CPD requirements by profession

NMC revalidation: the CPD requirements explained

Last reviewed 15 October 2026

Every nurse, midwife and nursing associate on the UK register revalidates every three years. CPD is one of eight requirements, and it is the one most often left until the last few months — usually because the participatory element gets misunderstood.

The 35 hours, and the 20 inside them

The 20 participatory hours are not additional — they are a subset. If you complete 35 hours and 20 of those involved interaction with other people, you have met both parts.

What counts as participatory

Participatory learning involves interaction with one or more other people — a taught course, a workshop, a conference, a facilitated group discussion, supervised practice, a webinar you take part in. The distinguishing feature is interaction, not venue: an online session can be participatory and a room full of people can fail to be.

What doesn't count as participatory

Private study, reading journals, watching a recorded video alone, and self-directed e-learning are all legitimate CPD — they count toward the 35 — but they are not participatory, so they cannot fill the 20.

This is where people come unstuck. Thirty-five hours of solo e-learning satisfies the headline number and still fails revalidation.

Relevance to your scope of practice

CPD must relate to your practice as a nurse, midwife or nursing associate over the three years. That is broader than clinical skills — leadership, safeguarding, communication and education all qualify where they bear on your role — but it is not unlimited. A course with no connection to your practice is not CPD for revalidation purposes, however good it was.

What you have to record

For each activity the NMC expects the method, a description of the topic and how it related to your practice, the dates, the number of hours, the participatory hours, and evidence that you did it. Keep the evidence — you may be asked for it.

A certificate that states the hours and the learning outcomes does most of that work for you. One that says only “attended” leaves you reconstructing the detail from memory months later.

Where CPD accreditation fits — and where it doesn't

This is the part most training providers get wrong, so it is worth being blunt about it.

The NMC does not approve, endorse or pre-authorise external CPD providers. Neither we nor any other CPD accreditation body can make a course “The NMC-approved”. Any provider telling you otherwise is overstating what they hold, and registrants who repeat that claim in a record are the ones exposed if it is questioned.

What independent accreditation actually does is narrower and more useful: it gives registrants evidence that the learning was assessed against a published standard, with stated outcomes, a justified hour claim, and a certificate anyone can check. When you are asked to evidence an activity, that evidence is what turns “I did a course” into something defensible.

An AssuredCPD-accredited course carries stated learning outcomes, a CPD-hour figure assessed as proportionate rather than self-declared, and a unique verification code. We are explicit in our own rules about what providers may and may not claim — 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 far more than most people expect. Across the twelve below, three set no hours target at all; three count records or outcomes rather than time; two require a set share of the total to be verifiable; one fixes nearly half the requirement to named subject areas. Knowing which model you are under matters more than knowing any single number.

Three practical points fall out of that table. First, a figure from one body tells you nothing about another — 40 ACCA units, 35 NMC hours over three years and nine CILEX outcomes are not comparable quantities. Second, several bodies now specify not just how much CPD but what kind: verifiable units for ACCA and the GDC, named themes for CIOB, participatory hours for the NMC, planned outcomes for CILEX. Third, 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 are needed for NMC revalidation?

35 hours of CPD over the three-year revalidation period, of which at least 20 hours must be participatory. The 20 participatory hours are part of the 35, not in addition to them.

What counts as participatory CPD for the NMC?

Learning that involves interaction with one or more other people, such as a taught course, workshop, conference, facilitated group discussion, supervised practice or an interactive webinar. Private study, reading and solo e-learning count toward the 35 hours but not toward the 20 participatory hours.

Does an online course count for NMC revalidation?

Yes, online learning counts toward the 35 hours. Whether it counts as participatory depends on interaction, not format: an interactive live session with others can be participatory, while a recorded module taken alone is not.

Does the NMC approve CPD providers?

No. The NMC does not approve, endorse or pre-authorise external CPD providers or courses. Registrants are responsible for judging whether an activity is relevant to their scope of practice and for recording it correctly.

What happens if I only do non-participatory CPD?

You would fail the revalidation requirement even with 35 hours logged, because at least 20 of those hours must be participatory. Check the split well before your renewal date rather than at the end.

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 15 October 2026; those bodies change their rules from time to time, so always confirm against the official source linked above before relying on it.