There is just under two weeks to the Annual Renewal deadline, which must be completed no later than 31 July in order for dental nurses to stay on the Register for the following 12-month period.

To complete the Annual Renewal, DCPs need to pay the Annual Retention Fee and declare they have (or will have) the appropriate indemnity in place. The easiest way to do this is via eGDC, and it takes just five minutes to register to use the service if not already set up.

In addition, DCPs must also make their annual continuing professional development (CPD) statement (or end-of-cycle statement if the individual is at the end of their five-year cycle). Although professionals have until 28 August to make their statement, the regulator says there are more than 28,000 yet to do so.

GDC Executive Director, Registration and Corporate Resources, Gurvinder Soomal, said: 'This is the first Annual Renewal since the introduction of Enhanced CPD, so we want to be sure that everyone knows they need to make an annual statement, even if no CPD has been completed over the year, in which case, a statement of ‘zero hours’ needs to be made.

'This is new territory for everyone, as are the new rules relating to grace period applications, so DCPs should not leave it too late and get in touch if they have any questions.'

As well as the CPD annual statement requirement, Enhanced CPD also brought a change to the rules relating to grace periods, with applications now needing to be made no later than 31 July. This week, the GDC revealed there are still more than 3,000 professionals yet to make their end-of-cycle statement, and the regulator is calling on everyone reaching their cycle-end to check their record urgently to make sure they have completed the required number of CPD hours.

The GDC provides further guidance and information about Enhanced CPD on its website.

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