Lancashire & South Cumbria
Local Dental Committees
Enhanced CPD
The Enhanced CPD scheme was introduced in 2018. It sets out CPD requirements for all registered dental professionals.
To comply you will need to:
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Complete the minimum number of verifiable CPD hours for your professional title (the higher number for those with multiple titles) in each five-year cycle.
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Spread CPD across your five-year cycle by completing a minimum of 10 hours of CPD in every two-year period, including when you end one CPD cycle and start a new one.
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Make a CPD statement as part your annual renewal of registration, by making either an annual or end of cycle statement, even if you have not completed any CPD during that year.
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Ensure your CPD is relevant to your field(s) of practice.
You also need to record your CPD by:
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maintaining a personal development plan
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linking activities to at least one development outcome
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keeping a certificate to evidence verifiable CPD.
You can login to your eGDC account at any time to find out how much CPD you need to complete during the year.
The Enhanced CPD scheme established a more flexible and personalised approach to lifelong learning for the dental team. It introduced important changes to CPD requirements for dental professionals aimed at improving the quality of learning, and supporting dental professionals to maintain, develop and improve their practice.
The changes to CPD requirements included:
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An increase in the number of verifiable CPD hours to be completed (except for dental nurses and dental technicians), alongside the removal of the requirement to record and report non-verifiable CPD, reducing the total number of required CPD hours to be completed over each five-year cycle.
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To spread CPD across the five-year cycle, by completing at least 10 hours of CPD in each consecutive two-year period, including across cycles.
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To produce, maintain and retain a Personal Development Plan (PDP).
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To reflect on learning, and record that it has taken place.
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An ability to request an additional 56 days, or grace period, at the end of a CPD cycle to support compliance with the minimum number of hours of CPD.
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To make a CPD statement and declaration every year.
100
10
The minimum number of verifiable CPD hours you'll need to complete during your five-year cycle depends on your registered title:
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dentists need to do a minimum of 100 hours
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dental therapists, dental hygienists, orthodontic therapists and clinical dental technicians need to do 75 hours
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dental nurses and dental technicians need to do 50 hours
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temporary registrants (dentists) need to do 20 hours.
If you are registered with more than one title, you must do the minimum amount of CPD for the title that requires the higher number of hours.
Do at least 10 hours of CPD every two years!
We also ask dental professionals to spread their CPD across the five-year cycle. This is achieved through the requirement to do a minimum of 10 hours of verifiable CPD across any consecutive two-year period, including when you end one cycle and start a new one.
You can choose to not do CPD in any given year, but you then need to ensure you do at least 10 hours the year before, or the year after, to comply. Record 0 hours in your CPD statement when you renew.
This is how it works:
Reflective Practice
Within dentistry and wider healthcare regulators are focusing upon reflection as part of the professional requirement for fitness to practice and as part of well led teams. It has clear benefits for risk management and improvement both for the individual and a practice wide ethos, which benefits clinicians and patients alike. The GDC have stated;
"Reflection is now common practice and will foster improvements in practice and services. It can demonstrate how patient feedback and complaints are listened to and acted upon in your dental practice, as well as assure patients that the dental team is continuously learning.
Remember to reflect on things that go well, as well as the things that don't go to plan."
Reflection is also important in relation to CPD - assessing how courses have been beneficial, and identifying training needs. It is a crucial part of the CPD record and informs a contemporaneous Professional Development Plan.
Should things go wrong and regulators become involved the abilities of a reflective practitioner to admit failings, and understand future requirements and improvements can make a difference within sanction selection when evaluating the minimum steps necessary for public protection.
Click here to read more about Reflective Practice from the GDC
Reflective practice is also something the LDC supports through our Dental Practitioner Advice and Support Scheme, where we encourage self-referral for non-judgemental help and support which is freely on offer to all Lancashire and South Cumbria practitioners.