Midwifery Council recertification programme: what midwives must do

The Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 (HPCA Act) lets each responsible authority set a recertification programme to make sure the practitioners it registers stay competent. Section 41 is the power the Midwifery Council uses. The Council is one of the 18 responsible authorities listed by Manatū Hauora, and it is the only one that registers midwives.

The Council describes the programme as mandated education and professional activities completed over a rolling three-year cycle. In its words, taking part is "one way kahu pōkai | midwives demonstrate ongoing competence". You do not send evidence in every year. Instead, you confirm at each annual practising certificate (APC) renewal that you are meeting the requirements, and you keep your evidence ready in case you are audited.

The Council's Code of Conduct makes the link explicit: midwives must "demonstrate continuing competence through participation in the Midwifery Council Recertification Programme". So the programme is not optional CPD. It is part of the conditions for keeping your practising certificate.

The Summary Planner breaks the programme into components with different frequencies. Some are yearly, some are once per three-year cycle, and some were one-off education requirements with a fixed due date.

The Planner calls your portfolio "your collection point for recertification evidence". Fill its date fields in as you go, not from memory at renewal time.

The two yearly eight-hour minimums are separate. Hours of education do not make up for a shortfall in professional activities, or the other way round. A midwife with 20 hours of courses and no professional activities in a year has not met the programme for that year.

Continuing education

The Planner describes this as midwifery education. The test is relevance to your midwifery practice. Learning that sharpens how you inform women, record care, handle consent or keep boundaries can be relevant, alongside clinical updates. Keep a certificate or attendance record and a short note on what you learned and how it changed what you do.

Professional activities

This is a separate yearly minimum of eight hours. The Council's Planner records the hours but does not list every activity that counts, so check the current Council criteria (in MyMCANZ or the policy, once republished) before you count something. When in doubt, ask the Council rather than guessing.

Keep the two logs apart

• Record each item once, under one heading only.
• Note the date, hours, provider or setting, and one or two lines of learning.
• Keep evidence that is no more than four years old, because that is the limit the Council applies at audit.

Midwifery Standards Review (MSR) is a required part of the programme, once every three years. It is developed and run by the New Zealand College of Midwives, the professional body, not by the Council. The College describes it as a quality assurance and professional development process in which you reflect on your practice with specially educated reviewers.

The review uses the College's Standards of Midwifery Practice and Tūranga Kaupapa as its guiding principles, and draws on feedback from wāhine you have cared for. The College publishes a Midwifery Standards Review Handbook to guide preparation. The review should finish with you identifying a professional development plan.

• Book your review early in the cycle so a cancellation does not push you past your three-year point.
• Collect consumer feedback steadily rather than in the last month.
• Write your self-reflection against the standards the reviewers will use, not against a generic template.
• Use the development plan from your MSR to choose next year's continuing education, so your learning has a clear purpose.

MSR is a College process, so questions about booking, fees or the handbook go to the College. Questions about whether you have met the recertification programme go to the Council.

Emergency skills every year

The Planner requires attendance at a Midwifery Emergency Skills Refresher, or PROMPT + NNR, every year. PROMPT + NNR can only be used once in each three-year cycle, so in the other two years you need the Refresher. Diary the year you plan to use PROMPT + NNR.

Cultural safety

Cultural safety education became mandatory from 1 April 2024. The Planner sets 8 hours once per cycle and 4 further hours through flexible delivery options. Check which sessions and formats the Council currently accepts for this requirement before you book.

Scope of Practice and Standards of Competence education

The Planner set a due date of 1 July 2025 for education on the Midwifery Scope of Practice and Standards of Competence. If you have not completed it, contact the Council about where you stand before your next APC declaration.

Abortion law reform

Abortion law reform education was required in the 2022–23 year for midwives who had not already completed it. It is listed on the Planner as a past requirement.

The Council randomly selects up to 5% of midwives each year. If you are chosen you will receive a letter, and you have four weeks from the date of that letter to upload your evidence. The Council's assessment then takes up to four weeks.

1. Read the letter twice. Note the upload date and exactly which years and components it covers.
2. Pull evidence from your portfolio. Evidence must be no more than four years old.
3. Keep it short. The Council asks for no more than 20 to 25 pages, in doc, docx or pdf format only.
4. Write reflective statements. The Council describes these as usually a short paragraph of about 100 words. Say what you did, what you learned and what changed in your practice.
5. Remove identifying details of women, babies and whānau from anything you upload.
6. Ask early if something is missing. Contact the Council before the deadline rather than after it.

The Council lists what can follow if a midwife cannot give satisfactory evidence: a declined practising certificate, an interim certificate, a competence review, a competence programme or restrictions on scope. A competence review is a separate process with its own rules. We explain it on our Midwifery Council competence review guide.

A 100-word reflective statement is short, so every sentence has to work. Assessors are looking for a link between the activity and your practice, not a summary of the course content.

• Start with the trigger: what prompted the learning (a case, a gap you noticed, your MSR plan).
• Name one or two specific learning points, not a list of topics.
• Describe a change: something you now do differently, such as how you document a discussion of options or how you check understanding.
• Link it to the standards or to the Code of Conduct where it fits.
• Keep it de-identified. Write about the learning, not about a woman or family who could be recognised.

The HPCA Act (s 44(4)) gives recertification statements some protection from later use, but how far that reaches over private notes is untested. Assume another person could one day see what you write. Our reflective practice course walks through this with worked examples.

The Midwifery Council's Code of Conduct (published December 2010, reprinted February 2021) is a practical guide to where learning pays off. Its four parts deal with accountability, relationships with women, working with other professions, and behaviour. Several of its duties map directly onto continuing education topics.

The HDC Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights sits alongside the Council's Code. Rights 5, 6 and 7 (effective communication, being fully informed, and informed choice and consent) are central to midwifery partnership and are a sensible anchor for at least part of your continuing education.

1. Year one, first month: open the Summary Planner, enter your cycle dates and book your emergency skills session. Decide which year you will use PROMPT + NNR.
2. Year one: book your MSR date and start collecting consumer feedback. Log continuing education and professional activities separately as you go.
3. Each year: check you have at least 8 hours in each of the two yearly categories before your APC declaration. Do not count the same hours twice.
4. Across the cycle: complete the cultural safety education (8 hours plus 4 flexible hours) and confirm any one-off education that applies to you.
5. After MSR: turn the development plan into your next continuing education choices.
6. Every quarter: add a short reflection for anything that changed your practice.

Our courses are online, self-paced learning on the professional side of practice: consent, boundaries, records, privacy, open disclosure and ethics. You check understanding as you go, finish with a 20-question test where 16 correct (80%) is a pass, and receive a certificate along with a reflective account that can be reshaped for your midwifery portfolio.

Where a topic is relevant to your practice and your development plan, a course may support your continuing education hours. Whether it counts is decided by the Council's criteria, not by us. The courses are not approved by the Midwifery Council and are not a substitute for emergency skills, cultural safety education, the Council's scope and standards education, Midwifery Standards Review, or any competence programme the Council orders.

See all options on our NZ course catalogue.