Pro-Rated CPD Requirements When Your APC Starts Part-Way Through a Cycle

How pro-rating works, and what it never touches

Every responsible authority under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 sets its own recertification programme, and every APC renewal asks you to declare that you met it. Our allied health recertification guide sets out each authority's full-cycle requirements. This page answers the narrower question that guide leaves open: what you owe when you only held an APC for part of the cycle.

The answer falls into four patterns. Some authorities apply a fixed number of hours for each three-month period you held an APC. Some publish a table keyed to the month your APC was issued. Some say hours "will be pro-rated" without publishing a formula. And some do not pro-rate at all, because their requirements run over a rolling window or a single practising year that already adjusts to you.

Three rules hold across almost every policy we checked:

• The trigger is holding an APC, not working. If you hold a current APC but are not practising, the authorities that address this (the Medical Sciences Council and Pharmacy Council, for example) still expect the requirement to be met unless you are granted an exemption.
• Hours are reduced; structure usually is not. Plans, peer review, reflections and verifier sign-off generally still apply in full.
• Cultural components are the least likely part to be reduced. Plan them first.

• Part-time work is not a reason to pro-rate. The Medical Sciences Council, Chiropractic Board and Podiatrists Board say so in terms, and the MRT Board says that, as a rule of thumb, part-time work is not an extenuating circumstance.
• Do not calculate a reduction yourself where the authority has not published one and then declare compliance on the strength of it.

Quick-answer table: does your authority pro-rate CPD?

Find your authority, then jump to the section below for the full rule and a worked example. "Not published" means we could not find a pro-rating rule in the authority's current policy or web guidance in October 2026, not that the authority will never adjust your requirement.

The quarterly formula: medical sciences, MRTs and chiropractors

These three authorities give you a rate you can calculate yourself. The method is the same each time: count the three-month periods in the cycle during which you held an APC and were working, then multiply.

Medical Sciences Council

The Council's CPD policy (version four, updated September 2024) runs on a biennium aligned to calendar years. The full requirement is 40 hours per biennium for medical laboratory scientists and anaesthetic technicians, with at least 15 in any one year and 24 hours substantive. Medical laboratory technicians and pre-analytical technicians need 24 hours, at least 9 in any one year and 14 substantive.

If you were registered for the first time, or returned to practice, part-way through a biennium, the policy reduces the minimum to 5 hours for each three-month period you have been working (scientists and anaesthetic technicians) or 3 hours (technicians and pre-analytical technicians). The same policy is firm on two points: the minimum applies regardless of full-time, part-time or casual work, and holding a practising certificate means meeting the requirement even if you are not working or are practising outside Aotearoa.

Medical Radiation Technologists Board

The MRT Board's policy (version four, July 2024, amended November 2025) requires 40 hours over a consecutive two-year period, at least 15 in any one year, with at least 25 hours directly relevant to your scope and up to 15 general. The current biennium runs from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2026. First-time registrants and returners use the same pro-rata rate as scientists: five hours per three-month period. The Board's web FAQ splits pro-rated totals roughly 60/40 between substantive and general hours.

Chiropractic Board

Chiropractors need at least 20 hours of CPD every year, counted from 1 January to 31 December. Where you obtain a practising certificate part-way through the year, the Board's CPD Policy (2021) reduces the requirement on a pro-rata basis of five hours for every three months of practice:

Graduates of the New Zealand College of Chiropractic who finish in November or December and register in the same year are exempt from CPD for that year. Part-time practice brings no reduction, and the cultural or diversity responsiveness activity is still due once every two years.

Published tables: dietitians, podiatrists and pharmacists

These authorities do the arithmetic for you. Your job is to read the right row and notice which part of the requirement does not move.

Dietitians Board: credits by quarter, cultural credits fixed

Dietitians normally need 15 credits a year across four domains. The Board's quarters start in April, and it publishes two tables: one for dietitians who obtain an APC part-way through the year and one for those who held an APC in April and then went on leave. In both, the cultural development requirement stays at 3 credits whatever the total, because the Board requires one 3-credit cultural development activity every year.

Notice that at 6 credits, half the requirement is cultural. A dietitian who starts in February cannot meet the year with one webinar; they need a genuine 3-credit cultural development activity. Our comparison of cultural safety requirements across every programme explains what each authority treats as cultural learning. The Board says its system should adjust automatically, and to contact it if your portal does not.

Podiatrists Board: two-year table, compulsory hours fixed

Podiatrists need 40 hours in every two-year cycle (the first cycle ran from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2019, and cycles follow calendar years): 8 compulsory hours (infection control 3, wound management 2, cultural safety 3), 16 hours of professional communication activities and 16 of professional learning activities, plus current basic life support and anaphylaxis certification. When you obtain a practising certificate part-way through a cycle, only the communication and learning hours fall:

A podiatrist who starts in the last quarter of a cycle therefore still owes 12 hours, two-thirds of it compulsory. The Board's exemption policy adds that there is no reduction for part-time practice and that exemptions are granted only in exceptional circumstances and are highly unlikely to be granted retrospectively.

Pharmacy Council: three bands within the practising year

Pharmacists do not count hours. Instead, the Council's requirements document for the practising year 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 set out three bands by APC issue date:

Two cautions. The same document says that if you hold an APC but choose not to practise, the requirements still apply. And separately from recertification, each APC application asks you to confirm at least 450 hours of practice in the three years before you apply. Pro-rating the professional development part does not change that.

Pro-rated without a formula: physiotherapists and paramedics

Physiotherapy Board

Physiotherapists need 100 CPD hours over a rolling three practising years (each practising year runs 1 April to 31 March), and there is no minimum to complete in any single year. The Board's recertification pages say hours "will be pro-rated if you have not held an APC for the entire three-year period", and that a new graduate applying for a first APC has hours requirements on a pro-rata basis. The Board does not publish how it calculates the reduced figure.

What it does say is that the other components are not reduced. A new graduate still needs a professional development plan, peer review and three reflections, one of which explores Māori culture in relation to their practice. If you hold an APC but stop practising for a period, for example maternity leave or injury, the Board asks you to notify it as soon as possible so it can take that into account if you are audited. Physiotherapists are not eligible for selection for the recertification audit while they remain non-practising, though the Board recommends keeping some CPD up.

Paramedic Council

Paramedics need 25 hours a year from 1 April to 31 March (30 with an extended care, critical care or intensive care endorsement), with at least 3 hours focused on culture. The Council's CPD guidance pro-rates newly registered paramedics to the month they join the cycle, "roughly 2 hours for each month". Its own example: with six months left in the cycle, you would be expected to complete 12 hours, of which 1 hour 30 minutes should relate to culture. You are also exempt from a CPD audit during your first year of registration.

The guidance does not extend pro-rating to other situations. If you hold a practising certificate, including while working overseas, you need to complete CPD. If you stop practising for an extended period, for example for significant illness or injury, parental or carer's leave or a bereavement, you can ask the Registrar in writing for an exemption from being audited. For a short break, the guidance says you continue to complete CPD.

Authorities that do not pro-rate: rolling windows, exemptions and annual cycles

For the remaining authorities, "how much do I owe for a part year?" is the wrong question. Their requirements either look back over a rolling window, contain no hour target, or are handled through an exemption.

Doctors in a vocational scope recertify through their college or approved provider, which sets its own part-year rules; see our Medical Council recertification guide. Nurses can read more in our Nursing Council recertification guide.

Worked calculations

These examples use invented practitioners and the published rules above. Where an authority has not published a formula, we show the arithmetic as a planning estimate and say so.

Common situations, answered

I am a new graduate or newly registered

This is the situation most authorities have planned for. Medical sciences, MRT, physiotherapy, paramedic, chiropractic, podiatry and dietetics all reduce hours or credits for a first APC part-way through a cycle, and chiropractic graduates who register in their graduation year are exempt that year. Nursing works differently: New Zealand nursing qualification education within the last three years can count as professional development. Whatever your profession, start the non-hours parts in your first month, because a PDP, peer, supervisor or verifier is rarely reduced and takes longest to arrange.

I am returning from overseas

The key question is whether you held a New Zealand APC while you were away. If you did, the Medical Sciences Council and the Paramedic Council say you must meet CPD requirements even while practising outside Aotearoa. If you did not, the Chiropractic, Podiatrists and Dental authorities do not require CPD from registrants without a current APC (the Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Board makes it optional), and the Dental Council says professional development activities can be completed in any country if they are relevant to your scope. If you have been away from the profession for more than three years, the Medical Sciences Council and MRT Board consider relevant CPD done while away alongside your APC application and then apply their pro-rata rate from your return, while the Physiotherapy Board requires a Return to Practise programme after three or more years out.

I am going on, or coming back from, parental leave

No authority we checked reduces CPD automatically for parental leave. Instead:

• Exemption on request: the Medical Sciences Council and MRT Board may grant a 12-month exemption; the Psychologists Board lists parental leave as a ground and the Dental Council gives paternal leave as an example; the Paramedic Council considers written requests to the Registrar for an exemption from audit.
• Change of status: the Dietitians Board suggests you may need to switch to non-practising using the "Advise Not Practising" button in your portal (no charge), and its leave table then sets your credits.
• Inactive status: the Midwifery Council's Recertification Policy lets midwives temporarily ceasing practice, for example on maternity leave, move to inactive status, which puts the programme on hold.
• Notification: the Physiotherapy Board asks you to tell it as soon as possible, and the Medical Council asks you to email pc@mcnz.org.nz with your last day.
• Pharmacists: complete the requirements for the year you held an APC before going non-practising, which the Council says matters if you return later.

I changed scope or added an endorsement

Requirements can differ by scope inside one authority: laboratory technicians need 24 hours a biennium and scientists 40, a paramedic endorsement raises the annual figure from 25 to 30 hours, and specialist or advanced practice physiotherapists put half their 100 hours into their specialty area. None of the policies we read sets out how to blend two scopes within one cycle, so ask the authority which figure applies from the date of the change and record its answer.

My APC was issued late in the year

A late start can mean very little or nothing is due: a pharmacist whose APC was issued in February or March 2026 had no requirements for 2025/26, a chiropractor whose first certificate is issued in the final quarter owes 5 hours, and a dietitian starting between January and March owes 6 credits. A psychologist who practised less than 4 months in the PC year can apply for an exemption. The reduced requirement still has to be completed before the cycle closes.

I hold an APC but am not working

Holding an APC is what triggers the requirement. The Pharmacy Council says requirements still apply because a valid APC means you could legally practise, and the Medical Sciences Council says the same for practitioners who are not currently working. If you will be out for a long period, the cleaner route is usually to move to non-practising status. Optometrists, dispensing opticians, podiatrists, chiropractors and dental practitioners without a current APC are not required to complete CPD, though most recommend keeping some up.

Recording a pro-rated requirement so it survives audit

An auditor sees your hours, not your reasoning, unless you write it down. A pro-rated requirement needs three extra pieces of evidence compared with a normal cycle.

1. Record your APC dates

   Note the date your first APC (or restored APC) was issued and any period of leave or non-practising status, with the confirmation emails.

2. Show the calculation

   Write the rule you used and the sum, for example "MSC CPD policy, pro-rated CPD: 6 periods × 5 hours = 30 hours".

3. File any authority correspondence

   Where the authority has no published formula, its written reply is your evidence. Keep exemption decisions with the cycle they cover.

4. Meet the fixed parts in full

   Cultural credits, compulsory hours, reflections, peer review and sign-offs, logged with dates and real time spent.

Our audit-ready portfolio checklist covers the rest of the record every authority expects to see, and the PDP examples show how to scale a plan to a short cycle.

If you are not sure what applies

The authority's current policy always overrides any summary, including this one, and several of the rules above leave edge cases open. Ask before the cycle closes, not after an audit letter arrives. A short email gets a faster, more useful answer if it includes:

• Your name, registration number and scope (or scopes) of practice.
• The exact dates your APC started, and any leave, overseas or non-practising periods.
• The cycle you are asking about, and the calculation you think applies.
• A direct question, such as "Please confirm my minimum CPD for this cycle is 30 hours."

Some authorities publish dedicated addresses: the Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Board uses cpd@odob.co.nz, the Chiropractic Board admin@chiropracticboard.org.nz and the Podiatrists Board registrar@podiatristsboard.org.nz. For others, use the recertification contact in your online portal. If concerns have been raised about your practice, the rules are different; read our fitness to practise overview first.

Quick self-check

Frequently asked questions

Primary sources

27 official documents

1. Physiotherapy Board: Recertification audit
2. Physiotherapy Board: Recertification programme and audit
3. Medical Sciences Council: Recertification programme (CPD)
4. Medical Sciences Council: CPD policy (September 2024)
5. Medical Radiation Technologists Board: Recertification (CPD)
6. Medical Radiation Technologists Board: Recertification CPD policy (amended November 2025)
7. Dietitians Board: Continuing professional development
8. Paramedic Council: Professional development
9. Paramedic Council: CPD guidance document
10. Chiropractic Board: Continuing professional development
11. Chiropractic Board: CPD Policy 2021
12. Podiatrists Board: CPD requirements
13. Podiatrists Board: CPD Recertification Policy
14. Podiatrists Board: CPD Exemption Policy
15. Pharmacy Council: Recertification
16. Pharmacy Council: Requirements to be met by March 2026
17. Psychologists Board: Continuing Competence Programme guide for participants
18. Dental Council: Your recertification programme, handbook for oral health practitioners
19. Nursing Council: Continuing competence
20. Nursing Council: Recertification audit guidance for enrolled and registered nurses (October 2025)
21. Midwifery Council: Recertification Policy
22. Midwifery Council: Recertification programme summary planner
23. Medical Council: Recertification requirements for the general scope
24. Medical Council: Taking a break or retiring from medical practice
25. Occupational Therapy Board: ePortfolio
26. Occupational Therapy Board: ePortfolio Policy
27. Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Board: Recertification