Please find below answers to many frequently asked questions regarding the CPD Diary Scheme. 

If you cannot find the answer to your question here, or if you need more detailed help or advice, please contact the CPD Office by emailing cpd@rcplondon.ac.uk.

 

Quick Start Guidelines

Please use the Quick Start Guidelines for advice on how to use the diary.

 Quick Start Guidelines (PDF 130kb opens in new window)

The CPD Diary Scheme has been written into an up-to-date programming language to allow connectivity to a future revalidation e-portfolio. 

 

Question Topics

Please choose the topic most relevant to your question, and go to that section to find more specific questions and responses.

 

Registration, Login and Passwords

  • 1. How do I get a code number and password?
  • 2. How do I change my password?
  • 3. My password is not being accepted or I cannot log in, what can I do?

1. How do I get a code number and password?

Your code number and password are issued by email when you register.  For more information on registration, please go to the CPD registration page . 

Your CPD code number is the same as your RCP Membership Number.  The initial access password has been encrypted to ensure privacy and protection. The first time that you login to your Online CPD Diary, you will need to use the password that we sent you.  You will then be required to create a new memorable, personal password for your own use. Your personal password will remain unchanged unless it is forgotten.

If you have mislaid your code number, please contact the CPD Administrator at the College that administers your CPD, with your date of birth, GMC number and full name.

If you have forgotten your Password, please click on "Forgotten your password?" Enter your code number and a new password will be sent to your registered email address.

Please let us know if you have changed your contact details.

2. How do I change my password?

The first time that you login to your Online CPD Diary, you will need to use the Password that we sent you.  You will then be required to create a memorable, personal password for your own use.

If you wish to change your password: login, select the Administration tab and follow the instructions.

3. My password is not being accepted or I cannot log in, what can I do?

If you are sure that your code number and password are correct, but you are still experiencing problems logging into your Online CPD Diary, please try the following:

Log on again, ensuring that both numbers are entered correctly.  Please note that the symbol in the middle of the password maybe an exclamation mark (!) and not a number 1.  You could also try copying and pasting the password and code number rather than typing them.  You can do this by highlighting the number and right-clicking on it. Select 'Copy'. Then right-click on the appropriate box on the CPD Diary login page and select 'Paste'.  If this does not work, try closing down your web browser and re-opening the web page before trying the login again.

If you are still unable to login please click on "Forgotten your password?".  Enter your code number, this is your RCP Membership number, and a new password will be sent to your registered email address.  You will need to use the password that we email you.  Once you login you will then be required to create a new memorable, personal password for your own use. Your personal password will remain unchanged unless forgotten.

Sometimes local security and/or firewall settings may prevent you from logging into the Diary.  If this is the case, try to log in from a different computer, or contact your IT support team.

If you are still unable to access your Online CPD Diary, please contact the CPD Office, and we will be happy to help.

 

CPD Credit Categories and Minimum Requirements

4. What are the different CPD credit categories?

CPD credits can be either clinical or non-clinical and can be derived from personal, internal or external activities.

  • Clinical credits concern any event in which the educational content directly relates to clinical topics.
  • Non-clinical credits concern an educational event that is not directly related to clinical issues, e.g. management courses, ethical and legal issues, appraisal training.
  • External credits are given for events outside the hospital or trust such as attending conferences and study days. These may be regional, national or international meetings, and are often held by specialist societies, or are meetings that attendees pay for.  
  • Internal credits are events within or organised by the hospital/trust, or provided solely for local clinicians. E.g. hospital Grand Rounds, journal clubs clinico-pathological conferences, local evening medical meetings, etc.
  • Personal credits relate to study such as private reading, lecturing, researching etc.

5. What are Exemption Credits?

Exemption credits may be claimed in exceptional circumstances if you are unable to meet the annual minimum requirements due to illness, maternity leave or long absence from work.  Exemption credits should be added to your CPD credit total so that you meet the minimum credit requirements for that CPD year.
Please note that exemption credits are not real credits and only exempt you for the year for which they are claimed. You will need to replace these exemption credits with additional real credits over the rolling five year cycle. You may make up these additional real credits with extra credits in years that precede or follow the exemption year.

 

6. What are the annual minimum credit requirements for CPD?

The annual minimum credit requirements are a total of 50 CPD credits.  Certain minimum and maximum restrictions apply to the categories of credits claimed:

  • External – the annual minimum requirement for external credits is 25.
  • Internal – There are no restrictions or requirements on the number of Internal credits claimed.
  • Personal – Only 10 personal credits may count towards the total annual minimum credit requirement.  However, you may record as many Personal credits as you have completed.
  • Distance learning - only the first 7 RCP approved distance learning credits will be counted as external, the remainder can be claimed as personal. 
  • MSc - only 50 external credits may be claimed for an MSc or equivalent activity each year, the remainder can be claimed as personal.
  • Examining - only 12 external credits may be claimed for MRCP (UK) examining activities each year, all other examining activities can be claimed as personal.

7. What is the 5 Year Cycle?

Once you have completed 5 years of CPD using the CPD Diary Scheme, your 5-year credit totals will also be displayed, and a 5-year certificate can be printed.  The 5-Year Cycle is a 'rolling cycle', and so always displays the figures for the last 5 CPD years in which CPD activities were recorded.  It is not possible to change the figures in the rolling cycle, or to exclude years in which the annual minimum requirements were not met.

The credit requirements for any 5-year cycle are a total of 250 CPD credits.  Of these, 125 must be clinical external and we recommend that 25 should be non-clinical external.
 

As above, a maximum of 50 personal credits may be claimed, and only 35 RCP approved distance learning credits and 60 MRCP (UK) examining credits may count towards the total external credits claimed.  If 50 MSc or equivalent credits are claimed each year, these may all count towards the total credit requirements, but it should be noted whether they are clinical or non-clinical so that these requirements are also met.

8. I work part-time, what are my CPD requirements?

In line with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, all UK Physicians who are registered to use the Federation CPD Scheme must meet the same annual minimum credit requirements of 50 CPD credits, regardless of working hours.

9. Do I have to plan my CPD Activities?

You are advised to plan your professional development, taking into account your current and projected future job roles and any learning objectives.  You can plan your CPD year by adding future events to your diary and then evaluating the meetings once you have attended them.

10. Do I need to keep evidence of my CPD Activities?

You are required to retain evidence of completion of any Self-Certified external CPD credits which you have recorded in your CPD Diary.  It is recommended that you keep all evidence of CPD activities for a minimum of five years for your own records and for appraisal purposes. 

Evidence can take the form of any of the following: certificates, joining instructions, confirmation letters, programmes and handouts.

 

Searching for and Adding Approved External Activities 

11. I cannot find an External activity by searching in the database. Why?

There are a number of reasons that an activity would not appear in the list of approved events:

  • Only activities that have applied to the RCP for approval will appear in the database of events.  If the provider of the event has not contacted the college, then we will have no record of the event.  In this case, please record the meeting as a self-certified activity.
  • Some event providers apply for approval late, and so approval has to be given retrospectively.
  • If an event has already been added to your CPD Diary, then it will no longer appear when you try to search for it.

12. How do I add, edit or delete an Approved External activity from my CPD Diary?

To Add Approved External Activities:

Once you have found the External meeting in the database of approved events, click on the title of the event to bring up further information about the provider and location of the event.  You may then click 'Add to Diary' to add the event to your CPD Diary, or  use the 'Back' button to return to the list of events. 

Before the credits for a certain event can be added to your CPD credits totals, you need to Evaluate the meeting.  You do this by clicking on the 'Evaluate' button, either when you have added the meeting, or from the Main Diary page.  You will need to rate how good the event was, and give a personal reflection.  You will also need to select the number of hours to claim.  If you did not attend the whole meeting, then please claim 1 CPD credit per hour attended.  If you did attend the whole meeting, then claim the maximum approved credits for that event.

The purpose of the evaluation and reflection is to help you to identify and explain the relevance of the activity to your daily practice, and may also be used as a reminder of what was learnt.  You are able to review your reflections of an event at any time.  Please note that there is a maximum number of characters for a reflection. If you exceed the limit, or take more than 20 minutes to submit it, then your reflection will not be accepted, and you will have to enter it again.

To Edit Approved External Activities Already Added to your Diary:

You are able to edit the reflection by clicking on the title of the event.  

 

MRCP(UK) Examining

13. Can I claim External CPD Credits for examining activities?

You may only claim External CPD credits only those examining activities which appear in the searchable database of Approved External events.  These include examining for MRCP(UK) PACES 1 and 2, and acting as a KBA Examining Board member, KBA Question Group member or KBA Standard Setting member.
 

The RCP London Examinations Department issues CPD certificates once a year for all MRCP(UK) Examining Activities.

 

Distance Learning

14. Can I claim External CPD Credits for Distance Learning or online activities?

You may only claim external credits for Distance learning courses which have been approved by the RCP.  You may find all approved distance learning courses by searching for the course in the distance learning field of the 'Add Entries' page of the CPD Diary.  Only the first 7 CPD credits towards the annual minimum requirements for external credits, and the rest will be counted as personal credits.

All other distance learning courses (i.e. all that are not approved and may not be found be searching in CPD Diary database) should be claimed as personal CPD credits.

Exemption Credits

15. Can I claim Exemption Credits?

Exemption credits may be claimed if a prolonged absence from work has meant that you have been unable to complete the annual minimum credit requirements. We advise you to consult your appraiser if you intend to claim exemption. You do not need to advise the CPD office if your appraiser agrees to you claiming exemption credits.

The exemption credits will be added to your CPD credit total so that you will meet the minimum credit requirements for the current CPD year. Please remember that the exemption credits will not be added to your 5-year total and will need to be made up in another CPD year in order for you to meet the minimum requirements for the 5-year cycle. This means that you will need to complete extra external CPD credits in the following years.

You are advised to wait until the end of the CPD year (March 31st) until you claim your exemption credits, as you will then know how many hours you need to claim.

 

CPD Certificates and Credits Achieved

16. How can I check whether I have completed the minimum credit requirements for this year?

When you log in to your CPD Diary, at the top of the Main diary page there is a notice, which lets you know if you have met the minimum credit requirement for the current CPD year. If you have met the requirements you will see a green tick, if not a red cross. 

For detailed information of all CPD credits that you have claimed whilst registered with the Federation CPD Scheme, please click on the 'Credit Achieved' tab to view your CPD credit history.  All CPD credits claimed are displayed on this page, whether they were submitted using the Online Diary, or the old Manual Scheme.

17. How to I print a CPD Credits Certificate?

We no longer send out copies of CPD credits certificates as it is possible for you to print them out yourself using your Online CPD Diary.

To print your CPD credits certificate for any completed CPD year, log in to your Diary and click the Credits Achieved tab, select the year you wish to print, click Certificate.

You will go to your CPD certificate for that year, which you may print out by using the print function in your web browser.

 

End of CPD Year Procedures

18. When does the CPD Year end?

The CPD year runs from 1st April to the 31st March each year.  For each CPD year, you may only count credits achieved from activities completed between 1st April and 31st March of the relevant year.  In cases where a conference crosses over the End of Year boundary, please contact the CPD office for further advice. 
 

19. What do I need to do by the end of the CPD Year?

You have until 30th June each year to finish recording CPD activities for the year just completed.  After this date, it is not possible to record or amend activities in the CPD Diary for the previous CPD year.  It is therefore very important that you ensure that you have entered all of your CPD records on time.  We advise you to do this well before the end of June deadline as we experience a high volume of queries at this time, and it may take longer to solve any problems.

If you have claimed any unlisted external credits, make sure that you have the relevant evidence of attendance available in case this is required for audit purposes.  For more information on the CPD audit, return to the top of the page, and click CPD Audit Requirements tab.