On July 31 2013 they must have completed 150 hours of CPD. They will then have until August 28 2013 to declare the hours that they have completed or risk losing their General Dental Council (GDC) registration.
CPD is a legal requirement and employers are being asked to help remind DCPs about it and to help them plan it, do it and log it.
CPD is study, training, courses, seminars, reading and other activities which advance a dental professional’s development. It can be provided in-house by other members of the dental team who are trained and competent in the relevant area.
Why is CPD so important?
CPD was introduced to ensure that all dental professionals keep their knowledge current, to encourage the development of new skills in order to benefit the care of patients, and to give patients confidence in the profession as a whole. It’s very important that the CPD registrants undertake takes into account the needs of their patients and is relevant to their practice.
To help highlight the importance of remembering the deadline the GDC has produced some posters for use in the workplace. They can be downloaded from the GDC’s website www.gdc-uk.org
Who’s declared what so far?
• 14,586 (37 per cent) DCPs have logged more than the minimum hours (including 50 verifiable);
• 4,425 (11 per cent) DCPs have logged no hours;
• Dental Technicians are currently the least likely to have logged their hours – 22 per cent having not yet declared any.
Have your say
As part of the GDC’s on-going review of its CPD requirements a consultation is currently running asking for views on the proposals to update our mandatory CPD scheme. Anyone wishing to take part should visit www.gdc-uk.org/haveyoursay
The public consultation proposals include:
- Developing learning outcomes for CPD linked to the GDC standards;
- Annual mandatory CPD declarations;
- Embedding personal development planning into the scheme;
- New minimum CPD hours requirement.