The Continuous Professional Development Support Scheme (CPD-SS) is an educational programme open to all NCHDs (non-consultant hospital doctors) working in the public health service who are: 

• not enrolled in a medical training programme or on a postgraduate specialist training programme such as BST, HST or international schemes
• working in the public health service and hold a 2010 NCHD contract within the HSE (Health Service Executive) 
• on the General or Supervised Division of the Register of Medical Practitioners maintained by the Medical Council 
• enrolled on a RCPI Professional Competence Scheme applicable to your specialty 
• registered and have paid their Professional Competence Scheme subscription fee

You must meet all essential requirements to be eligible for CPD-SS

Learners have two opportunities to apply for CPD-SS each year:

• Round One: July - September
• Round Two: December - January

Successful applicants can expect to begin enrolling in courses from:

• Round One: First week of October
• Round Two: First week of February

Please note that applicants who submit their application before mid-August will be eligible for exclusive access to September courses and CPD Events.

Please note that you can only apply for CPD-SS once per year - you cannot re-apply in December for more credits if you are already enrolled into CPD-SS for the given year

Your CPD-SS application may not have been accepted for the following reasons:

• You were not registered, and/or had not paid your Professional Competence subscription fee
• You were enrolled on a medical training scheme
• You were not registered with the Irish Medical Council
• You do not work in the public health service under a 2010 NCHD Contract
• You are employed as a consultant or locum consultant

• CPD-SS participants can use their vouchers to enrol in NCHD Workshops, online courses and events. You can view our Course Catalogue to find more information. 
• When browsing through the RCPI Course Catalogue, please ensure that the 'CPD-SS Participant' filter is on.

If your CPD-SS application is successful, you will be sent your voucher code via email. If you have forgotten, or can no longer find your voucher code is, please contact cpdss@rcpi.ie for your voucher code to be reissued.

• CPD-SS vouchers are not valid for all courses offered by RCPI. When browsing our Course Catalogue, please ensure that you change the 'CPD-SS Participant' filter to 'Yes'. 
• When entering your voucher code, please ensure there are no spaces left at the end. 
• You cannot partially pay for a course using your CPD-SS voucher. Please ensure you have sufficient credits remaining. To find out how many credits you have remaining on your voucher, please contact cpdss@rcpi.ie 
• For any questions or issues in booking a course, please contact cpdss@rcpi.ie for further assistance.

• CPD-SS participants can only use their CPD-SS credits to register for approved courses. If a course is not covered by CPD-SS, you would be required to pay the associated fee.
• Please note that we may occasionally offer our CPD-SS participants opportunities to enrol into non CPD-SS courses throughout the year, depending on relevance and availability. Availability to register for these courses will be announced via email, and on the CPD-SS Hub.

• NCHD courses cover the same content and carry the same CPD (Continuous Professional Development) value as the BST/HST versions.  
• NCHD courses are run with CPD-SS participants in mind, to allow them to access mandatory courses despite not being on a specialist training programme.