Dental Care Professionals’ Annual Renewal now open

The General Dental Council (GDC) has today announced that the Annual Renewal period for UK registered dental care professionals (DCPs) is now open and the deadline for completion is 31 July 2020. To renew their registration, you'll need to:

  • make your annual or end-of-cycle CPD statement
  • declare you have, or will have, appropriate indemnity in place
  • pay your Annual Retention Fee (ARF)

The quickest and easiest way to complete the Annual Renewal is through eGDC, and it takes only five minutes to register to use the service if not already set up.

GDC Executive Director, Registration and Corporate Resources, Gurvinder Soomal, said:

We are very aware that Annual Renewal comes at a difficult time this year for DCPs, when many have been unable to work or have had difficulty accessing CPD. Our records indicate that four out of five DCPs have already met the CPD requirements, but it is entirely possible that COVID-19 has prevented many DCPs from completing the required amount of CPD.

While an essential part of Annual Renewal is to make an annual or end-of-cycles CPD statement, we have been clear that if professionals have a shortfall of completed CPD hours due to COVID-19, they will not be penalised for this. For anyone in this position, you still need to make the statement and we’ll then be in touch to talk about next steps.

The GDC provides further guidance and information about Annual Renewal on its website.

Further information about Annual Renewal:

  • The ARF must be paid each year to remain on the DCP Register, it provides a 12-month license to practice dentistry in the UK and is non-refundable.
  • Enhanced CPD requires all dental care professionals to make an annual CPD statement. If no CPD has been completed in 2019/18, a zero-hours statement must be made. If a DCP’s current CPD cycle ends on 31 July this year, an end-of-cycle CPD statement must be made by 28 August 2020.
  • It is recognised that access to CPD has been seriously hindered this year by the COVID-19 control measures. If dental professionals have been affected by this, they will not be penalised. During this year’s Annual Renewal they will be asked to make their annual or end-of-cycle CPD statement in the normal way, even if they have not met the requirements, but we will be flexible in our response and will take account of the exceptional circumstances they have faced.
  • DCP direct debit payments for Annual Renewal will be taken on 8 July 2020.
  • To set up an eGDC account, dental professionals will need their ID verification code which appears on the Annual Renewal notice.
  • In addition to eGDC, the ARF can be paid by cheque via post. If choosing this option, cheques should be made payable to the General Dental Council with the individual’s name and registration number on the reverse. If choosing this option, the GDC must receive the cheque no later than 31 July 2020.

The General Dental Council (GDC) is the UK-wide statutory regulator of just over 112,000 members of the dental team, including approximately 42,000 dentists and 70,000 dental care professionals. Our primary purpose is to protect patient safety and maintain public confidence in dental services. To achieve this, we register qualified dental professionals, set standards of dental practice, investigate complaints about dental professionals' fitness to practise, and work to ensure the quality of dental education. The Dentists Act 1984 provides the legislative framework for our work. For more information visit gdc-uk.org.uk

The GDC’s 2020-2022 strategy: Right time, right place, right touch details the regulators planned activity across five strategic aims and the introduction of registration application fees was explored in the strategy’s consultation. The approach is captured by strategy’s title; ‘Right time’, to illustrate the GDC’s continued focus on developing its approach to upstream regulation, ‘Right place’, to describe the continued work to support issues resolution by the correct organisation and to promote local complaint resolution wherever possible, and ‘Right-touch’, to highlight the regulator’s commitment to ensuring its enforcement activity is evidence-based and proportionate.

The GDC’s Fees-setting Policy, Clear and certain: a new framework for fee-setting, was consulted on in 2018 and came into effect from January 2019. The consultation also explored the introduction of registration application fees and responses indicated strong support for the proposal. It is based on three core principles:

  • 1. Fee levels should be primarily determined by the cost of regulating each registrant group.
  • 2. The method of calculating fee levels should be clear.
  • 3. Our approach will support certainty for registrants and the workability of the regulatory framework.