CORU CPD for Physiotherapists: 30 Credits, the October 2027 Audit and Why Board Rules Differ

Physiotherapy is the largest profession on CORU’s register. The regulator’s State of the Register for the first half of 2025 records 6,676 registrants — more than twice the number of medical scientists and over twelve times the number of podiatrists. It is also the board with the most unusual register in Ireland, because it holds two professions rather than one.

One register, two professions

The Physiotherapists Registration Board was established on 20 May 2014. Its register opened on 30 September 2016, and the title became officially protected on 30 September 2018.

The board regulates physiotherapists and physical therapists, and CORU is explicit that both professions have been admitted to the one register — the Register of Physiotherapists. In most jurisdictions those are not parallel professions, so practitioners moving into or out of Ireland should not assume the Irish structure maps onto the one they know.

The board’s remit runs wider than the register itself. It establishes and maintains the register, assesses, approves and monitors education and training programmes, sets the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics and the standards of performance, and acts as the designated Competent Authority for recognising qualifications gained outside the State.

The CPD requirement

The board’s own guidance — Guidance on Continuing Professional Development, approved by the Physiotherapists Registration Board in October 2019 — sets the figure plainly: registrants should at minimum demonstrate achieving 30 CPD credits in every 12-month period.

The conversion is given in the guidance’s own record template: approximately one CPD credit for every hour of new or enhanced learning achieved. That phrase — new or enhanced learning — does real work. An hour spent repeating a module completed annually for five years is an hour of attendance, not an hour of new or enhanced learning.

What an audit actually asks for

If called for audit, a physiotherapist must submit four records:

1. A record of learning activities that achieved 30 CPD credits of new or enhanced learning
2. A record of your evaluation and reflection on that learning
3. A record of your review of learning needs for the next 12 months
4. A record of your planned learning activities for the next 12 months

Half of that submission is forward-looking. Two of the four components concern the next twelve months rather than the period under audit, which means a record assembled purely as a retrospective tally is incomplete however many credits it shows.

The guidance is also specific about what reflection is for. The “Evaluate and Reflect” stage addresses the impact of the learning and its integration into practice, measured against quality service delivery and service user outcomes. A reflection that describes the course rather than its effect on practice does not answer the question being asked. The guidance adds that it is best practice for each stage of the CPD process to be documented, not just the activities.

The record template gives a useful picture of the expected fields: name, registration number, audit period, date and time spent, activity type and name, credits, learning outcome, impact on practice, review, and plan.

The audit date for physiotherapists is 1 October 2027

CORU publishes an audit period and date for each board, and physiotherapists have the latest in the current schedule: an audit period running 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2027, with an audit date of 1 October 2027.

Because that is a 24-month window, the requirement is 30 credits in each of the two 12-month periods within it — not 60 credits across the two years. Surplus credits do not carry forward, so a strong first year cannot rescue a thin second one. Only activities undertaken inside the period count, and only registrants on the register for the full period are eligible for selection. Selection is random, and submission is through the CORU Registrant Portal. The full schedule for all ten boards is in our guide to the CORU CPD audit on 1 November 2026.

Having the latest audit date in the schedule is an advantage only if it is used. Two years is long enough to build a genuine record and long enough to forget about entirely until the autumn of 2027.

Where the obligation sits in the Code

The CPD requirement is anchored in the Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics rather than standing alone. Section 2.1 of the guidance ties the two together: under the Code you should keep a record of the activities you have completed, and the board may audit compliance with the CPD section of the Code.

That framing matters. A CPD shortfall is not a separate administrative category of problem — it is a Code compliance question, which is why it carries professional conduct consequences rather than simply a request to do better next year.

The boards are not identical, and that matters

This is the point most likely to catch out a well-prepared registrant. The 30-credit figure is common across the open registers, but the board-level documents are not the same, and a physiotherapist relying on another profession’s framework can end up applying rules that do not apply to them — or missing ones that do.

Compare this guidance with the Continuing Professional Development Standard and Requirements for Occupational Therapists. That framework imposes a 4-credit cap on portfolio maintenance, requires reflections on four different activities, requires a range of activity types with a worked example of a single-type record failing, and requires records to be kept indefinitely. The physiotherapy guidance states no caps at all, specifies no minimum number of reflections, and does not state an indefinite retention period.

Neither document is more demanding overall; they are differently specified. The practical conclusion is that each registrant should work from their own board’s document. Our guide to CORU CPD for occupational therapists sets out that framework in detail, and the shared framework across all professions is covered in our overview of CORU CPD requirements for allied health professionals.

No approved providers, in Ireland or elsewhere on this register

CORU does not accredit CPD providers. There is no approved list, and no certificate carries regulatory weight on its own. The registrant decides whether an activity was relevant, and must be able to show its impact on practice.

For physiotherapy this is worth stating clearly, because the profession has an active commercial CPD market in courses, certifications and manual therapy techniques. A provider describing a course as CORU-recognised is describing something that does not exist. What makes the activity count is the registrant’s own documented link between the learning and their practice.

If you are registered in more than one jurisdiction

Physiotherapy is a mobile profession and dual registration is common. The models differ materially, and one portfolio should not be assumed to satisfy two regulators.

The United Kingdom runs an hours-and-evidence model through the HCPC, set out in our guide to physiotherapist CPD requirements in the UK. Ontario operates a quality assurance programme with a different structure again, covered in our guide to Ontario physiotherapist CPD and the CPO quality assurance programme. For background on the Irish regulator itself and what it covers, see our explainer on what CORU is.

A short check

Are you counting 30 credits for each 12-month period separately, rather than a running total across the audit window? Does every entry represent new or enhanced learning rather than a repeated mandatory module? Does your reflection describe the impact on practice and service user outcomes, not the content of the course? Do you have a written review of learning needs and a plan for the next 12 months, as two of the four audit components require? And are you working from the physiotherapy guidance rather than another board’s?