Annual Requirements

Requirements for the 2025-2026 PCS Year are 50 credits across four categories:

You must retain evidence to support all your recorded activity on file for a minimum of six years, as per Medical Council guidelines. This evidence can be included on your ePortfolio where it will remain for four PCS years (current year and three previous); you must also maintain a copy in your own files for a minimum of six PCS years.

Evidence should include the following:

• Accredited CE: the certificate of attendance given at an event which shows details of the accrediting body. For events recorded with a CPDR code, the certificate of attendance will be automatically generated in the ePortfolio and no further documentation is required.
• Work-based Learning: details of the activity such as notes and details for meetings* (eg. number of people in attendance, topics discussed); the name of the journal/website, the date of issue or date of access and the topics covered; outline of teaching content or title of published paper for research and education activity.
• Practice Review: detailed summary/report of the audit, quality improvement, and/or practice evaluation.*
• The Professional Development Plan is integrated into the ePortfolio and there is no need to add any additional material. Once complete, it will be possible to download a PDF file of your PDP.

*Important: Patient identifiers should never appear on your ePortfolio or on any evidence used to support the recording of your professional competence activities.

Downloading ePortfolio evidence and activity

The upgraded ePortfolio includes a new function to allow doctors to easily download and save all supporting evidence and documentation in their ePortfolio, including certificates of attendance generated by College CPDR codes, and a log of all activity recorded.

The Medical Council and new PCS Framework now require a distinction between doctors engaged and not engaged in the practice of medicine and the type of CPD activity they need to undertake. This provides greater flexibility and clarity to doctors to direct their own development and meet their annual PCS requirements.

For the purpose of PCS, engagement in the practice of medicine by registered medical professionals includes any of the following activities

• Involved in the act of diagnosing, treating, or managing illnesses and medical conditions, including telemedicine consultations
• Provide medical advice
• Develop and/or deliver medical education
• Prescribe medications
• Perform medical procedures
• Develop and/or implement preventative programmes (e.g. CDM)
• Conduct relevant medical research
• Take any other actions which require medical knowledge and skills

Doctors who declare that they are not engaged in the practice of medicine when registering with the Medical Council are excluded from the entitlement to issue prescriptions.

Doctors are required to indicate to their PCS if they are not engaged in the practice of medicine based on the list above. The requirement to complete a practice review activity (audit) depends on whether a doctor is currently engaged in the practice of medicine. Doctors who declare they are ‘not engaged’ have some flexibility with the requirements, as outlined in the table above, but must still complete a minimum of 50 hours annually.

Doctors who take 3 months or more of statutory leave during a PCS year have a reduced PCS requirement under the new Medical Council framework. This applies to sick leave, maternity leave, parental, carers, or other types of statutory leave. You must notify the College regarding your situation.