Customer Advice and Information Team: “We’re here to help you” At the General Dental Council, we have a dedicated Customer Advice and Information Team who answer your calls – and the phones rarely stop ringing with over 5,000 queries each month. To assist the Council’s customers the team of eight advisers keep up to date with all the current, and up and coming Council events and issues. It’s no easy task. With around 15 Committees, working groups and advisory groups and around 120 Council staff members, the team faces a huge challenge in knowing just what’s going on. The team can also assist and advise dental professionals on their requirements in order to stay on our register. “Each member of the team can deal with over 50 enquiries a day on the phone and by email. We help everyone from members of the public to registrants and other organisations.” said the manager of the team Ann Kidwell. Whether it’s about the Annual Retention Fee, temporary registration, how to register as a specialist, or Scope of Practice questions Ann’s team are ready to assist. Almost one-in-five of the queries handled by the team in April were about Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements for dental care professionals. Paulette Evans, who’s one of our Customer Advice and Information Advisers, said: ”Registrants are keen to find out all sorts of things about continuing professional development – from when does their cycle start, what counts as CPD, how to record it, and so on. We have lots of information to help and are able to talk things through with them.” Ann continued: “We pride ourselves on providing exemplary customer service. We realise that new requirements for CPD can be a quite stressful for dental care professionals – especially those just starting out in their careers. We want people to feel confident to approach us and ask questions knowing we’re here to help you understand exactly what you have to do.” So how can you get in touch with the Customer Advice and Information Team? You can ring 0845 222 4141 (UK local rate) or just drop us an email to CAIT@gdc-uk.org. A typical call fielded by a CAIT advisor from a dental care professional Caller: I’m a dental nurse and am phoning about CPD. Why do I have to do CPD? CAIT advisor: Compulsory continuing professional development is all about keeping your skills and knowledge up to date. This means you give patients the best possible treatment
and care, and people can feel confident in your profession. Can I ask if you have read the information about CPD on the GDC website? Caller: Yes and I am still unsure on what I need to do. CAIT advisor: You will have read that by law, dental care professionals must complete and keep records of at least 150 hours of CPD over five years. A minimum of 50 of these hours have to be verifiable CPD. Caller: What do you mean by verifiable? CAIT advisor: Before we talk about verifiable CPD, are you happy with general CPD? Caller: Could you explain what it is? CAIT advisor: General CPD is how you keep your knowledge up to date. You’ll probably be surprised at the sort of things which count as CPD. Lots of trade magazines now have articles which you can read or tests you can take – or you might find your colleagues are arranging activities you can join in with. For verifiable CPD you need to make sure the activity has concise educational aims and objectives, clear anticipated outcomes, quality controls – that is there must be an opportunity for you to give feedback on what you think of it - and you must get and keep documentary proof, such as a certificate of your attendance or participation from an appropriate third party. Caller: If I’ve got five years to do it – can I leave it until later? CAIT advisor: One of the reasons for asking you to do CPD is to show you are learning throughout your career. If you think about it, doing it all in one year doesn’t reflect a commitment to this and it’ll also increase the pressure on you. Is there anything else I can help you with? Caller: One last question - I only work part-time – do I still have to do it? CAIT advisor: You have to do it to stay on our register and it applies to all registrants including, for instance, those who work part-time, are retired but want to remain on the register and temporary registrants. I hope I’ve answered all of your questions. If you think of anything else, you could try our website – www.GDC-uk.org or ring us back.