The Bottom Line
- Your appraisal must cover your whole practice — portfolio careers need explicit scope mapping.
- Keep one master CPD log across all organisations, then summarise by theme.
- Collect evidence little-and-often (emails, attendance, brief notes), not in a panic pre-appraisal.
- Your designated body/connection must match reality to avoid revalidation delays.
Portfolio careers are normal in the UK—but they create friction if your evidence is scattered across Trust systems, agency portals, and random certificates. The win is to centralise the narrative while keeping the evidence light.
The portfolio CPD playbook
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1) Write a ‘whole scope’ map
List roles + approximate sessions + key responsibilities. This becomes the spine of your appraisal submission and makes it obvious why each CPD item is relevant.
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2) Use a single CPD log and tag each entry to a role
Role-tagging solves the “mismatch problem” (eg doing leadership CPD but not explaining your leadership scope).
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3) Standardise your evidence capture
If you can’t reliably get certificates: capture a screenshot/email invite + a 3-line reflection + what changed. That is often more meaningful than a PDF certificate alone.
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4) Don’t over-collect; curate
Pick the most impactful CPD items for appraisal. Many appraisers prefer quality over volume—impact beats quantity.
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5) Keep your governance clean
Use the GMC tool to ensure your designated body/connection is correct, especially if you move Trusts or go heavily locum.
Practice
Test your knowledge
Apply this concept immediately with a high-yield question block from the iatroX Q-Bank.
SourceiatroX Toolkit: Portfolio career basics (how to structure scope and evidence).
Open Link SourceiatroX Toolkits directory: admin systems that reduce appraisal workload.
Open Link SourceGMC: Find your connection for revalidation (My DB Tool).
Open Link SourceGMC: CPD guidance (PDF) — CPD must consider your whole professional practice.
Open Link