[8] CPD was piloted in 1999 and together with an approved recording format CPD was introduced to the pharmacy profession during 2002–2004.[9] Subsequently, amendments

to the Pharmacy Code of Ethics replaced a previous requirement to undertake 30 h of CE with a CPD requirement and since January 2005 all pharmacists and pharmacy technicians registered with the pharmacy regulator have given an annual undertaking to comply with CPD requirements.[10] Currently, all GB-registered pharmacists and technicians must complete learn more a minimum of nine CPD record (entries) each year.[11] Internationally too, there has been a shift towards CPD from traditional models of CE.[12] The International Pharmaceutical

Federation (FIP) adopted the concept of CPD in 2002, describing it as the ‘responsibility of individual pharmacists for systematic maintenance, development and broadening of knowledge, skills and attitudes, to ensure competence as a professional, throughout their careers’.[13] One of the reasons for the shift towards PS-341 CPD is the limited evidence of the effect of formal CE activities on the behaviour of the practitioner.[14] CPD could also be useful in helping to assess pharmacy professionals’ fitness-to-practise. Conducting CPD is to become a statutory requirement for all pharmacy registrants in GB[15] and the GPhC has responsibility for the revalidation of pharmacists and technicians. Revalidation of statutorily regulated health professionals in GB relates to arrangements that will enable them to periodically demonstrate their

GBA3 continued fitness-to-practise. To prepare for revalidation, the RPSGB in 2009, guided by the recommendations of the Department of Health Non-Medical Revalidation Working Group and its own Revalidation Advisory Group (RAG) report, agreed to a set of 10 principles to underpin revalidation design and delivery in pharmacy.[16] Among the principles were the requirements that the process of revalidation should be effective and cost-effective, evidence-based and standards-based and be consistent across the country. Although CPD has potential to form the basis of revalidation and has been used in the New Zealand model of pharmacy recertification[17] the RAG report concluded that gaps in current knowledge necessitated further research to examine the usefulness of CPD in a GB-based pharmacy revalidation model. The RPSGB was awarded a grant by the Department of Health to investigate evidence for revalidation, and we were subsequently commissioned by the RPSGB to explore the value of CPD for revalidation of pharmacy professionals in GB. Despite the gradual introduction of CPD to pharmacy in GB, and a professional requirement to comply, there is evidence to suggest that pharmacy professionals are yet to engage fully with CPD.