The revised format for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) which comes into force from January 2018 is welcomed by the British Orthodontic Society
From the start of January 2018, professional development will be known as Enhanced CPD (ECPD). All General Dental Council (GDC) registrants will be expected to maintain a Professional Development Plan (PDP), which keeps a record of their personal development and training.
The PDP will gradually include a log of completed activities, including date, number of hours and the learning outcomes covered. It will store the CPD certificate for each activity.
Professor Susan Cunningham, BOS Trustee for Education, commented: ‘We welcome these changes to CPD because it encourages us all to be more focused in how we manage our own professional development.’ She said that all members of BOS are already entitled to free access to online CPD thanks to an arrangement with ProdentalCPD. The new ECPD enhances the value of this member benefit.
‘Generally the aim is to promote high quality CPD and to encourage us to spread our training more evenly across a five year cycle.’
During the five-year cycle, dentists will need to complete 100 hours of verifiable CPD, with 75 hours for hygienists, dental therapists, clinical dental technicians and orthodontic therapists and 50 hours for dental nurses and dental technicians. Non verifiable CPD will no longer need to be declared.
In future, when paying the annual retention fee (ARF) dentists and dental care professionals must make a declaration of the CPD hours they have completed in that year. All dentists will move to the new scheme on 1 January 2018 and all dental care professionals on 1 August 2018.
‘A positive step’
Sue Power, a member of the BOS education committee and incoming BOS Trustee for Education, said she believed that improved quality assurance for all CPD activity was a positive step and something that her committee would embrace. ‘We are all looking forward to providing orthodontic courses for all sections of the dental workforce. Hopefully we will be able to help our members satisfy the GDC requirement for professionals to plan CPD activity according to their individual field(s) of practice.’
The transitional arrangements are explained and a calculation tool is available on the GDC website: https://www.gdc-uk.org/professionals/cpd/enhanced-cpd and https://gdc.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/ecpdtool
