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Dental Nurses: Could Your CPD Record Pass a GDC Audit?
If the GDC asked to see your CPD record tomorrow, would it be ready? In 2025, 298 dental care professionals, including dental nurses, hygienists, therapists and technicians, were removed from the register for failing to comply with CPD requirements, so it is worth knowing what an audit involves and what counts as evidence.
In short:
- The GDC can audit your CPD at any time during your five-year cycle, and for up to five years after it ends.
- If you are selected, you send your Personal Development Plan, CPD activity log and evidence for each piece of verifiable CPD.
- You need at least 10 hours of verifiable CPD in every two-year period, as well as 50 hours across your cycle.
- Keep your own copies of every certificate, and check them as soon as you receive them.
What is a GDC CPD audit?
A CPD audit is when the GDC asks to see your CPD record to check it meets the requirements of the CPD scheme.
The GDC can audit your CPD at any time during your five-year cycle. It can also audit a record for up to five years after the cycle has finished, so you must keep your record for five years from the end of your cycle.
Who does the GDC ask?
The GDC says it does not routinely ask for CPD records. It normally only asks for your record if:
- you are applying to restore your name to the register
- you have not made your CPD statement
- you have not met your CPD requirements
- you have been randomly selected as part of a regular audit
Random selection is made across all registrant titles in proportion, so dental nurses are selected alongside dentists and other dental care professionals. You cannot plan around it, which is why your record needs to be ready at any time. The GDC asks you to make sure your record is up to date at the end of each CPD year.
What will you be asked to send?
If you are selected, the GDC will contact you and ask for your CPD record for the completed part of your current cycle, by a set date. Your record is made up of three things:
- your Personal Development Plan (PDP)
- your CPD activity log
- your evidence for each piece of verifiable CPD
Only send your record if the GDC asks for it. The hours in your log and evidence need to match the hours you declared in your annual CPD statements. The GDC provides templates for the activity log and PDP here. You can also download the Dental Nurse Network PDP template, which includes a CPD activity log, here.
Keep your own copies
It is important to be organised when it comes to CPD. The GDC requires you to keep your CPD record for five years from the end of your cycle. That means you could be asked about CPD you did up to ten years ago, so your certificates need to last that long.
We regularly hear from nurses asking for certificates for courses they completed five or ten years ago. Please keep your own copies, and do not rely on your CPD provider to keep a copy for you. Providers can close down, change their name or change their systems.
We have spoken to nurses who know they completed particular courses but have no record of them, and to nurses who have been audited and are struggling to find their certificates. One nurse was certain she was going to lose her registration. She had joined the register through the grandparenting route and was worried she would not be able to get back on. Thankfully, at the eleventh hour, she managed to track down the certificate she needed, but it took her a great deal of time and worry.
To protect yourself:
- Check each certificate as soon as you receive it, making sure your name is spelt correctly and the course title, date and hours are right.
- Download your certificate straight away, rather than relying on logging back in to the provider’s website later.
- Do not keep a paper copy only. Save a digital copy on your computer as well.
- Keep a backup somewhere else, such as a cloud drive or an email to yourself, in case your computer fails or is lost.
The two-year trap
Dental nurses need 50 hours of verifiable CPD across their five-year cycle. On top of that, the GDC requires at least 10 hours of verifiable CPD in every two-year period. This applies to any two CPD years in a row, not just once in your cycle.
This is where many nurses get caught out. It is easy to think you will catch up next year. But a nurse who does no CPD in the first two years of her cycle has already broken the rule, even if she planned to complete all 50 hours in the last three years. You can have a year with no CPD, but the GDC will then expect at least 10 hours in the year before it and the year after it.
At DNN, we recommend completing a minimum of 5 hours of verifiable CPD in every CPD year (1 August to 31 July). That way, any two years in a row will always add up to at least 10 hours, and you will never fall into the two-year trap. Remember you still need 50 hours across your whole cycle, so 5 hours a year on its own is not enough.
Get your CPD statement right first time
You make your CPD statement through MyGDC. You can update it at any time during the CPD year, up to the deadline of 28 August. Once that deadline has passed, you cannot change it. You may remember being able to go back and update your hours, but you cannot do this now.
For example, if you declare 30 hours in July and then remember in September that you completed another course, you cannot go back and add those hours to the statement you have already made. CPD you complete on or after 1 August also counts towards the next CPD year, not the one that has just ended.
Keep your activity log up to date as you go, and check your hours against your certificates before you make your statement.
What counts as evidence?
It is your responsibility to get evidence from your CPD provider, so check before you book that they can give you the evidence you need. The GDC describes CPD certificates as providing the evidence that you took part in the activity and that it meets the criteria for verifiable CPD.
Your evidence should show:
- your name
- the subject of the CPD
- the aims, objectives and learning content
- the GDC development outcomes the activity is expected to deliver
- the date you completed it
- the number of CPD hours
- confirmation that the CPD has been quality assured, and by whom
- confirmation from the provider that the information is full and accurate
What about emails?
The GDC’s guidance, updated in March 2025, now says providers can give evidence in electronic form, such as by email. Its earlier enhanced CPD guidance did not mention email, so this is a recent change. However, the GDC also says it must be satisfied that evidence is accurate and authentic, that it may ask for additional information to confirm the CPD you have declared, and that it may refuse evidence it is not satisfied with.
At DNN, we do not recommend relying on an email as your evidence. A certificate is the clearest proof for the GDC, and it still stands if the provider later closes down or cannot be contacted. If a provider cannot give you a certificate, think carefully before booking with them.
What is a mapping document?
Some verifiable CPD does not come with a certificate that shows the details the GDC requires. The GDC gives a peer review as an example. Another could be a university module or other course that is highly relevant to your role but does not issue a standard CPD certificate. In that case, the GDC says you may be able to use its verifiable CPD mapping document instead. The GDC’s guidance says that where information is missing from a certificate, you can ask the CPD provider to complete a mapping document. Keep the completed document alongside a clear and detailed account of the CPD you did.
Since March 2025, a mapping document no longer needs a signature. Instead, you can provide an email confirmation from your CPD provider. You can download the GDC’s verifiable CPD mapping document here.
What changed in March 2025?
On 4 March 2025, the GDC simplified some of the paperwork around CPD evidence. The number of hours you need did not change.
- Your GDC registration number no longer has to appear on your CPD certificates.
- Certificates no longer need a signature. The provider can confirm that the information is full and accurate in a statement on the certificate, or in an email to you.
- Mapping documents no longer need a signature, as explained above.
Is your record audit ready?
- I have completed, or am on track for, 50 hours of verifiable CPD in my five-year cycle
- I have done at least 10 hours of verifiable CPD in every two-year period
- I have made my CPD statement every year, including any year I did no CPD, by the 28 August deadline, and I have not declared zero hours in two CPD years in a row
- My CPD is relevant to my field of practice
- My PDP is up to date
- My activity log matches the hours I have declared
- I have evidence for every piece of verifiable CPD, ideally a certificate, showing all the details the GDC requires
- I will keep my record for five years after my cycle ends
What if you are removed from the register?
If you are removed for not meeting your CPD requirements, you can apply to be restored through MyGDC. You will need to send five years of verifiable CPD evidence, or evidence from the start of your current cycle if you had been on the register for less than five years. The evidence must be dated within five years of your application, and you also send your activity log and PDP.
If you cannot finish your CPD by the end of your cycle and have a good reason, you can apply to the GDC for a grace period, which may give you up to 56 extra days. If you still have not met the requirements by the end of it, you may be removed from the register.
Our guide How to re-register with the GDC explains the restoration process step by step, and our Get Back on the Register bundle gives you 50 hours of verifiable CPD.
Sources
All from the General Dental Council.
Keep your CPD on track with Dental Nurse Network