GCC: annual CPD and fitness to practise for chiropractors

CPD for chiropractors in the UK works on an annual cycle set by the General Chiropractic Council (GCC). Each year you complete at least 30 hours of CPD, at least 15 of them learning with others, write a reflective statement for each activity, and submit your online CPD summary by 31 August. The GCC also sets a focused reflection topic each year.

An annual cycle leaves little room to catch up, and the GCC is specific about what counts as learning with others and what a good reflection looks like. This page explains those details, the Code you practise under, how fitness to practise and sanctions work, and how our courses and free tools can help. For other professions, see the regulators hub.

Healthcare Practise UK is an independent provider. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by the GCC. Every fact here links to the GCC's own pages in the sources list, and the GCC's pages always take priority over ours.

The GCC is clear that learning with others means live interaction. A recorded webinar counts as learning alone, unless you watch it and then discuss it with a colleague. That one rule catches many chiropractors out, because a year of recorded webinars can easily add up to 30 hours with almost nothing in the learning-with-others column.

Practical ways to reach 15 hours with others include live seminars and workshops, case discussions with colleagues, peer study groups, clinical supervision and live online sessions where you can ask questions. If you study something alone, including any of our courses, you can turn part of it into learning with others by discussing it with a colleague afterwards and recording that conversation as its own activity.

Our free CPD and revalidation tracker lists the GCC requirements as a checklist and keeps running totals of your hours and your hours with others, so you can see the gap long before August.

The GCC's Code of Professional Practice sets the standards of performance, conduct and ethics chiropractors must meet to join and stay on the register. It is the GCC's new code, and the GCC publishes documents comparing it with the previous Code (2016). It is organised in six themes:

• Professional boundaries
• Communication
• Running a business
• Clinical practice: safety and quality
• Clinical practice: delivery of care
• Personal development

The themes make a sensible structure for a year of CPD. If all your learning sits under clinical practice, the boundaries, communication and business themes are where a gap is most likely to show, and they are also common areas in complaints.

Ethics and Ethical Standards for Chiropractors

Written for chiropractic practice under the GCC Code of Professional Practice. It applies the core ethical principles to informed consent in assessment and treatment, avoiding harm in manual therapy, fairness and confidentiality, and covers evidence, uncertainty and maintenance care. Later modules deal with honest clinical advice and public communication, ethical advertising, the duty of candour, record keeping, shared decision-making, professional boundaries and what happens when ethical standards are breached. It lines up closely with the professional boundaries, communication and running a business themes of the Code.

Core modules

The Module on Insight explains what insight is and how regulators assess it. The Module on Reflection builds the reflective writing the GCC asks for every year. The Module on Remediation covers root cause analysis and building a remediation plan you can evidence.

Each course takes about 2 hours, according to the course file. It ends with 15 scenario-based questions with an 80% pass mark and a guided reflective account, and you receive a certificate of completion from Healthcare Practise UK. Self-paced courses count as learning alone unless you discuss them with a colleague. Prices are shown live from our course portal.