The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has launched a consultation on revalidation and its proposals to shake up the continuing professional development (CPD) system for pharmacy professionals.

In an attempt to simplify the recording requirements and improve the review of records, the proposed changes introduce a peer discussion and reflective account, reduce the number of CPD entries per year from nine to four and reduce the number of boxes to be completed from 18 to two or three. Under the proposals, pharmacy professionals will submit their CPD to the regulator annually when they renew their registration. While everyone will be required to submit their records annually, only a random sample of a minimum of 2.5 per cent of registrant’s records will be assessed. These changes will bring pharmacy professionals’ regulation into line with that of doctors, nurses and dentists.

The GPhC hopes that “this approach will be more engaging and meaningful to pharmacy professionals and will give a greater sense of assurance to the people using pharmacy services.”

Consultation on the proposals is open until 17 July and the GPhC is seeking the views of everyone who may be affected by them, including pharmacy technicians. 

Commenting on the consultation, Tess Fenn, APTUK president, said: “APTUK [has] been involved as a key stakeholder throughout the research, testing, piloting and evaluation development stages of the new framework, making sure it is suitable for pharmacy technicians. It is pleasing that the consultation is now released and APTUK urges all pharmacy technicians to have their say in the future requirements, due to be implemented in 2018.” 

APTUK will be consulting its members for their opinions to support its response. A workshop entitled “What you need to know: GPhC’s plans to change CPD and how to give your views” will also run at APTUK’s annual conference on 2-3 July 2017.