduce the potential burden on pharmacy professionals.
The amended paragraph in the CPD framework will now read as follows:
The GPhC may ask you to submit a CPD record for review at any time. We will call in the CPD record of a random sample of registrants each year. If you meet the GPhC’s requirements we will not ask you again for the next two years. In some cases you may be asked to submit your CPD record for review more frequently than this, for example, if you have been required previously to undertake remedial measures following a review of your CPD record or if you have a history of poor compliance with any of our standards.
GPhC chief executive Duncan Rudkin said:
“We were encouraged by the interest in our consultation on changing our CPD framework and by the very positive response to our proposals. CPD remains a core professional responsibility and we hope that listening to our registrants on how to make CPD more meaningful will encourage them to continue to demonstrate their professionalism by reflecting regularly on learning and development activities.”