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PatientPlus articles are written for doctors and so the language can be technical. However, some people find that they add depth to the articles found in the other sections of this website which are written for non-medical people.

Personal Development Plans

Synonyms: personal learning plans, continuing professional development

Personal development plans (PDPs) and personal learning plans (PLPs) are part of the concept of continuing professional development (CPD) and GP appraisals. PDPs are a means to identify educational need and to document and hence demonstrate that need has been addressed. They are likely to become a requirement of GP accreditation in the future, and together with the Practice Professional Development Plan (PPDP) give the individual and practice a structure to manage and demonstrate a continuous development programme.

Good medical practice and CPD

The General Medical Council states that:1

  • You must keep your knowledge and skills up to date throughout your working life.
  • You should be familiar with relevant guidelines and developments that affect your work.
  • You should regularly take part in educational activities that maintain and further develop your competence and performance.
  • You must keep up to date with, and adhere to, the laws and codes of practice relevant to your work.

The principle of CPD is that it should be relevant to the doctor's practice, so should:2

  • Take into account the context and environment of their practice
  • Explore the benefits of learning across professional disciplines and boundaries

Doctors need to keep themselves up to date in all areas of Good Medical Practice. These are:2,3

  • Good professional practice
  • Maintaining good medical practice
  • Relationships with patients
  • Working with colleagues
  • Teaching and training
  • Probity
  • Health

Aims of a PDP4
  • To produce a comprehensive structured "snapshot" of "where we are now" enabling:
  • The setting of realistic goals for personal development within a stated timescale.
  • Helping the individual recognise areas of educational need, and to plan actions to address these needs.
  • Producing documentary evidence of education and reflection - a "Portfolio of Educational Activity" - to meet requirements of re-accreditation.
  • PDPs (when gathered together) form part of the PPDP, enabling the identifying common goals and needs, and facilitating group approaches to meeting such needs - enhancing team working.

Setting up the PDP3

For UK general practitioners, agreeing a PDP is part of their annual appraisal.

  • Last year's agreed PDP can be updated to mark development tasks as completed.
  • Any needs requiring further thought or action can then be ‘brought forward’ into the proposed PDP to be considered for further discussion in the next appraisal meeting.
  • The proposed PDP and agreed PDP should be completed by the appraisee. The agreed PDP should be signed off by the appraiser.

PDP goals4

These should fit with the SMART objectives, meaning that the tasks should be:

  • Specific - specified learning activities, not general statements
  • Measurable - possible to assess whether they have been achieved
  • Attainable - possible to achieve
  • Realistic - within the doctor's capability
  • Timed - agreed time for achieving and reviewing
What might go into the PDP Portfolio?3,4

The PDP portfolio contains information about the doctors's current practice, educational activities and any available feedback on their performance. This is then used to prioritize and direct the next PDP, and to provide evidence that the PDP is being addressed. The PDP portfolio may contain:

  1. An up-to-date curriculum vitae
  2. Current posts, roles and responsibilities; both in the practice and outside
  3. Practice profile - demographic details that perhaps highlight areas for concern/development. Health improvement goals.
  4. Personal developmental goals (medical and non-medical), each with a stated time period
  5. Evidence of personal self analysis
    • Learning styles assessment5
    • Myers Briggs and/or Belbin personality assessment
    • Copy of minutes of annual appraisal
    • Reflective Diary (can include planned educational activities in the future)
  6. Documentary evidence of methods used to demonstrate a learning need: with summaries of meetings or notes from personal study to demonstrate how the need was met:
    • Significant event audit or analysis
    • Random case analysis, or clinical diary of interesting cases
    • PUNs and DENs - (Patients Unmet Needs identified in a consultation, translated into a Doctor's Educational Need)6
    • Personal and practice audits
    • Video consultation analysis
    • PACT analysis - review of prescribing habits
    • Details of any "Risk assessments" carried out.7
  7. List of educational meetings attended in the last 3-5 years, with minutes/summaries/learning points. These could vary from "in house" meetings with partners or interaction with peers to distance learning courses. Try and demonstrate that a previously identified learning need has been met (perhaps by a subsequent audit, or just a paragraph indicating how your practice has changed following the educational activity).
  8. A retrospective evaluation of last years PDP: good and bad points; lessons learnt; which ways of addressing learning needs worked and which failed, and why.


Document references
  1. General Medical Council; Good Medical Practice (2006)
  2. General Medical Council; Guidance on Continuing Professional Development (accessed March 2008)
  3. NHS Appraisals website
  4. PDP Toolkit; NHS Eastern Deanery, updated 2005: website with collected resorces and links about PDPs, appraisal and good medical practice. The 'guide to PDP' link has useful examples showing how to write a PDP in relation to your learning needs.
  5. Learning styles; Richard Felder and Barbara Soloman: Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire, online version
  6. PUNS and DENS; North Thames Deanery website: PUNs and DENs as developed by Dr Richard Eve, UK GP from Taunton.
  7. Vincent C, Taylor-Adams S, Stanhope N; Framework for analysing risk and safety in clinical medicine. BMJ. 1998 Apr 11;316(7138):1154-7.

Internet and further reading
  • RCGP; Royal College of General Practitioners: Continuing professional development webpage
  • gp-training.net; Website by Dr Brad Cheek, UK general practicitioner and trainer. Continuing medical eductation page with many useful links for appraisal and PDPs
Acknowledgements EMIS is grateful to Dr N Hartree for writing this article and to Dr Huw Thomas for earlier versions. The final copy has passed scrutiny by the independent Mentor GP reviewing team. ©EMIS 2008.
DocID: 2601
Document Version: 20
DocRef: bgp2441
Last Updated: 27 Mar 2008
Review Date: 27 Mar 2010
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