Improval Appraisal: Video Walkthrough and Detailed Notes

Create your Improval account, verify your email and sign in. Check the provider’s current subscription terms before choosing a plan; prices mentioned in the recording are a snapshot at the time of filming.

• Open My Appraisal, then Appraisal details and Set appraiser. If Andrew has agreed to appraise you, the email shown in the tutorial is andrewchristopher01@outlook.com. Check the selected appraiser is correct.
• Enable early access so your appraiser can review the developing portfolio before the meeting. Allowing access and formally submitting the completed appraisal are different steps.
• Keep your account credentials private. Use your own details throughout rather than copying the example profile.

Agree your meeting date and the deadline for sending your portfolio with your appraiser. Early access makes it easier to identify missing information while there is still time to address it.

From the dashboard, choose Open My Appraisal. Check the appraisal date and reporting period carefully: a default date may point to the following year. The portfolio should describe the period you are actually reviewing and connect sensibly with your previous appraisal or training review.

• Enter the date of your last appraisal and the agreed date for the next meeting. If this is your first appraisal after training, use the relevant training or ARCP information and confirm the timing with your appraiser.
• Check your revalidation submission date in GMC Online. Annual appraisal and GMC revalidation are related processes with different dates.
• Record your designated body and responsible officer accurately, where applicable. Entering an organisation into an appraisal form does not establish a prescribed connection.

The dashboard also demonstrates voice notes, feedback tools and a compliance passport. Use them where helpful: review any dictated text for accuracy, remove patient identifiers and keep relevant training certificates organised. An automatically produced note still needs your own review and reflection.

If your connection is unclear, read designated bodies, responsible officers and suitable persons before completing that field.

Check your name, GMC number, qualifications and contact details. Then describe every relevant professional role during the appraisal period, including roles that have ended or changed. A whole-practice appraisal needs a clear picture of what you actually do.

• Include substantive, bank and agency locum posts, clinical fellow work, private practice and other clinical settings. State the organisation, role, dates and a brief description of your responsibilities.
• Include teaching, leadership, management, research, expert witness work and appraisal roles where relevant. Explain clinical attachments, observerships or taster placements accurately rather than presenting them as independent clinical employment.
• Make changes and gaps understandable. For a locum portfolio, a concise overview of placements can be more useful than many unexplained documents.

Bring forward your previous appraisal summary and PDP. If you have recently finished foundation training, your ARCP outcome and relevant training evidence can help explain your starting point. Add a CV or references where they contribute useful context.

Use the wellbeing section to reflect on how work is going, pressures you are managing and support you may need. Complete health and probity declarations honestly and retain appropriate indemnity evidence. These declarations should not be treated as optional because the example moves quickly through them.

Describe key challenges, achievements and aspirations. These give the meeting a useful focus: what has gone well, what has been difficult, and where you would like your work or career to develop. See scope of work for a fuller checklist.

The tutorial’s practical target is around 50 hours or points over the appraisal year, with one hour generally recorded as one point. This is a planning benchmark, not a universal GMC minimum: the GMC does not set a fixed number of CPD points. Match your learning to your whole practice and any relevant college, employer or local requirements. GMC CPD guidance.

Aim for variety, relevance and a visible effect on practice. The recording gives examples including departmental teaching, grand rounds, morbidity and mortality meetings, multidisciplinary learning, webinars, podcasts, conferences, courses, examination preparation and formal postgraduate study.

• For each activity, record the title, date, time spent and why it was relevant. Attach a certificate, programme, attendance record or other useful evidence where available.
• Explain what you learned and how it affected, or will affect, your work. A certificate shows attendance; your short account explains its value.
• Use more detailed reflection for learning that changed your thinking or practice. A routine course does not need a long essay simply to fill space.
• For a degree or other substantial course, use module information, timetables or assignments to show the content, and explain the learning relevant to your current roles.

Andrew suggests limiting reliance on mandatory training and question banks to about 10 hours each within his practical approach. Those figures are not GMC-wide caps. The aim is a balanced learning record rather than one dominated by a single activity.

A clinical attachment or taster certificate primarily explains experience and scope of work. If you also record CPD arising from it, identify the specific learning and realistic time spent. Avoid counting the same time more than once across portfolio categories.

For a fuller explanation and examples, read CPD for medical appraisal and mandatory training.

Quality improvement activity should show how you examine and improve your work. The video illustrates proportionate options: a focused audit, a review of practice against a guideline, case-based discussion, or teaching evaluated using feedback. It does not have to be a large research project.

A small audit of around 20–30 cases is one example discussed, not a compulsory sample size. Choose an activity and scale that fit the question, your role and the available evidence.

• Describe the issue or standard you reviewed and your personal contribution.
• Summarise the evidence or feedback you collected, what it showed and what you learned.
• Explain the action taken or planned. Where possible, review the effect and identify a next step.
• Attach useful anonymised material such as an audit summary, slides, a feedback report or a completed discussion form. Explain what the attachment demonstrates.

Keep time records honest if an activity also generated CPD. You can explain both its learning and improvement value, but do not duplicate the same hours. See quality improvement for medical appraisal for worked examples.

The review-of-practice section also discusses incidents and complaints. Give a clear, proportionate account of your involvement, the current position or outcome, what you learned and what changed. An unresolved matter can still be described honestly as ongoing.

Clarification to the recording: do not wait for a formal letter before considering a significant event. GMC guidance requires declaration and reflection on every significant event you were involved in since your last appraisal, including involvement as part of the treating team. Focus on learning from events that harmed or could have harmed patients. If there were none, make that declaration. GMC significant-events guidance.

A coroner referral or difficult clinical outcome needs to be considered in context; the label alone does not describe your involvement or the learning required. If uncertain, discuss it with your appraiser and, where appropriate, your responsible officer. Appraisal does not replace reporting, governance or escalation duties.

Remove identifiable patient information from reflections and attachments. Include relevant compliments where useful, with a short account of what they tell you about your work. Read complaints and significant incidents for fuller guidance.

Plan formal feedback early in the revalidation cycle. You do not normally need a new full patient and colleague questionnaire exercise at every annual appraisal; formal feedback is required at least once in each cycle, alongside reflection on relevant feedback during the intervening years. GMC patient-feedback guidance.

The recording mentions 34 patient responses and 15 colleague responses. These are reliability benchmarks from research on the GMC questionnaires, not a universal response requirement for every feedback instrument. Follow the independent provider’s instructions for the particular questionnaire you use. GMC multi-source feedback study.

• Use an appropriate questionnaire and independent administration wherever possible. Choose respondents impartially and protect confidentiality.
• For colleague feedback, include people from a range of roles across your practice, including colleagues who are not doctors.
• Upload the completed report and reflect on themes, strengths, surprises and any changes you intend to make. Compare the results with your own view of your practice.
• If locum work, limited patient contact or another circumstance makes collection difficult, discuss a suitable approach early with your responsible officer or suitable person. Do not leave the problem until the final appraisal before revalidation.

Alternative colleague-feedback methods should be agreed with your responsible officer or suitable person. The provider can advise on response numbers; a smaller sample needs context and discussion. GMC colleague-feedback guidance. See also patient and colleague feedback.

Review the previous PDP before drafting the next one. State what you achieved, what remains relevant and what needs to change. An objective that was not completed should lead to an explanation and a sensible revised plan.

Andrew suggests preparing three or four meaningful goals for discussion. This is a practical starting point, not a fixed universal number. Agree the final PDP with your appraiser at the meeting.

• Say what you want to achieve and why it matters to your work or career.
• Describe the actions, learning or support needed.
• Set a realistic timescale and explain how you will know the goal has been achieved.

Examples from the tutorial include examinations, preparation for internal medicine or core training, and a relevant course or skill. Make the objective more specific than simply completing 50 hours of CPD. For example, identify the capability you want to develop, the learning you will undertake and evidence you will review.

Your draft supports the appraisal conversation; the agreed plan and formal appraisal outcomes follow the meeting. Read PDP for medical appraisal for examples.

• Confirm the appraisal period, meeting date, appraiser and revalidation details.
• Check your whole scope of work is represented and the previous appraisal or ARCP and PDP are available.
• Make CPD and quality improvement evidence easy to understand, with concise reflection and accurate time records.
• Check your formal feedback position across the cycle and record any agreed plan for outstanding collection.
• Complete declarations and include relevant events, complaints and compliments. Remove patient and colleague identifiers where appropriate.
• Draft your PDP, check attachments open, and enable early access if agreed.

Send the portfolio by the deadline agreed with your appraiser and flag any outstanding questions before sign-off. Use the appraisal checklist and what happens during and after appraisal to prepare for the meeting.