We understand that there might be times when it’s difficult to complete your revalidation. If you can’t meet the deadline, it’s important to let us know as soon as possible.
If you can’t complete your annual revalidation, use the ‘tell us you can’t submit button’ on myGPhC to let us know. Please give a brief explanation of the reasons why you can’t submit all your records and provide evidence to support this. For example, you may be on maternity leave or unwell.
It’s important to let us know how your situation has affected your ability to carry out and record your CPD. Give as much detail as possible. If you’ve been absent from work, for example, include this to help us understand the reasons for the changes you ask for.
Long periods of holiday leave away from work or intermittent part time locum work don’t count as exceptional circumstances. You’ll need to complete and submit a full revalidation record to cover this time.
Deadline extension or a reduction in entries
You can request an extension to the deadline to submit your revalidation or ask to submit fewer records by the existing deadline.
If you request a submission deadline extension, make sure that you’ll be able to submit a full revalidation record by the date you propose.
If you request a reduction in the number of entries, please be aware that if you’ve worked for any period three months or more in the previous year, we expect you to submit a minimum of one planned CPD entry and one completed reflective account.
Providing evidence to support your exceptional circumstance request
You’ll need to provide supporting evidence if you can’t complete your revalidation. This needs to be from a healthcare professional or a formal document which explains the reason you’re asking for an extension or reduction to your entries.
You must provide evidence that clearly states:
1. The condition or situation which is affecting your ability to complete your revalidation.
For example, if you’re ill you need to provide information from a healthcare professional about the condition you have. We’ll use this to help us decide if your request is appropriate.
2. The full amount of time you are or will be affected.
For example, if you’re having a baby we’ll need to know when you’re not practising. You’ll need to detail the dates of your maternity leave and upload a copy of your completed MAT B1 form or baby’s birth certificate. We don’t accept NHS cards as these only have an expiry date and are valid for up to two years.
We assess each request individually and can’t guarantee that we will grant your request.
We decide by:
- considering if the reason you’ve given justifies an extension or reduction in entries
- whether the evidence you’ve provided adequately supports your request
- looking at the amount of time you haven’t or won’t be practising to work out how much of an extension or reduction in entries is appropriate.
If you need to make an exceptional circumstances request, we only consider reducing the requirement in proportion to the time you are unable to practice. This means you should make sure that you’ve completed entries covering the rest of your registration year.
We will only grant extension requests for short term or unexpected events which prevent you from submitting your entries on time, not for circumstances where you haven’t carried out learning activities.