Revalidation and appraisal

Essential steps to revalidation

1. Register on GMC online
2. Confirm your designated body through GMC online
3. Know your revalidation date via GMC online
4. Gather supporting information
5. Prepare for, participate in and sign off annual appraisal
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 annually
7. Receive your revalidation recommendation (depending on the outcome of the above steps)

Supporting information you need to provide

• Evidence of your CPD (annually)
• Colleague feedback (once per revalidation cycle)
• Patient/parent feedback (once per revalidation cycle)
• Quality improvement activities eg clinical audits, particularly completed audit cycles, reflection on cases and clinical outcomes or other activities related to your role as, for example, teacher, researcher, manager (see GMC & RCPCH supporting information guidelines for frequency)
• Significant incidents that you have been involved with (as they occur)
• Complaints or compliments that you may have been involved with (as they occur)
• Statements on probity and health (annually)

The information and your reflections will need to be submitted for discussion at your annual appraisal.

If you are unclear about requirements for supporting information, please contact your appraiser or responsible officer in the first instance.

Guidance

Further guidance is available in the links section below and in related content. The key documents are:

• GMC guidance on supporting information for revalidation
• GMC framework for appraisal and assessment
• GMC leaflet "Meeting the GMC's requirements for revalidation"
• RCPCH guidance on supporting information for revalidation for paediatrics
• RCPCH parent and carer feedback tool for outpatient (OP) and intensive care (ICU) settings

Revalidation requirements are the same across the UK, however there are slightl differences to implementation, particularly around appraisal processes and doctors should refer to the relevant information from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the links section below for clarification.

Access to appraisals and Responsible Officers

As the RCPCH, we cannot provide doctors with appraisers or appraisal services. If you are not employed by an organisation which constitutes a designated body, there are various options available to you to access appraisals/link to a Responsible Officer (RO):

1. Retain a link with a former employer who will provide you with appraisal and RO services. Some Trusts offer this as part of a zero hours or honorary contract with former employees but they are likely to charge you a fee for this service.
2. Retain a link with a former colleague who is a trained medical appraiser and still holds a licence to practice and has agreement to act as your appraiser from their own organisation, and then either i) use the GMC direct route for revalidation which requires an annual submission to the GMC and a once in 5 year written assessment - the GMC charges for the annual return and the assessment, or ii) find a Suitable Person to make a recommendation to the GMC for you based on your annual appraisal. Use the GMC designated body tool to identify which route is most suitable and appropriate to you.
3. Link to an organisation that provides appraisal services, for example the Wessex Appraisal Service and then follow i) or ii) in item 2 above regarding your revalidation recommendation/RO alternative.
4. Link to an organisation that provides appraisal and RO services to members, for example, the Independent Doctors Federation offer this for a fee on top of their membership if you are accepted as a member, as does the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management.
5. Register for locum work with an agency which is a designated body with the GMC, and use their appraisal and RO services. See the current list of designated bodies.

How we can help

As the Revalidation team we are happy to clarify any queries - contact us on [email protected].

Disclaimer

The advice and guidance issued by the RCPCH should be interpreted in the context of local appraisal processes and supplemented by GMC advice and guidance. The responsibility for revalidation recommendations lies solely with the Responsible Officer and final decisions with the GMC.

To manage the range of queries and to ensure consistency of responses across paediatrics, queries from paediatricians, appraisees, appraisers, Responsible Officers and others to the RCPCH should be submitted by email to the revalidation team.

The RCPCH gives revalidation advice on specialty specific matters in response to a specific request. The RCPCH prepares or gives such advice in principle, based on the facts presented to them, with reasonable care and in good faith, and does not accept any liability arising from the advice. The advice will not be binding. The RCPCH undertakes to keep information supplied confidential unless otherwise required by law, court order or any governmental or regulatory authority, for reasons of patient safety. For the avoidance of doubt, the RCPCH reserves the right to disclose such information (in confidence) to the General Medical Council or other relevant regulatory authority where (acting reasonably) it considers it in the public interest to do so (individuals will only be identified if it is required for patient safety reasons).

All enquiries are handled in confidence by the RCPCH Revalidation team. Should an enquiry be forwarded on to a RCPCH revalidation specialty adviser, the personal information contained within that information will be redacted before it is sent on. This includes, name, contact details, location, employer, age, gender, religion, ethnic origin, etc.