New PCS Framework

We advise ensuring that you meet all requirements for the 2024 2025 PCS year by the 30 April 2025 deadline. The requirements are currently 40 CPD credits in any category and 1 audit or quality improvement project. We also advise ensuring that you retain copies of all your evidence, as per Medical Council requirements, for the current PCS year and previous 5 years.
Keep an eye out for communications received both from the Medical Council and the College for important information, updates and advice regarding the new framework. Updates will be given across a variety of channels, including email, newsletter, webinars and social media.

A Professional Development Plan (PDP) is a tool for doctors to plan their CPD by setting clear educational goals. The plan should be linked to a doctor’s scope of practice, the wider health system and guided by the overall goal of improving patient outcomes. Plans must be developed and updated annually and the Irish College of GPs is developing a template that will be integrated into your ePortfolio for ease of use.
Requiring an annual PDP brings the Irish PCS system more into line with international standards, and is based on research that shows that this exercise leads to positive outcomes. The Medical Council Guidelines are clear that the PDP is a professional development tool and not a performance management tool. It is focused on your annual learning only. The plan is meant to be flexible, and your learning may change and evolve through the year to follow your needs.

We are developing a range of supports to help all GPs meet their requirements under the new framework. The College has appointed a GP Officer for Lifelong Learning, Dr Ciarán Ó Fearraigh to provide GP leadership, clinical guidance and expertise to support the implementation of the new framework and to develop best practice supports and guidance to enrolees, while keeping the GP voice to the fore. Keep an eye on your emails for updates and news on webinars, tools and guidance that we will be providing.
The PCS team will be on hand to answer any queries and demonstrate the upgraded ePortfolio at the College National Conference in Cork on Saturday 17 May 2025. We can also be contacted by phone or email to answer any queries you may have: Contact Us
Available supports can be found on the College website and will be added to as new resources such as templates and samples become available.

There are broad similarities with the previous requirements and you will be able to continue with many of the same activities, while recording them under the new categories. There are also some new requirements that we suggest you familiarise yourself with.
The PDP is now a separate mandatory requirement, where it used to be an optional activity for internal credits.
The audit requirement has been broadened into a Practice Review category which can include a clinical audit, quality improvement, or a practice evaluation project to review and enhance practice (which may be in clinical practice, research, teaching, etc.). For example

• Review of critical incidents or significant events
• Review of compliments or complaints
• Structured feedback from colleagues/ patients/ students
• Patient satisfaction survey 

The new Work-based learning category encompasses the activity previously recorded under internal credits, such as personal learning, research, and teaching. This will continue to include activities such as practice meetings, case discussions, journal reading, participation in research and education (such as GP training), and committees.
The new Accredited CE activity category (previously external credits) includes attendance at conferences, webinars, courses, and workshops. It is important to note that all activity must now be accredited (previously known as CPD recognition). The accreditation can be by the Irish College of GPs or another Irish postgraduate medical training body such as RCPI or RCSI, or at an international level by equivalent bodies such as EACCME or RCGP. All College courses are accredited, including webinars, blended courses, on demand modules, and CME meetings. A course from an Irish university with a QQI accreditation, for example a Masters Degree that is related to your scope of practice, is also acceptable.

CME meetings will continue to be recognised for 2 credits in the Accredited CE category and 2 credits in the Work-based Learning category, which will be allocated automatically with your CPDR code as before.

The Medical Council has defined eight domains of good professional practice, which describe a framework of competencies applicable to all doctors across the continuum of professional development from formal medical education and training through to maintenance of professional competence.  The Eight Domains are

• Patient safety and quality of care
• Relating to patients
• Communication and interpersonal skills
• Collaboration and teamwork
• Management (including self-management)
• Scholarship
• Professionalism
• Clinical skills.

Under the new framework, doctors must address each of the Eight Domains of Professional Practice in their CPD at least once over a three-year period. We anticipate that this requirement will be easy for GPs to meet given the breadth of activities they engage in day to day. You will easily be able to record and track the Eight Domains through the ePortfolio. For activities added with a CPDR code, the Eight Domains will pre-populate, together with the details of event and credits.
Further information about the Eight Domains is available on our website.

Doctors who complete their annual retention of registration with the Medical Council are required to declare that they are maintaining their professional competence. The declarations cover the preceding and current scheme years and will include one of the following

• That the annual minimum CPD requirements for the PCS year have been met and recorded
• That the doctor did not practice for a period of greater than 3 months in the PCS year due to illness, maternity, parental, carers, or other forms of statutory leave
• That the doctor practised medicine in the Republic of Ireland for less than 30 days during the previous PCS year and has complied with the CPD requirements in the other state in which they practised medicine
• That the doctor is on the trainee specialist division of visiting EEA practitioners’ register and therefore is not required to enrol on a Professional Competence Scheme.