With just under two weeks to go to the deadline for dental care professionals (DCPs) to make a compliant CPD statement, almost 6,000 are yet do so. Within that number, around 4,600 are yet to make a statement at all, and 1,400 have made statements which do not comply with the rules.

CPD rules require dental professionals to make a compliant statement every year, as well as at the end of their five-year cycle, by August 28, 2022, and the General Dental Council is calling on DCPs to make sure their statements are in order before it’s too late.

GDC chief operating officer, Gurvinder Soomal said, “The vast majority of dental care professionals renewed their registration last year with no complications, but more than 3,100 didn’t meet the CPD rules in 2021. That’s 3,100 DCPs who had paid their annual retention fee and made an indemnity declaration but failed to be compliant on CPD. We know that many of these were simple administrative oversights.

“This can have serious consequences for the individual, and for the team they work in, as non-compliance can end up with removal from the register. I’d encourage DCPs to check now to make sure everything is in order.”

For the last eight weeks the regulator has been urging DCPs to check to make sure they are compliant on CPD and encouraging employers and the wider dental team to think about how DCP colleagues could be supported to avoid problems. More recently, this has included a range of communication with DCPs who have not yet submitted a compliant statement — the latest instance being a text message on August 12, 2022 — and affected DCPs are encouraged to read that information and get in touch with the GDC if they are unsure about what to do.

The quickest and easiest way to make a CPD statement is through eGDC, and it takes just five minutes to set up an account if one is not already in place. The GDC provides further guidance and information about enhanced CPD on its website.

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