Periodic certification for physiotherapists: 4 strands, 8 activities, 6 years

Since 1^st January 2023, periodic certification has been an obligation for seven regulated health professions in France, physiotherapists among them. Over a six-year cycle, you build a pathway of at least eight activities spread across four strands. Here, point by point and without the jargon, is what the national FAQ from the French health ministry says.

🎯 What is periodic certification?

An obligation that runs throughout your career, designed as support rather than as policing.

Periodic certification is a professional obligation that follows you throughout your career. Its purpose: to help you maintain and update your skills, while safeguarding the quality and safety of care. It also takes in two dimensions often left aside: your relationship with patients and your own health.

It answers a simple observation: knowledge, techniques and the organisation of care are moving fast. The scheme aims to make practice safer, strengthen patients’ trust and give value to your ongoing commitment. It follows a logic of continuous improvement and support, not of sanction. Comparable schemes already exist in several countries, notably in Europe.

What is it actually for?

Beyond the obligation, certification is a tool at the service of your practice. It lets you:

• take stock of your skills regularly and step back from your practice;
• stay up to date and identify where you can improve, in step with the health system;
• bring coherence to everything you do (training, practice, quality, teaching…) and build a pathway that reads clearly over time;
• give value to your commitment, a real lever for recognition;
• protect your professional balance, and therefore the sustainability of your practice.

Who runs the scheme?

Governance is shared between four bodies. The main thing to remember is that your regulatory body checks, and that your CNP supports you.

Does it replace the DPC?

No. Periodic certification does not replace continuing professional development: it absorbs it into a broader process. The DPC is one component of certification, notably its first two strands.

👤 Does it apply to me as a physiotherapist?

Yes. Physiotherapists are among the seven professions concerned.

Certification applies to all health professionals who have a regulatory body, while they are in practice, whatever their working arrangements (self-employed, salaried or both). France stands out for the high number of professions concerned, more than countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada or Australia: a choice that reflects the wish for a shared culture of quality and safety of care.

The 7 professions concerned, set out by the ordonnance of 19 July 2021, are:

• dentists;
• nurses;
• physiotherapists ;
• doctors;
• chiropodists and podiatrists;
• pharmacists;
• midwives.

Are there any exemptions?

Yes, but they are most often partial. They cover particular situations (a break in activity, specific working arrangements…) and lead to obligations adjusted in proportion. The example given in the FAQ: doctors in a high-risk specialty who have completed the accreditation process approved by the national health authority benefit from a substantial reduction. Full exemptions remain exceptional and tightly framed, set out by decree.

I am not practising at the moment: what does that mean for me?

It depends on the length of your break. If it is less than three years, your certification period keeps running (article R.4022-16 of the French public health code): you remain subject to the obligation and must complete the required activities. A temporary break (including a short removal from the register) does not interrupt your pathway and does not exempt you from it. Activities completed during that period can be counted if they meet the requirements. Each return to practice is assessed by your regulatory body.

🗓️ My cycle: 6 years (or 9)

A « rolling » period, personal to you, calculated from your registration with the regulatory body.

The obligation has been in force since 1^st January 2023. Activities completed since that date count, provided they fall within the applicable reference framework. So keep your certificates from 2023 onwards.

The normal length of a cycle is 6 years. But if you were already practising before 1^st January 2023, you have a transitional 9 years to complete your first certification. After that, like everyone else, you move into 6-year cycles.

This period is described as « rolling »: it is personal to you and is calculated from your date of registration with the regulatory body, then renews every 6 years from that same date.

And afterwards?

Once a cycle is validated, you move automatically into a new 6-year cycle. The activities in the new cycle must be distinct from those already counted for the previous one. Cycles follow one another in this way throughout your career.

If my situation changes along the way

• A change in working arrangements (self-employed ↔ salaried): your cycle continues normally as long as you remain in practice. You can adjust your choice of activities and update your supporting documents.
• A change of health profession: a new 6-year period starts, based on the reference framework of your new profession.
• A change of specialty: you follow the reference framework of the specialty you practise and under which you are entered on the register (the one shown in the national professional directory). Where a change is properly declared, you continue the outstanding activities under the reference framework of the new specialty.

🧭 Meeting the obligation: 4 strands, 8 activities

A pathway built over time, not a single course ticked off in a hurry.

To be certified, you must show, over the length of the cycle (6 years), your commitment to an overall process of continuous improvement. In practice, this means completing recognised activities, covering all the mandatory strands and meeting your profession’s reference framework. Certification therefore rests on the logic of a pathway, not on validating a single isolated activity.

The 4 mandatory strands

Your pathway must cover the following four strands. Strands 3 and 4 rest on an architecture shared by the 7 professions, to encourage a common approach to these issues.

How many activities?

At least 2 activities per strand, i.e. 8 activities in total over the 6-year cycle.

How to spread them out: the 3 questions to ask yourself

The choice of activities is yours, according to how you practise, your specialty, the needs you have identified and your working environment. The FAQ’s advice for building a useful pathway:

Spread your activities across the whole cycle rather than doing everything at the end. If you are salaried, build this pathway with your employer so that it fits with the organisation’s skills development plan and quality processes. You nonetheless remain responsible for meeting your obligations.

📚 Which activities really count?

Good news: the view is a broad one. Training, but also quality, research, teaching and professional commitment.

Certification gives value to a broad, qualitative view of professional activity. Several families of activity can be recognised:

Each activity must be capable of being attached to one of the 4 strands, contribute to your professional development and relate to your practice.

One activity, one strand

The same activity may contribute to several strands (a course develops your skills and improves the quality of your practice). But in your individual account it can only be counted once and attached to a single strand.

Real cases (courses, congresses, research…)

All of these count, subject to conditions and with supporting documents:

The symbol ● marks a « yes » subject to conditions; ● an activity subject to prior approval. Source: national FAQ « Certification périodique », French Ministry of Health (DGOS), 2026.

Where can I find my profession’s reference framework?

You can consult the periodic certification reference frameworks: on the websites of the national professional councils (CNP) for your profession or specialty, through your regulatory body, and on the national institutional websites (Ministry of Health, Bulletin officiel…). They set out the eligible activities, how to evidence them and what is expected for each strand.

🖥️ Declaring and tracking: « Ma Certif' Pro Santé »

A single, secure personal account, opening in November 2026.

You will declare your activities in your personal account on the national online service « Ma Certif' Pro Santé ». It will let you record your activities, upload your supporting documents and track your pathway. Entries are made as you go, throughout the cycle; your obligations, for their part, are verified at the end of the cycle on the basis of all the activities declared.

Access will be online, using your digital health professional identity. Once authenticated, you will be able to declare your activities, check where you stand, download your documents and follow news about the scheme. The service is built and run by the Agence du numérique en santé (ANS), the public digital health agency overseen by the ministry.

What to do until it opens?

While waiting for November 2026, keep every supporting document for activities completed since 1^st January 2023: certificates of completion, programmes, attendance certificates, internal documents… You will then upload them to the online service, and activities completed since the start of the cycle will be fully taken into account.

Who sees my data?

Your account is personal and secure, tied to your professional identity. Its operation is governed by a Conseil d'État decree (December 2025) approved by the French data protection authority. Access is strictly limited:

Source: national FAQ « Certification périodique », French Ministry of Health (DGOS), 2026.

Which supporting documents must I provide?

They are set out in your reference framework; they may in particular include:

• certificates of attendance for DPC activities (courses, integrated programmes, practice evaluations);
• proof of professional practice (employer, institution, working arrangements);
• evidence of quality and patient safety activities (improvement processes, audits, risk management, peer groups, morbidity and mortality reviews, multidisciplinary team meetings…);
• certificates showing skills have been updated (further courses, teaching, mentoring, scientific activities, professional responsibilities).

Some activities may be declared on the basis of a sworn statement, with the possibility of a later check by your regulatory body.

🛡️ Checks, sanctions, support

No automatic guillotine, but an obligation which, ignored over time, affects your right to practise.

At the end of your cycle (6 years, or 9 years for the first transitional cycle), your position is reviewed by your regulatory body, in the light of the activities declared and evidenced and the requirements of the reference framework. Checking is not confined to the end of the cycle: the regulatory body also carries out monitoring along the way and can alert you (and, where relevant, your employer) to a risk of falling short, in a spirit that is above all educational.

And if I do not meet my obligations?

Failure to complete everything does not lead to an automatic sanction. The regulatory body reviews your position case by case and proceeds in stages:

I am salaried: what is my employer’s role?

Certification is an individual process, which is your own responsibility, including as an employee. Your employer can make it easier to access certain activities (training, quality processes, risk management) and support the organisation of your pathway, but has no checking role: that task belongs exclusively to your regulatory body. If corrective action is needed, the regulatory body may inform the employer to help put it in place.

🤝 Who can help me?

Your CNP to build the pathway; your regulatory body for particular situations.

Your national professional council (CNP) is the first port of call for understanding what your reference framework expects and building a pathway that suits you. It can:

• help you understand the requirements of your profession’s reference framework;
• help you choose activities suited to your practice;
• give you tailored support (in which case you can give it temporaryaccess to the relevant data in your account).

You can also contact your regulatory body, particularly in a special situation: it will tell you about your obligations and point you to the right people. Your CNP’s contact details are available on the institutional websites and through the « Ma Certif' Pro Santé » service.

⚖️ The legal framework, text by text

Periodic certification rests on a set of legislative and regulatory texts that set out its principles, its organisation and its workings. Here they are, with links to Legifrance.

Behind this article

An author who explains, a reviewer who checks.

How we write and check our content

✍️ Author

Anthony Baillon

Physiotherapist · co-founder of Physio Learning

Marked for life by his first four-hour lecture without a single image, he took a master’s in instructional design so that it would never happen to anyone again. He hunts down publication bias and unreadable slides with the same intransigence.

PhysiotherapistInstructional designerCare design

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Robin Vervaeke

Head of scientific content

Physiotherapist specialising in neuro-musculoskeletal practice and holder of a master’s in public health. He checks the methodological rigour of every article: primary sources, levels of evidence, no exceptions.

Neuro-musculoskeletalMSc Public health

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