Return to Practice in the UK

The return to practice process involves the following three stages:

1. Undertaking a Learning Needs Assessment
2. Developing a Learning Plan
3. Undertaking the planned learning and producing a Report of Learning Activity

Further details of the three stages can be found below.

Please be aware that all three stages may take some time to complete. You must have completed the entire Return to Practice Programme before we can accept an application from you.

Learning Opportunities

There is a broad range of opportunities available to help you address your learning needs. These include reviewing regulations, standards and reviews, reading books and research articles, and attending training courses, seminars and conferences. However, we strongly recommend you identify a current GCC registrant to act as a mentor to provide advice for each stage of the Return to Practice process. The GCC cannot help you identify a suitable mentor; however, it may be a former colleague, an intended future colleague, or a fellow graduate, for example. You should take steps to identify a suitable mentor at an early stage of the Return to Practice process.

Mentor support

Discussions with a mentor are likely to be helpful in terms of identifying your learning needs. While these are personal to you, insight from a current registrant may help you identify areas of practice that have changed since you left concerning good practice guidelines, the evidence base, regulation and legislation.

Depending on your learning needs, observing clinical practice, participating in practice activities such as clinical audits, or using clinical equipment/applying clinical techniques in a training scenario may be necessary. A mentor can help you with this.

Finally, having a mentor critically review both your Learning Needs Assessment and Learning Plan and the final Report of Learning Activities before submission may help you ensure these are complete and meet our requirements.

Stage 1: Learning Needs Assessment

This involves reflecting on your current knowledge and competencies, with reference to key elements of practice identified by the GCC, to determine whether you need to prepare for your return to practice by undertaking some learning activities. You must complete a structured form, based upon principles of The Code, to indicate those areas where you feel you have/do not have requirements for preparatory learning. Note that the extent of your learning needs is expected to reflect the time you have been away from practice and the amount of experience you gained prior to leaving.

You can complete Stage 1 via the Learning Needs Assessment form.

Stage 2: Learning Plan

Once you have completed your Learning Needs Assessment, you must plan a learning portfolio to address your needs. This plan involves identifying learning activities that match learning outcomes attached to each area of practice you feel requires attention.

Your completed Learning Needs Assessment and Learning Plan must be sent to the GCC for our clinical assessors to check that it is appropriate and consistent with the amount of time and circumstances under which you have been away from practice. An approved Learning Plan will be returned to you for implementation.

You can complete Stage 2 by downloading and filling in the Learning Plan.

Once you have completed Stages 1 & 2, email them to registrations@gcc-uk.org.

Your forms will be reviewed by a Registrations Assessor, who will either:

1. accept your learning plan, in which case you can progress to Stage 3, or
2. offer advice on where to amend your learning plan if it isn't acceptable. In this case, you will need to repeat Stage 2.

Stage 3: Report of Learning Activity

Once your Learning Plan has been approved, you can start working through the activities, recording your reflections as you go. When you have undertaken the planned learning and completed all fields on the form provided, you can submit this to the GCC for review. We will contact you regarding the next steps in terms of your return to practice.

You can complete Stage 3 by downloading and completing a copy of the Report of Learning Activities.

Once completed, email the form back to registrations@gcc-uk.org.

Registration Assessors will review your Report of Learning Activity form, after which you will:

1. be eligible to apply to the GCC; or
2. will need to make changes to show that you have fully complied with this stage.