What each UK healthcare regulator expects

General Medical Council (GMC)

Doctors, physician associates and anaesthesia associates revalidate through annual appraisal, usually on a five-year cycle, with their responsible officer making the recommendation to the GMC. The GMC does not set a number of CPD hours; the 50-credit figures doctors often hear come from royal colleges, not the GMC. Standards are set out in Good medical practice 2024. Read the GMC page.

Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)

Nurses, midwives and nursing associates revalidate every three years against the Code. The requirements are the most prescriptive of the nine: practice hours, CPD hours with a participatory element, feedback, five written reflective accounts, a reflective discussion with another NMC registrant, and a confirmation. Read the NMC page.

Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)

The HCPC regulates 15 professions, including paramedics, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, radiographers and practitioner psychologists. It sets five CPD standards rather than hours. If you are selected for audit, you submit a profile with a summary of your practice (up to 500 words) and a statement of how you met the standards (up to 1,500 words). Read the HCPC page.

General Dental Council (GDC)

The enhanced CPD scheme runs on a five-year cycle, with hours that vary by role. Every activity should link to at least one of four development outcomes, covering communication, management and teamwork, knowledge and skills, and behaviours that maintain patient confidence. Read the GDC page.

General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)

Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians submit revalidation records every year. The reflective account is written against standards the GPhC selects; for 2025 these were person-centred care, working in partnership with others and using professional judgement. Read the GPhC page.

General Optical Council (GOC)

Optometrists and dispensing opticians work to a points-based cycle running from 2025 to 2027, with higher totals for those with specialty registration. Self-directed CPD counts only within limits, and our courses are self-directed learning, not GOC-approved CPD. Read the GOC page.

General Osteopathic Council (GOsC)

Osteopaths complete 90 hours over three years, half of it learning with others, and finish the cycle with a Peer Discussion Review. The GOsC selects a sample of osteopaths each month to review their CPD evidence. Read the GOsC page.

General Chiropractic Council (GCC)

Chiropractors record at least 30 hours a year. The GCC asks for a reflective statement on each activity and has a focused reflection topic each year. It also asks registrants not to rely on AI to produce generic reflections that do not reflect their own experience. Read the GCC page.

Social Work England

Social workers in England record at least two pieces of CPD in each registration year, one including peer reflection, through their online account. The deadline for the current year is 30 November 2026. Read the Social Work England page.

The wording differs, but when a concern is raised the same handful of ideas appear in almost every regulator's guidance.

• Insight. Understanding what went wrong, its effect on patients, colleagues and public trust, and what you would do differently. The NMC describes evidence of insight as usually central to deciding whether practice is currently impaired.
• Remediation. Practical steps that address the knowledge, skills, conduct or behaviour behind the concern. The NMC calls this strengthened practice. Regulators agree some failings, dishonesty in particular, are harder to remediate.
• Reflection. Honest written reflection that shows what you learned and how you now apply it. It is also central to revalidation for the NMC, GPhC, GOC and GCC.
• Risk of repetition. Whether the conduct is likely to happen again. The NMC asks whether it is highly unlikely to be repeated; Social Work England links greater risk to a lack of insight or incomplete remediation.
• Objective evidence. Social Work England, for example, says remediation is best shown by objective evidence such as completed training, appraisals and practice feedback, rather than by assertion.

These ideas are why our courses end with a written reflection, and why the free tools focus on organising evidence rather than on certificates alone.

Self-paced online learning is accepted CPD under every scheme, but the schemes treat it differently.

• The NMC counts it towards your 35 hours, but it is not participatory unless you complete it with others, for example by discussing it in a group.
• The GOsC and GCC require a set share of learning with others, so self-paced courses fill the other part of your total.
• The GOC limits self-directed CPD and requires at least 18 points from GOC CPD providers before self-directed CPD can count.
• The GDC asks you to check that an activity meets its criteria before recording it as verifiable CPD.
• The GMC, HCPC, GPhC and Social Work England focus on relevance and reflection rather than hours.

Whichever scheme applies, the reflection you write at the end of a course is the part that turns reading into recordable learning. Our courses are independent and mapped to each regulator's published standards; no regulator has reviewed or approved them.