A PCS Professional Development Plan is a short, forward-looking plan of your learning needs for the 1 May to 30 April scheme year. You write it early in the year on your scheme's ePortfolio, link each goal to a CPD category and one or more of the eight domains, optionally have a peer review it, then reflect on it before 30 April. It counts for up to 5 planning hours.
Key points
- The PDP became a mandatory CPD activity under the Medical Council framework that took effect on 1 May 2025; before that it was advised but optional.
- Planning CPD counts for up to 5 of the 50 hours you must record each scheme year. Scheme operators split those hours differently between planning, peer review and reflection.
- The plan is a development tool, not a performance assessment. Your recorded CPD does not have to match it exactly.
- Write it prospectively, early in the year. Operator advice ranges from "at the beginning of the year" to "before the end of October".
- Use the plan to steer your CPD across all eight Domains of Good Professional Practice over three years.
- Keep it high-level and professional: no patient details or clinical case information.
What is a PDP in the PCS, and what is it not?
The legal framework sits in two layers. The Medical Council (Maintenance of Professional Competence) Rules 2025, S.I. No. 176 of 2025, came into operation on 1 May 2025. They require doctors to enrol in a scheme no later than 60 days after the start of each scheme year and to complete a minimum of 50 hours of CPD "as set out in the Guidelines". The Rules themselves do not mention a PDP. The PDP, the four CPD categories and the domain rule all come from the Medical Council's Guidelines and its May 2025 information booklet, which states plainly that "doctors must complete a Professional Development Plan (PDP)".
The Council describes the PDP as a tool for doctors "to reflect and capture their CPD needs and objectives for the coming scheme year", and is clear that it is a development tool, not a performance management tool. RCSI adds that it is not a tool for an employer, a training body or the Medical Council to assess your performance.
A PDP is
- Your own forward plan for one scheme year
- A record of learning needs and how you intend to meet them
- A way to spread CPD across the four categories and eight domains
- Something you revisit and reflect on at year end
A PDP is not
- An appraisal or a performance review
- A contract you are marked against at year end
- A place for patient details or case narratives
- A retrospective log of CPD already done
Who has to write one
Part 2 of the Rules applies to all registered medical practitioners except those on the Trainee Specialist Division and visiting EEA practitioners providing temporary and occasional services. Doctors registered in the Trainee Specialist Division are therefore outside these PCS obligations while they remain in that division. Everyone else enrolled on a PCS needs a PDP, including doctors who have declared they are not engaged in the practice of medicine; their annual mix is different (no 10-hour practice review minimum, but at least 25 hours of practice review and/or work-based learning), yet planning still counts for up to 5 hours. If you are unsure which scheme you belong on, our guide to choosing your PCS scheme operator covers enrolment by role.
How many CPD hours does a PDP give? Scheme operators compared
Each scheme year you record at least 50 hours of CPD. The Medical Council's booklet lists the four categories as Planning CPD (maximum of 5 hours), Practice Review (minimum 10 hours, for practising doctors), Work-based Learning (minimum 15 hours) and Accredited CPD Activity (minimum 20 hours). Under ICGP's scheme, as a rule, one hour of activity equals one credit, which is why operators use "hours" and "credits" interchangeably.
Minimum or maximum?
The Council's general professional competence web page lists "Planning CPD – minimum 5 CPD credits per year", while its May 2025 booklet says "maximum of 5 CPD hours" and the scheme operators say "up to 5". In practice, complete every PDP step your scheme offers so you bank the full 5 hours; any shortfall must be made up elsewhere to reach 50, because the other three minimums total only 45. Your scheme's guidance decides for its doctors.
The operators have built the PDP into their ePortfolios in slightly different ways, which matters when you are counting hours:
| Operator | How the plan is recorded | Credit split | Timing advice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Irish College of GPs | Interactive four-step template in the ePortfolio; credits added automatically when all four steps are marked complete | Up to 5 credits for the completed PDP | Complete by 31 October or as soon as possible after enrolment; must be complete by year end |
| RCSI | "Professional Development Plan" tile on the PCS Portal; planned activities entered under each category | 5 credits on submitting the plan; peer review earns you and the reviewer 1 extra work-based learning credit each; year-end reflection earns 1 work-based learning credit | Create it at the beginning of the year; reflect at the end |
| College of Anaesthesiologists | Three-section PDP form in risr/advance | 3 for planning, 1 for peer review, 1 for year-end review and reflection | 2025/26 guide: sections 1 and 2 by 31 August; section 3 in March or April |
Other operators, such as RCPI and the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland, run their own ePortfolios, so check your own scheme's split rather than assuming another college's model applies.
When should you complete your PDP in the PCS year?
The Council requires you to develop and update your PDP annually for "the coming scheme year". RCSI advises that PDPs should be "prospective rather than retrospective". A plan written in April to describe a year already finished defeats the purpose, even if the ePortfolio still accepts it. A practical rhythm for the 2026/27 year looks like this:
1 May: the scheme year starts
Renew your enrolment. The Rules require enrolment no later than 60 days after the start of the scheme year. Pull up last year's PDP reflection, your statement of participation and your domain coverage so far.
May to October: write and submit the plan
Draft your learning needs and planned activities, then submit them. RCSI says create it at the beginning of the year; ICGP strongly advises finishing before the end of October; the College of Anaesthesiologists' 2025/26 guide recommended the planning and peer review sections by 31 August.
Soon after submission: peer review
Invite a colleague to review it if your scheme offers this step.
Mid-year: a quick check
Not a requirement, but a short look in winter shows whether the practice review is underway and which domains are still empty.
March to April: review and reflect
Compare what happened with what you planned and record your reflection. CAI suggests completing this section in March or April.
30 April: the year closes
The 2026/27 year ends on 30 April 2027. Some operators allow a short upload window afterwards (CAI allowed until 14 May 2026 for the 2025/26 year), but activity must belong to the year it is claimed for.
Doctors who join the register, are restored to it, or start practising in the State on or before 2 March in a scheme year must enrol within 60 days, and their required hours are reduced proportionately under Rule 6. Write a shorter, proportionate PDP straight away rather than waiting for next May.
Step one: finding learning needs worth planning for
A good plan starts from evidence about your own practice, not from a list of conferences. ICGP's sample PDP groups the questions under four headings: clinical areas, non-clinical skills, emerging trends, and feedback and insights. Useful sources of need include:
What you actually do
Every role you hold: clinical sessions, on-call, teaching, management, medico-legal reports. RCSI asks you to consider all your roles when planning.
What others tell you
Patient feedback, multisource feedback, compliments and complaints, trainee evaluations, appraisal conversations.
What your practice shows
Audit results, incident reviews, morbidity and mortality meetings, prescribing data, referral patterns.
What is coming
New guidelines, legislation, services or technology in your field; a planned change of role.
What you have not covered
Domains you have not touched in the last two years, and last year's PDP goals that slipped.
Narrow the list to three to five needs; a short plan is far more likely to be followed. If a need came from a complaint or a difficult incident, frame it as forward learning ("strengthen how I explain risk in consent conversations") rather than describing what happened.
Writing goals that link to categories and domains
Each goal should answer three questions: what you want to be able to do better, how you will learn it, and how you will know. Then tag it with the CPD category the planned activity will fall into and the domain or domains it serves. ICGP asks for goals framed as broad themes in a measured, professional style, with no clinical or case information or patient details. CAI adds a practical reason: PDPs may be discoverable in legal proceedings, so the content should be measured and professional.
Weak goal
"Do more CPD on communication. Go to a conference."
No need identified, no method, no category, no domain, no way of knowing whether it worked.
Stronger goal
"Improve how I share risk information in consent discussions for elective procedures. Attend one accredited communication workshop (Accredited CPD), discuss two consent conversations with a colleague and reflect (Work-based Learning). Domains: Communication and Interpersonal Skills; Relating to Patients."
The eight domains, as set out in the Schedule to S.I. No. 176 of 2025, are: Patient Safety and Quality of Patient Care; Relating to Patients; Communication and Interpersonal Skills; Collaboration and Teamwork; Management (including Self-Management); Scholarship; Professionalism; and Clinical Skills. The Schedule notes that the clinical skills domain is clearly specialty-specific. For a domain-by-domain explanation, see the eight domains of good professional practice explained.
Want a structured way to build this year's plan?Our course Medical Council Practice Review and PDP (3 hours estimated learning time) walks through planning your 50-hour PCS year under the May 2025 framework, building a PDP and recording it in your ePortfolio.
See what's coveredPDP examples for doctors by specialty, mapped to the eight domains
The table below shows how one or two goals from a PDP might look in six different areas of practice. Each row links a learning need to a planned activity, the CPD category it would fall into, and the domains it covers. These are templates for thinking, not text to copy: your plan must reflect your own scope and evidence.
| Practice area | Learning need and where it came from | Planned activity → category | Domains |
|---|---|---|---|
| General practice | Patient feedback suggests chronic disease reviews feel rushed; new national guidance on a common condition published this year | Audit of review recall intervals with re-audit → Practice Review; small-group CME discussion of the guidance → Accredited CPD and Work-based Learning | Patient Safety and Quality of Patient Care; Relating to Patients; Clinical Skills |
| Anaesthesiology | Departmental incident review highlighted handover gaps between theatre and recovery | Quality improvement project on a structured handover tool → Practice Review; reflection on two MDT meetings → Work-based Learning | Collaboration and Teamwork; Communication and Interpersonal Skills; Patient Safety and Quality of Patient Care |
| Surgery | New consultant post with outpatient-led triage and a growing waiting list | Accredited course on clinical leadership → Accredited CPD; reflective note on running a weekly triage meeting → Work-based Learning | Management (including Self-Management); Collaboration and Teamwork |
| Psychiatry | Increase in supported decision-making questions in community clinics | Accredited workshop on capacity and supported decision-making → Accredited CPD; peer case discussion → Work-based Learning | Relating to Patients; Professionalism; Clinical Skills |
| General internal medicine | Teaching load has grown and trainee evaluations ask for more structured bedside feedback | Faculty development course on feedback → Accredited CPD; reflection on trainee feedback received → Work-based Learning; journal club presentation → Work-based Learning | Scholarship; Communication and Interpersonal Skills |
| Doctor not engaged in practice (for example, a medical manager) | Role involves policy and governance decisions; wants to keep up with patient-safety legislation | Accredited governance webinar series → Accredited CPD; reflective learning from committee work → Work-based Learning (counted towards the 25-hour practice review and/or work-based learning mix) | Management (including Self-Management); Professionalism; Patient Safety and Quality of Patient Care |
Each row has a specific need, a mix of categories and more than one domain per goal, and none contains patient or case detail.
Practice review is where many plans are vaguest, because the audit or QI topic is often decided later. If you can name the topic in May, do; if not, record the method and the area ("clinical audit in prescribing, topic agreed with practice team by September"). Our practice review idea bank has topics by method. If audit or QI method is new to you, our online course in quality improvement and clinical audit covers designing an audit and running PDSA cycles.
Most of the reflection you plan sits in work-based learning. ICGP lists case discussions, chart reviews, peer review, clinical risk meetings, teaching and research among its examples, and counts accredited CME small-group meetings as 2 work-based learning credits. Our guide to work-based learning credits for the PCS, with 20 everyday examples shows how to log these activities and write the reflection.
Planning domain coverage across three scheme years
The Medical Council requires doctors to "cover each of the Eight Domains of Good Professional Practice at least once in a three-year period". Under the 2011 framework doctors were only told to refer to the domains; the 2025 framework made coverage a requirement. The PDP is the natural place to manage this, because it is the one document that looks ahead. RCSI's plan form, for example, displays a credit summary and a domains section that fill in as you upload CPD.
A hypothetical GP planning three consecutive PDPs so that every domain is covered at least once, with clinical and patient-safety domains recurring every year:
| Domain | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patient Safety and Quality of Patient Care | Prescribing audit | Re-audit | Significant event review |
| Relating to Patients | Patient survey | – | Consent workshop |
| Communication and Interpersonal Skills | – | Communication course | Consent workshop |
| Collaboration and Teamwork | Practice team meetings | – | Shared-care pathway review |
| Management (including Self-Management) | – | Wellbeing and workload reflection | – |
| Scholarship | – | Trainer development | Journal club |
| Professionalism | Ethics update | – | – |
| Clinical Skills | CME small group | Dermatology course | CME small group |
Check that domain tags are actually recorded on your ePortfolio, not just intended, and ask your scheme how it counts the three-year period if you joined, changed scheme or took extended leave during it.
Peer review and the year-end reflection
The Council's own booklet does not make peer review of the PDP compulsory, but CAI notes that the Medical Council encourages doctors to engage in peer review and to review their plan at the end of every year, and most operators reward both steps. ICGP suggests a fellow GP, a peer from your CME group, a mentor or a colleague with similar experience. CAI's reviewer does not need a risr/advance account and receives an email link instead.
What a useful peer review covers
- Does each goal come from a real need, and is that need clear?
- Is the practice review realistic for the time and data you have?
- Which domains are missing across this plan and the last two?
- Is anything in the plan identifiable or more detailed than it needs to be?
Writing the reflection in March or April
The ICGP sample asks how reality compared with the plan, which experiences had the greatest impact, what challenges arose and what you changed in practice as a result, with the focus on learning rather than patient information. ICGP is also explicit that the CPD you record will likely vary from the initial plan; you are not evaluated on whether you complete everything in it. A good reflection explains the difference honestly and carries unfinished goals into next year's plan. If you want help with the structure itself, our Clinical Supervision and Professional Development Planning course covers turning learning needs into a measurable development plan, and Work-Based Learning and Professional Competence covers writing reflection and mapping it to the eight domains.
Year-end reflection (hypothetical anaesthesiologist): "My plan prioritised theatre-to-recovery handover. The QI project ran for two PDSA cycles rather than the three planned because of staffing changes, but the team adopted the structured tool and I now lead the monthly review. I did not reach my scholarship goal; I have moved it into next year's plan with a smaller, dated target. The biggest learning was how much handover quality depends on the receiving team being involved in designing the tool."
Common mistakes that weaken a PDP
| Mistake | Why it matters | Better approach |
|---|---|---|
| Writing the plan in April | It becomes a list of what happened, and you lose the year's guidance it should have given | Submit in the first months of the year, as your operator advises |
| Stopping after the planning step | Where operators split the hours, you may leave planning or work-based learning credits unclaimed | Diary the peer review and the March or April reflection when you submit |
| Goals with no source | The plan cannot show why the learning matters for your practice | Name the need: feedback, audit data, new guidance, a new role |
| Including patient or case detail | Operators ask you not to, and CAI notes PDPs may be discoverable | Describe the learning theme, not the case |
| Ignoring domains until year three | Gaps are harder to close in one year | Check coverage every time you write the next plan |
| Treating surplus as banked | Surplus CPD credits cannot be carried into the next scheme year | Plan each year to its own 50 hours |
The carry-over point is stated in CAI's FAQ; the Council's booklet also says it is not possible to accrue a surplus of hours for use in the following scheme year. Category minimums apply within the year too: extra accredited hours do not replace a missing practice review. If you are already short on hours this year, talk to your scheme operator early.
Keep your evidence
The Rules require you to keep evidence of your CPD for the required period, which the Council's booklet sets at six years, and to give it to your scheme operator or the Council on request. The Council audits a sample of doctors, and, subject to limited exceptions, the statement of participation from your scheme is the only CPD evidence it accepts. Keep the submitted PDP, any peer review and your reflection with the rest of your records. What the Council can ask for, and what happens after a shortfall, is set out in our guide to the Medical Council PCS audit and non-compliance, and the yearly professional competence declaration is covered in our guide to annual registration renewal in Ireland.
Your PDP checklist for the 2026/27 scheme year
If this year's plan is not written yet, there is time before 30 April 2027, and the sooner it goes in the more useful it is:
For the full picture of Medical Council requirements beyond the PDP, see our Medical Council CPD requirements page, or browse our online CPD courses for Irish health professionals by topic.
Courses that support PDP planning and reflection
Online learning you can draw on while you plan, review and reflect.
Medical Council Practice Review and PDP
- Plan your 50-hour PCS year under the May 2025 framework
- Build a PDP and choose audit, QI or practice evaluation
- Record it in your ePortfolio
Clinical Supervision and Professional Development Planning
- Run effective reflective supervision
- Handle hard feedback
- Turn learning needs into a measurable development plan with CPD evidence
Work-Based Learning and Professional Competence
- Turn routine clinical work into work-based learning credits
- Write reflection and map it to the Eight Domains
- Keep ePortfolio evidence
Check with your scheme operator whether and how learning can be recorded in your ePortfolio.
Frequently asked questions
Is a PDP mandatory for every doctor on a Medical Council PCS?
Yes. Since 1 May 2025 the Medical Council has required doctors on a Professional Competence Scheme to complete a PDP each scheme year, whether or not they are engaged in the practice of medicine. Doctors registered in the Trainee Specialist Division and visiting EEA practitioners providing temporary services are outside Part 2 of the 2025 Rules.
Will I be non-compliant if I do not achieve everything in my PDP?
No. The PDP is a development tool, not a performance assessment. ICGP states that you will not be evaluated on whether you complete everything in the plan and that the CPD you record will likely vary from it. What matters is that the PDP is completed and that you meet the annual hours and category minimums.
Can I change my PDP partway through the scheme year?
Usually yes. RCSI's portal guide, for example, lets you return to the Professional Development Plan tile, edit the plan and resubmit it. Other operators have their own systems, so check your ePortfolio. Noting why a goal changed is useful material for your year-end reflection.
Do I get CPD credit for peer reviewing a colleague's PDP?
Under some schemes, yes. RCSI awards both you and the reviewer one additional work-based learning credit, and ICGP's sample PDP notes that reviewing a colleague's PDP can earn one work-based learning credit. Check your own scheme's rules before claiming.
I registered in January. Do I still need a PDP this year?
If you joined or were restored to the register, or started practising in the State, on or before 2 March in the scheme year, Rule 6 of S.I. No. 176 of 2025 requires you to enrol within 60 days and reduces your required hours proportionately. Write a short PDP for the rest of the year and ask your scheme how it applies the reduction.
Should I describe patient cases in my PDP?
No. ICGP asks doctors not to include clinical or case information or patient details, and CAI notes that PDPs may be discoverable in legal proceedings. Describe learning themes, such as improving consent conversations, rather than individual cases.
Can surplus CPD hours from this year reduce next year's plan?
No. Surplus CPD credits cannot be carried into the following scheme year, so each PDP should plan for that year's full 50 hours and its category minimums.
Official sources used in this guide (18)
- Government of Ireland (Irish Statute Book), S.I. No. 176 of 2025: Medical Council (Maintenance of Professional Competence) Rules 2025 (2025)
- Law Reform Commission, Revised Acts: Medical Practitioners Act 2007, section 91 (revised)
- Medical Council, Updates to annual Continuing Professional Development requirements under the Maintenance of Professional Competence Framework: information booklet for doctors (May 2025)
- Medical Council, Key differences between current and new MPC Framework (2025)
- Medical Council, Professional Competence: general information (accessed 2026)
- Medical Council, Blog: New Maintenance of Professional Competence Framework (2025)
- Irish College of GPs, Professional Development Plan resources and FAQs (2025)
- Irish College of GPs, Sample PDP 1 (2025)
- Irish College of GPs, New PCS Framework (2025)
- Irish College of GPs, CPD Requirements and Categories (2025)
- RCSI, Your PCS requirements (2025)
- RCSI, PCS guidelines and resources (2025)
- RCSI, How to complete your Professional Development Plan on the RCSI PCS Portal (2025)
- College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland, Professional Competence Requirements (2026/27)
- College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland, Professional Competence FAQs (2025)
- College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland, PCS risr/advance User Guide for PCS 2025/2026 (2026)
- College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland, PCS Year 2025/2026 ends on Thursday, 30th April 2026 (2026)
- College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland, CPD Categories Examples (2025)
Checked against the official sources above in October 2026. Rules and fees change, so confirm current requirements with your regulator or scheme.