Staying registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) means keeping your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) up to date — every single year. If you are a registered psychologist, counsellor, or psychometrist, understanding the HPCSA CPD requirements for psychologists is not optional. The requirements are not always explained clearly, and the consequences of falling short are serious. This guide gives you a straightforward breakdown of what the HPCSA expects, what counts towards your annual total, and how to make compliance manageable in 2026.
Already know what you need? View our 2026 category-specific CPD packages — built specifically for registered psychologists, counsellors, and psychometrists.
What Are HPCSA CPD Requirements?
Continuing Professional Development is the formal mechanism through which the HPCSA ensures that all registered practitioners remain current in their knowledge, skills, and professional standards. It is a mandatory requirement for maintaining registration — not a suggestion.
Specifically, every registered psychology professional must accumulate 30 CEUs (Continuing Education Units) within each 12-month cycle. Within those 30 CEUs, a minimum of 5 must come from ethics, human rights, or health law activities. Furthermore, the remaining 25 are classified as clinical CEUs and can cover a broad range of practice-relevant topics. Both minimums — 25 clinical and 5 ethics — are now formally specified in the HPCSA’s updated 2025 CPD guidelines.
The 12-Month Cycle: How It Works for HPCSA CPD Requirements
The HPCSA operates on a rolling 12-month basis. Each CEU is valid for 12 months from the date the activity was completed. Consequently, you cannot bank points from one year to cover a shortfall in the next — compliance is assessed on an ongoing annual basis.
In practice, spreading your CPD activities throughout the year is far more manageable than attempting to complete everything in December. Additionally, many practitioners find themselves under significant pressure in the final quarter when they realise they have not kept pace. Therefore, starting early in the year is always the better approach.
What Counts as a Valid CPD Activity?
The HPCSA recognises a broad range of activities as valid CPD. These include formal learning activities like courses, workshops, webinars, and conferences, as well as informal activities such as peer consultation groups and structured self-directed learning.
Importantly, online CPD activities are fully recognised by the HPCSA. This includes e-learning courses, virtual webinars, and digital article-based programmes with assessments — provided they are accredited by an approved provider. As a result, this flexibility has made online CPD increasingly popular among practitioners who carry full caseloads.
- Accredited online courses and e-learning programmes
- Workshops, seminars, and conferences
- Webinars (live or recorded, where accredited)
- Structured peer consultation groups (where accredited)
- Ethics and health law training programmes
- Postgraduate study in a relevant discipline
Category-Specific HPCSA CPD Requirements for Psychologists
The HPCSA allows practitioners to earn CEUs within their own registration category or within another relevant discipline that applies to their professional practice. For example, a counselling psychologist working in an organisational context may earn points from relevant industrial psychology content — provided it relates to their practice area.
However, your ethics CEUs must remain specifically relevant to psychology practice and the professional conduct requirements of your category. Cross-category clinical CEUs therefore require professional judgement about relevance. When in doubt, choosing category-specific content removes any ambiguity.
Continuous Compliance: Key Changes to HPCSA CPD Requirements in 2025
The HPCSA updated its CPD guidelines in January 2025, and the changes are significant. Firstly, the previous practice of randomly sampling practitioners for compliance checks has been discontinued. Compliance is now a continuous requirement — practitioners are expected to be compliant at all times, not just when selected for an audit.
Moreover, there is no longer a specific timeline for compliance. Each CEU is valid for 12 months from the date of completion, and as points expire they must be replaced. You can view your active points and their expiry dates directly on your HPCSA online profile via the self-service portal.
If you are non-compliant, the HPCSA expects you to immediately rectify the situation. Practitioners who fall below the 30 CEU threshold at any point — not just at an audit — are considered non-compliant. In addition, CPD certificates are no longer issued as a mandatory requirement. Instead, CPD service providers now submit attendance registers and evidence of accredited activity directly to the HPCSA on your behalf. You will receive confirmation once your points are uploaded.
Important: Check your active CPD points and expiry dates regularly via the HPCSA self-service portal. Under the 2025 guidelines, compliance is continuous — there is no grace period for non-compliance.
How PsyCampus Supports Your HPCSA CPD Requirements
PsyCampus CPD packages are designed specifically for HPCSA-registered psychologists — not for general healthcare practitioners. Each package includes 11 peer-reviewed articles with accompanying multiple-choice questionnaires, covering 25 clinical CEUs and 6 ethics CEUs. Completing a package in 2026 therefore gives you 31 CEUs — one more than the minimum requirement, providing a useful buffer against the continuous compliance standard.
Packages are available for counselling psychology, clinical psychology, industrial psychology, psychometry, and registered counselling — each built around content relevant to that specific practice area and HPCSA registration category.
Ready to meet your 2026 HPCSA CPD requirements? Browse our 2026 cpd packages
or check if you qualify for a recent graduate discount of up to 40%.
References
- Health Professions Council of South Africa. (2025). Continuing Professional Development guidelines for health care professionals (updated January 2025). Retrieved from https://www.hpcsa.co.za
- PsyCampus. (2026). 2026 HPCSA Accredited CPD Courses. Retrieved from https://www.psycampus.co.za/hpcsa-accredited-cpd-courses/