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Updating your knowledge and skills

If you are returning to practice and have not practised for two years or more, we need you to update your knowledge and skills as follows:

2 to 5 years out of practice – 30 days of updating

5 or more years out of practice – 60 days of updating

In the ‘days’ requirements above, we consider 1 day to be equivalent to 7 hours.

Your period of updating knowledge and skills can be made up of any combination of: 

‘Supervised practice’ means practising under the supervision of a registered professional.

To complete a period of supervised practice, you will need to identify a supervisor. Your supervisor must:

  • have been on the relevant part of the HCPC Register for at least the previous three years; and
  • not be subject to any fitness to practise proceedings or sanctions
    (such as a caution or conditions of practice).

We do not set detailed requirements for the level of supervision needed, or the tasks that you need to carry out. We believe that this is best decided between you and your supervisor, based on your learning needs.

Your supervisor should only supervise activities which are within their own scope of practice. This is so they can provide relevant input and guidance, and also to make sure that both you and they are practising safely and effectively. This means that your period of supervised practice could be carried out, for example, in teaching, management or research, or wherever your supervisor practises their profession.

Unfortunately, we cannot help with arranging placements or finding opportunities for supervised practice.

You do not need to carry out updating of all three types.

Our only requirement is that private study must not make up any more than half the period.

For example, if you needed to do 30 days of updating, you could do this by completing:

- 30 days of supervised practice;

- 10 days of supervised practice, 10 days of private study, and 10 days of formal study; or

- 15 days of private study, and 15 days of formal study.

This is not a full list of possible combinations. The above are just examples to show how our requirements are flexible enough to meet your requirements.


Structuring your period of updating

We know that the updating you need to complete will be individual to you. The activities you carry out to update your knowledge and skills will depend on:

  • the area in which you plan to work when you begin practising again;
  • your prior experience;
  • any relevant skills you gained whilst out of practice; and
  • any relevant developments in your profession during the time when you were out of practice.

You may find it useful to use the standards of proficiency for your  profession as a basis for thinking about which areas you should concentrate on. If you are entitled to an ‘annotation’ on the Register because you have completed an additional qualification (for example, in prescribing), you should consider whether it is necessary for you to complete updating activities relevant to this area of practice.

By asking you to carry out a certain number of ‘updating days’, we are providing an outline which allows you to structure your period of updating in the way which best reflects your needs. 

You do not have to do your period of updating full-time, you can complete it part-time if you want.

Updating period length

For the purposes of completing your forms, we treat one day as being equivalent to seven hours. 

You also do not have to complete your entire period of updating at once. You can carry out part of your period of updating, have a break, and then come back and complete the rest.

From 1 February 2025, all of your updating will need to be completed, from start to finish, within the 12 months before you apply for registration or readmission (or within six months from when you renew your registration). There are some exceptions to this. Please see Our requirements if you are returning to practice for information.

As a returner to practice, you are responsible for your own period of updating and for making sure that you meet our standards before you return to practice.

We will ask you for information so that we can check that your updating period took place, but you are responsible for the learning that you carry out and for making a professional decision as to whether this updating is enough to allow you to practise safely and effectively.
All professionals, once registered with us, have to make sure that they meet our standards. This includes meeting our standards of conduct, performance and ethics, which mean that you practise within your scope of practice.

We believe that most professionals will take this responsibility seriously, and will carry out their updating in good faith. However, if after you have re-registered with us, we find that you are not practising in a way that meets our standards, we could take action against you using our fitness to practise process. Similarly, if we find that the information you have supplied is not accurate, we could take action which may include removing you from the Register.

Tudalen wedi'i diweddaru ymlaen: 01/01/2025
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