Instructions for CPD diary and submissions
The online diary is free to use for all members of FPH and to Associate members who are subscribing to the CPD scheme. It enables you to keep a record of your CPD activities and your Personal Development Plan (PDP) each year and submit your annual CPD return online. The online diary is the only way FPH members can record their CPD and make a submission - there are no 'paper' submissions. It is advisable to record CPD activities in the diary as they are completed rather than at the end of the CPD year.
The Faculty CPD year runs from 1 April to 31 March. All members in the Faculty’s CPD scheme are required to submit minimum of three and maximum of six CPD activities with reflective notes.
The deadline for your CPD submission is 30 April. However, submissions can be made anytime during the year when you have at least three good quality CPD activities with reflective notes.
Summary of the steps needed to make your annual CPD submission
(more detailed diary advice is available below):
1. Record your PDP objective(s) for the year in the “PDP Objectives” section. These are normally discussed during your last appraisal meeting.
2. During the CPD year, keep recording CPD activities and reflective notes in the “CPD Activities” section. Make sure the dates of the activities are within the current CPD year, otherwise the system will allocate these to another year. Make sure the activities you want to submit for return are linked to your PDP objective(s). Not all activities have to be relevant to your PDP objectives. You can record as many activities as you wish.
3. You MUST submit your CPD return from “ Annual CPD Returns” section. (choosing 3-6 CPD activities in “CPD Activities” section is not sufficient)
- Choose the current year and click on “DETAILS” button.
- Choose between three to six CPD activities by clicking “ADD” button and ticking the activities from the dropdown menu. Make sure these activities are linked to your PDP objective(s), otherwise they won’t appear in the dropdown list.
- Tick the box that you agree the submission to be part of annual review (compulsory)
- Submit your return by clicking “Submit CPD Return”.
Please note if any of the reflective note boxes are left empty, the system won’t let you to submit the return.
4. Download your CPD certificate and CPD activities/Reflective notes reports to use on our annual appraisal meeting from “Evidence for appraisal” section.
For further help please contact cpd@fph.org.uk.
You can only log in to the CPD diary via the FPH members’ portal. You need to provide the email address and password held on the Faculty system and you will receive an email to that address with an eight digit security code, which can be used to enter the portal.
Once you have logged in to the members portal, you will be able to record your CPD activities, PDP objectives, reflective notes and make annual CPD returns in the My CPD section. Navigate through the different screens in the portal by clicking the Close button at the bottom of each page. Do not use the ‘back’ button in your browser as you may be logged out of the system.
FPH members may be eligible for exemption from participating in the Faculty’s CPD scheme on application to FPH if you:
- Do not undertake ANY public health practice.
- Have exceptional circumstances (parental leave, sick leave etc.).
- Participate in another CPD scheme.
- Are in the following categories of FPH members:
- Honorary Members and Fellows.
- Members and Fellows through distinction.
- International Practitioners.
To request an exemption, click on Exemption Request, choose your reason for exemption, the start and end date of the exemption and a description and any supporting evidence. Once the request is submitted it will be reviewed by the Faculty’s CPD Director and the CPD team will respond to you by email.
In this section you can create, view, edit and delete your PDP objectives. PDP objectives can be filtered on this page by clicking the Edit button under Status.
The requirement to create a PDP and link CPD activities to your PDP has not changed from the previous version of the CPD diary. Your PDP objectives from the previous diary will be migrated to the new diary and you can continue to link new and existing CPD activities to those objectives.
To create a new PDP objective, click Create New PDP Objective and a new window will open with a new draft objective defaulting to the current CPD year. The default status of this PDP objective will be Current. Your new PDP objective can be edited and then either saved (press Close and then Save Changes) or deleted (press Delete This PDP Objective or Close and Cancel).
To view or edit an existing PDP objective, click the Details button and from this screen you can edit, save or delete the objective. To change the status of a PDP objective, click on Edit and change to Current, Completed or No longer relevant.
At the bottom of the main PDP Objectives screen you can create a downloadable PDP Objectives Report, based on the Status field shown at the top of the PDP Objectives screen.
To view, create, edit and delete your CPD activities, click on CPD Activities. As you land on the page, the default filter will show activities for the current year, though you can choose which activities to show by clicking on CPD Year / Edit or by choosing a specific date range.
Clicking on Create New CPD activity on the right-of the screen opens a new window opens with four tabs along the top of the screen:
- General: provide details of the activity, start and end dates (end date must be in current or next CPD cycle year), activity type (from a drop-down box), and any linked PDP objectives (from a drop-down box of current PDP objectives). You can add as many PDP objectives as you wish.
- Reflective notes: this provides a structured form for you to add your reflection on the particular CPD activity. Hovering over the text box will prompt a pop-up message with further information about the field.
- Competencies: choose which competencies are applicable (this is optional).
- Domains: choose which domains of Good Medical Practice are applicable (this is optional)
You can save your work at any time and continue later; you can move between the four tabs on this screen without saving your changes, but you must save changes before you Close this screen and navigate back to the main CPD Activities page.
You can pre-select a particular CPD activity for CPD return when you create or edit an activity by ticking the Pre-select for annual return option. This means the activity will be automatically included in your CPD return for the current year, although you can remove it at the point of submission.
Each year, you are required to submit a CPD return to remain in good standing. Each CPD year runs from 1 April to 31 March. You need to submit your annual CPD return before 30 April for the CPD year just completed.
From the main CPD menu click Annual CPD Returns where you will be able to view all your previous CPD returns and make a submission for the current cycle (if not yet submitted). The Details button will provide you with further details of each CPD return. You can download your CPD return report, CPD certificate and CPD Review Report if these are available to you.
To make a CPD submission for the current year click on the Details tab for that year and the Return due date will be shown. You can include between 3-6 CPD activities that are linked to your PDP objectives by clicking on Add which will open a list of your CPD activities related to that CPD cycle. Before submitting, you must tick the box agreeing to have your return quality assessed should you be selected. You can also at this stage choose to have your return voluntarily quality assessed if resources allow for this.
Click on the Submit CPD Return button below to submit this CPD return. If the return due has already passed, the button Submit CPD Return will not be present. In this case, please send an email to cpd@fph.org.uk requesting that the due date be extended.
You can preview your CPD return report as a PDF document before submitting it. After submitting the report, you will not be able to edit or amend that report any further as any review needs to be undertaken on a ‘stable’ version of your CPD return. However, you are able to continue recording activities and editing your CPD diary entries, but any changes you make will not be shown on the version provided to the CPD reviewers.
To retrieve your current and previous CPD certificates of good standing, click on Annual CPD Returns on the main CPD menu and then click the Details tab where you can download the relevant CPD certificate and CPD return report. CPD certificates for the last cycle submitted are also available from the Evidence For Appraisal section.
You can use this section of the diary to generate a CPD certificate for the current cycle and export downloadable reports for use in your annual appraisal. Choose the date range for the activities you wish to include and this will generate a list of all the relevant CPD activities. You can then choose to Select All Activities, Unselect All Activities or just select some of them for inclusion. Clicking on the CPD Activities Report will generate a simple ‘grid’ report of your activities within that date range. If you choose the Reflective Notes Report you can also choose whether to include the key competencies and domains of Good Medical Practice associated with your CPD activities.
