Revalidation: FAQs

Revalidation is a requirement that every pharmacist and pharmacy technician needs to complete each year to be able to remain registered and continue to practise. It’s a process that involves reflecting on your work and striving to continually develop. It’s one of the ways that we work with you to strengthen public confidence and trust in pharmacies.  It also helps you to: 

• keep your professional skills and knowledge up to date 
• reflect on your practice 
• continually develop
• show how you provide safe and effective care 
• reach the standards required

The requirement to complete revalidation is set out in the rules made under the Pharmacy Order 2010.

Maternity, paternity or adoption leave might mean that you have periods of three months or more when you haven’t been practising or recording your revalidation activity- and this may include the date when need to submit your revalidation.

Firstly, you should contact us through myGPhC and request an extension to the deadline, or to submit fewer records by the existing deadline. It is important you tell us as soon as possible – don’t wait until your renewal is due. Once we have received your request, we will usually be able to make a decision about your circumstances within 28 days.

We need to know when you are not practising, and you must provide supporting evidence as part of your request. All evidence needs to be from a healthcare professional, or a formal document, which relates to the reason you are requesting an extension or reduction to your entries.

If you are pregnant, you will need to explain in your request the dates of your maternity leave and upload a copy of your completed MAT B1 form or your baby’s birth certificate to provide evidence of the timings you state in your request. We don’t accept NHS cards as these only have an expiry date and are valid for up to two years.

If you will be taking shared parental leave or adoption leave, you will need to include in your request the dates of your parental or adoption leave, and upload any of:
•    a copy of either your completed employer or Acas shared parental leave form
•    your baby’s birth or adoption certificate
•    a letter from your employer confirming your plan to take shared parental leave or adoption leave 
to provide evidence of the timings you state in your request. We don’t accept NHS cards as these only have an expiry date and are valid for up to two years.

If you need to make a request, we only consider reducing the requirement in proportion to the time which you are unable to practise. This means that you should make sure that you have attempted to complete entries covering the rest of your registration year. As a reminder, you can complete revalidation activities at any time during your registration year.

Find out more about maternity, adoption and shared parental leave on Gov.uk website
 

You should be thinking about carrying out and recording revalidation activities as part of your everyday work.

You might find it helpful to note your revalidation activities throughout the year, rather than all at once. You can record them in myGPhC or note them elsewhere and then transfer them to myGPhC to submit them.

When you renew your registration each year, you must be ready to submit your records.

 

You need to carry out and record four CPD records, a peer discussion record and a reflective account record when you renew your registration.

Sometimes there are reasons why you might not be able to submit some or all your revalidation records when you renew.

Serious illness, maternity leave or breaks in practice might mean that you have periods of three months or more when you haven’t been practising or recording your revalidation activity.

If you think you won’t be able to submit some or all your revalidation records because of a break in practice, it’s important you tell us as soon as possible through myGPhC. Don’t wait until your renewal is due. You’ll need to provide evidence about the reasons and consider if a deadline extension or a record reduction will help. 

If you request a submission deadline extension, you’ll need to be able to submit a full record by the date you propose.

You can request a reduction in the number of entries that you’re required to submit.  If you have worked for any period over three months in the previous year, we expect you to submit a minimum of one planned CPD entry and one completed reflective account as your revalidation record.

Long periods of holiday or intermittent part time locum work don’t count as exceptional circumstances. You’ll need to complete and submit a full revalidation record to cover this time.

 

Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are currently required to select one or more of three standards chosen by the GPhC and give one or more examples of how they have met the standard(s) in their practice, these are currently:

Those submitting on or after 1 January 2026 will be able to reflect against any of the nine Standards for pharmacy professionals. The same requirements regarding reflection against one or more of the standards is required.

You only need to cover the standards for your reflective account; you don’t need to reflect on these standards for your four CPD records or for your peer discussion. 

When you describe where you work, you should do this without identifying it by name.  For example, instead of referring to NHS England, describe it as a ‘commissioning body’. Or instead of using the trading or company name of the pharmacy, describe what type of pharmacy it is, such as ‘a branch of a large multiple pharmacy’ or ‘an independent city-centre pharmacy’.

In your reflective account, you’ll need to include a brief description of your area of work, such as the type of practice you do and your main roles, and who the typical people using your services are. You’ll also need to give real examples to show how you meet the standards. 

 

Have a look at our revalidation resources and our examples page, where you’ll find ideas for topics to focus on, examples of completed revalidation records and the standards to highlight in your reflective account. There’s also a list of other organisations that provide resources and support.

We recommend that you continue to carry out and record revalidation if you plan to continue as a pharmacist or pharmacy technician, even if you aren’t currently able to practise. This will help to keep your skills up to date and it could be used to decide on your future ability to practice.

 

You’ll be notified through myGPhC. The review will be carried out jointly by a pharmacy professional and a lay reviewer, who is someone who is not a healthcare professional and uses pharmacy services. They will both receive anonymised copies of your records.

The two trained reviewers work together, using the criteria set out in the revalidation framework to review all the records in your submission and produce a feedback report.

It can take up to six weeks to receive your feedback. When it’s ready, you’ll receive a notification and it’ll be available to read through your myGPhC account.

If your records are selected for review and you meet the review criteria, we won’t review your records again for the next two years.

 

Yes, if you are using your knowledge and skills as a pharmacist or pharmacy technician within the professional role(s) that you are doing.  We recognise that many pharmacists and pharmacy technicians will be working in leadership and management roles, teaching/ academia, industry, and in a wide range of other roles which are directly or indirectly linked to pharmacy.  We understand that they may not carry out any clinical and/or patient-facing activities in their professional roles, but that they are still using their knowledge and skills obtained as a pharmacist or pharmacy technician, and that their work will still ultimately have an impact on patients and the public.

When renewing your registration, you will be asked to declare that you intend to practise as a pharmacist / pharmacy technician in Great Britain, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.  You can make this declaration if you are using your knowledge and skills as a pharmacist or pharmacy technician within your professional role(s), even if you are not intending to carry out any clinical and/or patient-facing activities.

We expect that if you are using your knowledge and skills as a pharmacist or pharmacy technician in your role(s), you should be able to carry out and record your revalidation activity. We have provided a variety of revalidation examples on our website, including examples by pharmacy professionals who are not working in patient-facing clinical roles. The examples for the education and training sector, the Advisory/regulatory/government sector, the industrial pharmacy, purchasing and distribution sector, and for people in management and leadership roles, are particularly relevant for people not working in patient-facing clinical roles.  We would also recommend you read through the revalidation resources available on our website to help you complete your revalidation entries.