ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how continuing professional development (CPD) is central to clinical governance and needs to be managed. CPD seen as a means of quality assuring patient care has inevitably become intermixed with the revalidation of doctors. Formal appraisals appeared with the introduction across the National Health Service (NHS) of clinical governance as outlined in the 1998 document A First-Class Service: quality in the new NHS. Revalidation of a doctor's licence every five years will signify that the General Medical Council is satisfied that the doctor remains fit to practise medicine. The equivalent of the unit business plan in primary care is sometimes called the practice strategic plan. The practice professional development plan addresses the learning needs of the whole practice and everyone in it. The personal development plan is an instrumental part of clinical governance and professional maintenance of standards, and it is a key part of doctors' revalidation procedures.
