Submitting your CPD

CPD Submissions is one way to demonstrate that you are keeping your knowledge and skills up to date. There’s no requirement to take part in the College’s scheme in order to be revalidated by the GMC; further information is available in the GMC’s guidance on supporting information for appraisal and revalidation (PDF).

However, using the College CPD Submissions programme and involving your psychiatry peers in the development of your CPD may provide the best possible evidence for appraisers and responsible officers.

You can register by logging into CPD Submissions via the members area or the CPD submissions pages.  You will be prompted to set a brand-new cycle date which then prompt the system to email you a copy of a letter of registration for this programme.

In a change to the minimum requirements for being eligible for a certificate of good standing, you will be required to log:

• 30 hours of clinical CPD (amended requirement)
• 2 reflections on learning (new requirement)
• Peer group membership (same requirement).

In the first four weeks after the new platform and new requirements go live, there can be a waive of submitting reflections on learning if your cycle is scheduled to end around this time. Please contact the CPD submissions helpdesk at cpdqueries@rcpsych.ac.uk for assistance with this.

When you enter a CPD activity, you will be given the option to upload evidence of this activity. 

This is not mandatory as part of your submission but may help to speed up any auditing process if you were to be selected.  If you are selected for audit, you will still be able to upload evidence after submission.

A reflection on learning consists of answering the following four questions about a CPD activity:

The CPD submissions pages have a video clinic describing a step-by-step process to completing your submission.  If this does not answer your questions, then please contact the CPD submissions help-desk at cpdqueries@rcpsych.ac.uk.

You will be able to select ‘Amend start date’ on the CPD homepage on the portal to amend your cycle date. 

It should be noted that the College cannot shorten or extend the duration of a cycle to accommodate a period of leave and there cannot be overlap with dates on previous cycles.

Whether you are working full-time or less than full-time, the CPD requirements are the same. We expect all psychiatrists should have a minimum of 1.5 SPA (Supporting Professional Activities) to complete their CPD in both full- time and less than full time working hours.  

Psychiatrists working less than full time hours are just as obliged to provide high-quality patient care as those working full-time, and thus should maintain the same commitment to their CPD.  

If you do not do any clinical CPD and cannot meet the minimum requirements, you cannot be issued with a CPD certificate of good standing from the College. However, you can use the CPD diary to record your CPD activity and discuss it during your appraisal.  

Your peer group should be composed only of psychiatrists (of any grade) rather than other mental health professionals or other doctors.

CPD points can only be approved by the peer group, as they are uniquely placed to understand the individual psychiatrist’s development needs.

Although course providers can recommend a CPD point allocation, this can only be done subject to approval by the peer group. To approve CPD activity for points, the peer group must be assured that learning and appropriate subsequent reflection has taken place.

This is an important principle, as the appropriateness of any learning activity can only be determined in relation to the individual professional and the nature of their work.

This has changed on the new platform, and you can now claim up to eight hours per day towards your submission.

A reflection on learning involves assessing the insights gained from various learning activities.  It is the responsibility of the peer group to ensure that reflections are thorough, honest, and demonstrate a clear understanding of the learning objectives.

This process should help you in identifying areas of improvement and ensuring that the CPD activities are genuinely beneficial to your professional development.

The academic and professional domains are combined under the overarching category of non-clinical activity.

The College recommends that you undertake a balanced mix of online and face-to-face CPD overall; however, where only online CPD is feasible, this will be accepted for the purposes of CPD submission.

The College can record an account as being on leave, during which time there is no obligation or expectation for the psychiatrist to complete a CPD submission.

On returning to work or resuming CPD activity, the psychiatrist should contact the College at cpdqueries@rcpsych.ac.uk to initiate a new CPD cycle, after which CPD activities can be added towards a certificate for that cycle.

In order to be eligible for a certificate of a good standing, you must be an active member of a peer group.  If you are finding this challenging, you may wish to consider any of the following:

• Participating in peer group meetings via telephone, video conferencing, or other suitable remote methods where face-to-face meetings are not feasible.
• Making enquiries within the relevant department or service to identify existing peer groups that may be joined.
• Contacting the local employer to seek access to any established peer groups.
• Establishing a new peer group by identifying and inviting suitable colleagues to participate.
• Seeking advice and guidance from medical directors regarding available options for peer group participation.

If your membership with the college is current, the college will accept a RANZCP CPD certificate, when available, as evidence for a CPD cycle should you wish to be considered in good standing with Royal College of Psychiatrists in the United Kingdom.

Upon submission of the certificate, the college will issue an RCPsych CPD certificate of good standing. It is not necessary for you to enter entries on the college's site if they are due to be issued a certificate from RANZCP.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists retains its position of not accrediting educational events or activities on the basis that individuals ought to distinguish which ones would contribute to their PDP, with the approval of their peer group wherever possible.

 With a maximum of 8 CPD points allowed per day, It is the responsibility of the individual and the peer group to ensure that an event is appropriate and relevant for a psychiatrist, and to approve it accordingly.

It is expected that psychiatrists will approach this responsibility in a rigorous and professional manner and be guided by the College CPD policy.

CPD is effectively self-directed and therefore it is possible that some events may be retrospectively approved, whilst other might conform to the objectives set at the beginning of the CPD cycle. 

You will need to evidence 20 hours of your activity via the platform.  You can add evidence at any point during the CPD submissions process or you can wait until your submission is selected for audit before uploading evidence. 

We will also contact two members of your peer group to provide feedback.  Once this process has been completed, then we will be able to release your RCPsych CPD certificate of good standing.

Any events that you book and attend through the College will be auto populated onto your CPD submissions account.  

Yes, you will need to enter the details of any eLearning undertaken onto your portal as part of your annual submission.  This information will not be auto populated on your account.