Quick Answer
The appraisal meeting is usually a 30–60 minute discussion, commonly held by Microsoft Teams or another video platform.
It is intended to be a supportive and reflective conversation. You will work through the main sections of your appraisal, discuss the supporting information you have provided, reflect on the previous year and finish by agreeing a Personal Development Plan (PDP) for the year ahead.
What Happens at the Start of the Appraisal?
The meeting will usually begin with introductions and an informal discussion about your scope of work.
Your appraiser will want to understand what you are currently doing clinically, any other professional roles you hold and how your work has developed over the appraisal year.
This often naturally leads into a discussion about your career plans and priorities for the year ahead and beyond.
What Will You Discuss During the Meeting?
The appraisal will usually cover all of the main areas of your supporting information, including:
your CPD and learning
quality improvement activity
complaints and significant events
patient and colleague feedback, where available
your previous PDP
your proposed PDP for the coming year
your current scope of work and professional development.
There will also be an opportunity to discuss any health, wellbeing, personal or professional concerns that are relevant to your work.
An experienced appraiser can also be a useful source of advice, guidance and perspective, particularly around career development, portfolio evidence and future professional goals.
Reviewing Your Previous PDP
Your previous PDP will normally be reviewed objective by objective.
For each goal, your appraiser may ask what you have done, what progress you have made and what evidence you have provided.
You should be able to explain whether you consider each objective to be:
achieved
partially achieved
ongoing
no longer relevant
or not achieved.
Not completing every objective is not necessarily a problem. The important thing is being able to explain what happened and demonstrate appropriate engagement with your professional development.
Agreeing Your New PDP
Your new PDP should be a joint process between you and your appraiser.
If you already have development goals in mind, your appraiser can help turn these into clear and achievable PDP objectives.
Your appraiser may also suggest additional objectives if an important development need becomes apparent during the discussion.
Occasionally, there may be an area that clearly needs to be addressed. For example, if essential mandatory training is substantially out of date, completing this may reasonably become a priority PDP objective.
What Does the Appraiser Actually Do?
A large part of the appraiser's role is to help you demonstrate reflection, insight and learning from the information you have provided.
A good appraiser is therefore skilled at asking the right questions rather than simply reading through your portfolio.
They may ask you to explore an issue in more detail, consider whether you would do anything differently, identify learning from a case or think more carefully about your development needs.
They may also offer advice and, where appropriate, encourage you to make a PDP objective more meaningful or ambitious.
How Long Does the Appraisal Meeting Take?
Most appraisal meetings take approximately 30–60 minutes.
The exact length will depend on your scope of work, the amount of supporting information provided and whether there are particular areas that require more detailed discussion.
What Happens Immediately After the Meeting?
Following the meeting, your appraiser will complete the formal appraisal documentation.
This will usually include the agreed PDP objectives and a written summary of the appraisal discussion.
The appraiser will draw together the evidence you have provided, the discussion during the meeting and the reflections and development needs identified.
The Appraisal Summary and Appraiser Statements
The appraiser's report will normally consider your practice in relation to the four domains of the GMC's Good Medical Practice:
Domain 1: Knowledge, skills and development How you maintain and develop your professional knowledge and skills and apply these appropriately within your practice.
Domain 2: Patients, partnership and communication How you communicate with patients, support shared decision-making and maintain effective professional relationships with those receiving care.
Domain 3: Colleagues, culture and safety How you work with colleagues, contribute to safe systems of care and support an appropriate professional culture.
Domain 4: Trust and professionalism How you maintain professional standards, act with honesty and integrity and preserve the trust placed in you as a doctor.
The report will usually conclude with a General Summary, bringing together the main themes from the appraisal, including your scope of work, supporting information, achievements, challenges, reflections and plans for the year ahead.
Your appraiser will also complete the required appraiser statements associated with the appraisal.
Do You Need to Approve or Sign Anything?
Yes.
Once your appraiser has completed the report, you will normally be asked to review and confirm the appraisal documentation.
Read the report before confirming it and make sure that it accurately reflects the discussion you had.
What If Changes Are Needed After the Meeting?
If you notice an error or feel that something in the report does not accurately reflect the appraisal discussion, contact your appraiser and ask them to amend it.
Minor factual corrections are usually straightforward.
Once you are happy that the report is accurate, you can confirm it.
When Is the Appraisal Complete?
The appraisal is normally complete once the appraiser has completed the report and you have reviewed and confirmed the final documentation.
Depending on the appraisal system being used, a final PDF or equivalent appraisal output will then be generated.
This is the formal record of the completed appraisal.
What Happens to the Appraisal Afterwards?
Keep copies of your final appraisal reports and PDFs.
Over a five-year revalidation cycle it is quite possible to change employer, designated body, Responsible Officer or appraisal platform.
Having copies of your previous appraisal outputs makes it much easier to demonstrate your appraisal history when you approach revalidation.
Do not rely solely on being able to access an old appraisal platform several years later.
Can an Appraisal Be Unsatisfactory?
It is unusual for an appraisal meeting simply to result in a doctor being told that they have "failed".
Appraisal is not an examination.
If there is clearly insufficient supporting information, this should ideally be identified before the appraisal meeting takes place so that further information can be provided.
Some appraisal portfolios will inevitably be stronger than others. Where there are gaps or weaknesses, these can usually be discussed openly and addressed through appropriate actions or a clear PDP.
The important issue is engagement: providing appropriate supporting information, participating meaningfully in the discussion and being willing to reflect and address reasonable development needs.
What Happens If the Appraiser Has Concerns?
Most concerns identified during appraisal can be discussed and managed within the normal supportive appraisal process.
However, appraisal is not intended to contain or manage a serious patient-safety, professionalism or fitness-to-practise concern.
Where an appraiser identifies a significant concern, they may need to seek advice from or pass information to the Responsible Officer or appropriate governance process.
This would usually relate to something substantially more serious than simply having an imperfect portfolio—for example, significant professional conduct concerns, serious patient-safety issues or evidence of persistent non-engagement.
Repeated appraisals documenting significant failure to engage with appraisal or professional development may also eventually require review by the Responsible Officer.
This is uncommon. For the overwhelming majority of doctors, appraisal remains a supportive professional-development process.
Sources / Last Reviewed
Sources:
GMC – Good Medical Practice
GMC – Guidance on Supporting Information for Revalidation
GMC – Revalidation and Appraisal Guidance
NHS England – Medical Appraisal Guide
NHS England – Medical Appraisal Policy
NHS England – Responsible Officer and Revalidation Guidance
These sources describe the principles underpinning medical appraisal, the supporting information doctors are expected to discuss, the role of the appraiser and the relationship between appraisal and revalidation.
Individual designated bodies and appraisal platforms may have slightly different administrative processes, particularly around completing, confirming and storing the final appraisal documentation.
Last reviewed: August 2026