Our response to COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

At the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, the Faculty of Public Health suspended the requirement for its members to submit CPD returns for audit. This was originally for a 2-year period of April 2019 to March 2021 but has now been extended to the end of March 2022 due to the ongoing COVID-19 response.

Some of our registrants had been asked to provide CPD evidence for the 2019/2020 financial year for the purposes of 5-yearly revalidation/registration. We heard from some of you that the pandemic caused disruption to CPD during this period, so we have reconsidered the requirement. We will still require specialists and practitioners to demonstrate they have engaged in appropriate CPD during 2019/2020 period, but we won’t ask for a specific number of hours. Registrants will be required to complete the self-declaration statement which states the following:

“I certify that in 2019-20, I completed an appropriate amount of CPD during the pre-pandemic period.”

In line with the Faculty of Public Health, the UKPHR’s CPD requirements for both specialist and practitioner registrants have been suspended from April 2020 until April 2022. Registrants who are currently completing their 5-yearly revalidation or re-registration with us will not be required to submit evidence of CPD for 2020/2021 and 2021/2022. We nonetheless encourage you to record your CPD activities where you can. For specialists, the annual professional appraisal provides an opportunity to discuss CPD, which remains a requirement of revalidation.

Specialists and practitioners who are on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave can request to be exempt from collating CPD. Please contact us at register@ukphr.org if you need advice.

In line with other regulators, UKPHR established a temporary register for those public health professionals who returned to public health practice to help during the pandemic. The need for the temporary register remains, and we will develop a means for temporary registrants to move back onto the UKPHR accredited register once the pandemic is over, if they wish to continue working in public health afterwards.

We continue to receive, and process, applications for registration as public health specialists under this retrospective portfolio assessment route.

We are immensely grateful to the huge voluntary workforce for helping us to operate our registration services normally. We offer a big thank you to the assessors, verifiers, Panel and Committee Chairs and members, and mentors who support us with such dedication and skill.

From 1 April 2021, UKPHR will operate annual renewals in line with our normal requirements.

As you’re aware, we have re-introduced our regulatory requirements including revalidation and professional appraisals from April 2021. We know that our registrants are still facing a significant amount of pressure, but the annual professional appraisal requirement won’t be suspended for this financial year. The main purpose of the professional appraisal is to serve as a wellbeing check for our specialist registrants, which we think is particularly important moving forward. The appraisal provides you an opportunity to discuss your work and reflect during this challenging time.

Until March 2022, specialists can follow an appraisal approach which focusses on well-being and a reduced requirement for supporting information e.g. in England the ‘flexible appraisal’ or equivalent in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

UKPHR are aware of the major organisational change affecting specialists in England, with the formation of the UKHSA from 1 October 2021, and the transfer of staff and professional appraisal responsibilities to a variety of organisations. As such we provide the following update on the SARD system. PHE recently sent a letter from Yvonne Doyle, PHE’s Responsible Officer, outlining the arrangements for professional appraisal support for eligible UKPHR specialists from 1^st October 2021 to March 2022. Arrangements beyond this date are still being discussed and once these have been confirmed, we will keep you updated. Those who are registered on the SARD system will have received an email outlining the transition arrangements after 1^st October 2021.

Those who do not have access to the SARD system in England to meet the professional appraisal requirement should make their own arrangements.

From 1 April 2021, UKPHR will restart revalidation for specialist registrants. But, in line with the approach of the General Medical Council, we allow a further postponement of four months on the request of any individual registrant due for revalidation before July 2021. If your revalidation is now due and you wish for more time to complete and submit your documentation, please let us know immediately so your request can be considered.

UKPHR’s current revalidation policy requires 360-feedback from 10 raters but for the duration of the pandemic we will accept five feedback raters. If you have any difficulties arranging this feedback, please let us know.

Currently, practitioner registrants undergo re-registration once every five years. In line with our approach to specialists, we restarted practitioner re-registration on 1 April 2021, and allow a further postponement of four months on request for any registrant due for re-registration before July 2021. If this applies to you, please let us know.

A requirement for practitioner re-registration is to obtain a specialist countersignature for the Appraisal and Personal Development Plan. In cases where practitioners do not have access to a specialist registered with the GMC, GDC or UKPHR, we may accept a line manager’s signature, at the discretion of our Registrar. Please notify us if this will be necessary.

Wherever possible, local registration schemes continue to support existing candidates for registration and some are still able to accept new candidates. Please continue to contact the coordinators as appropriate (contact details are on our website) and feel free to contact UKPHR if you cannot find what you need. UKPHR’s Moderators continue, for the time being, to provide a temporary verification service for local schemes where needed.

We continue to receive applications for registration, and we are processing them in the usual way. Our Registration Panel and our Registration Approvals Committee are both meeting monthly as usual. In fact, they are currently meeting more frequently as we come towards the end of the assessment of the remaining defined specialist portfolios.