CPD requirements by profession

HCPC CPD requirements for health and care professionals

Last reviewed 16 October 2026

If you are looking for the number of CPD hours the HCPC requires, there isn't one, and that is deliberate. The HCPC regulates fifteen professions with very different roles and very different access to training, and a single hours target would suit almost none of them well.

No hours — but not no requirement

This is the misreading that causes problems. “No hours target” is not “no obligation”. You are still required to meet the CPD standards, and at renewal you sign to confirm you do.

What the standards ask for is a continuous record of relevant learning, a mix of activity types, and evidence that the learning has benefited your practice and ultimately service users. The absence of a number shifts the burden from counting to demonstrating — which is harder to fake and harder to do at the last minute.

The 2.5% audit

At the start of each renewal window, the HCPC randomly selects 2.5% of registrants in each profession and asks them to submit a CPD profile with supporting evidence.

Selection is random, so there is no profile of behaviour that makes you more or less likely to be picked. The practical implication is simple: your records need to be submittable at any renewal, not assembled if you are called.

What a profile that holds up looks like

Audited profiles that pass tend to share the same features, and none of them is about volume:

• A range of activity — not fifteen instances of the same type of learning.
• Activity that is plainly relevant to your current scope of practice, with the link stated rather than assumed.
• A clear account of what changed as a result — for your practice, and for service users.
• Evidence attached, not promised.

The weakest profiles are usually not thin on activity. They are thin on the connection between the activity and the work — a list of courses with no argument.

Where CPD accreditation fits — and where it doesn't

The HCPC states plainly that it does not approve or endorse any CPD activities. No accreditation body, ours included, can make a course “HCPC-approved”, and any provider claiming to be is misrepresenting what they hold. Under a standards-based model there is nothing for a regulator to pre-approve: what matters is what you can show about your own learning.

What independent accreditation offers here is narrower than in an hours-based profession, and worth being honest about. It does not satisfy an HCPC requirement, because there is no quantitative requirement to satisfy. What it does is make the evidence easier to write: an AssuredCPD-accredited course states its learning outcomes up front, which gives you something concrete to reflect against, and carries a verifiable reference so the evidence stands on more than your own description.

If a provider tells you their accreditation means your HCPC obligation is met, they are wrong, and we say so about our own mark too — see what you can and can't claim once a course is CPD accredited.

What to look for in a course

Whatever body you report to, the same four questions separate learning that will stand up from learning that won't:

• Are the learning outcomes written down? You cannot reflect on what a course changed if it never said what it intended to teach.
• Is the hour claim justified, or just asserted? An inflated figure is the single most common reason a course fails our assessment, and it is the figure you will be putting your name to.
• Was anything actually assessed? A completion certificate for watching a video is not evidence of learning.
• Can the certificate be checked by someone else? A PDF proves nothing on its own. A reference a third party can verify does.

How the UK bodies compare

CPD requirements are set independently by each body, and they differ more than most people expect. Three of the eight below set no hours target at all. Knowing which model you are under matters more than knowing any single number — it changes whether you should be counting time or evidencing impact.

Two practical points fall out of that table. First, an hours figure from one body tells you nothing about another — a nurse counting 35 hours over three years and a Chartered IOSH member counting 30 a year are doing very different things. Second, if you hold dual registration, you are under both regimes at once, and the stricter one governs your planning.

Five mistakes that cost people their CPD year

These come up across every regime, and all five are avoidable at no cost.

1. Planning against the wrong year. Some bodies run January to December, some from your own renewal or registration date. Diarise your date, not a colleague's.
2. Leaving the interactive part until last. Participatory hours, peer discussions and facilitated sessions all need another person's time. They are the components most likely to slip, and the least possible to do in a hurry.
3. Collecting certificates that prove attendance but not learning. If the certificate does not state learning outcomes and hours, you are reconstructing the detail from memory months later — and under a verifiable-CPD regime you may not be able to count it at all.
4. Recording activity but not impact. Every records-based and standards-based regime asks what changed in your practice. A list of course titles answers a different question.
5. Believing a provider's claim of regulator approval. None of the bodies above approve or endorse external CPD providers. A course advertised as “approved” by your regulator is misdescribed, and repeating that claim in your own record is your exposure, not the provider's.

Common questions

How many CPD hours does the HCPC require?

None. The HCPC does not set a number of hours or points that registrants must complete. It sets CPD standards instead, and asks registrants to confirm at each renewal that they continue to meet them.

How does the HCPC CPD audit work?

At the start of each renewal period the HCPC randomly selects 2.5% of registrants in each profession and asks them to submit a CPD profile with supporting evidence. Selection is random, and registrants who have been registered for less than two years are not audited.

Does the HCPC approve CPD courses or providers?

No. The HCPC does not approve or endorse any CPD activities. No accreditation body can make a course HCPC-approved, and a provider claiming that is misrepresenting what it holds.

If there are no hours, what does the HCPC actually want?

A continuous record of relevant learning, a mix of activity types, and evidence that the learning has benefited your practice and service users. The emphasis is on demonstrating impact rather than counting time.

Am I audited every time I renew?

No. Only a random 2.5% of each profession is selected at each renewal. Because selection is random, records should be ready to submit at any renewal rather than assembled after being selected.

Do CPD hours from one professional body count for another?

Usually yes, if the learning is relevant to your practice under both, but the arithmetic does not transfer. Each body sets its own requirement, period and recording rules, so the same activity may need to be logged twice in different formats. If you hold dual registration, plan against the stricter regime.

Can any training provider be approved by my regulator?

Generally no. The UK professional bodies covered here do not approve, endorse or pre-authorise external CPD providers or courses. A provider advertising itself as regulator-approved is misdescribing what it holds, and repeating that claim in your own CPD record is your exposure.

What should a good CPD certificate show?

The provider, the date, the hours claimed, the learning outcomes covered, and a reference someone else can check independently. A certificate stating only that you attended is the most common reason people struggle to evidence an activity later.

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AssuredCPD is an independent CPD accreditation body. We are not a government or regulatory body and do not award regulated qualifications. AssuredCPD accreditation is not endorsement, approval or recognition by any professional body named on this page, and we have no affiliation with them. Requirements are summarised from each body’s own published guidance and were checked on 16 October 2026; those bodies change their rules from time to time, so always confirm against the official source linked above before relying on it.