You are required to revalidate your STI Foundation competency every five years. Your current competency certification will be suspended six months after your revalidation due date passes. Whilst your certification is suspended, we will be unable to confirm to any employer that you are competent in the relevant areas and you should let your employer know that this is the case.
You should apply for revalidation no more than six months before your revalidation due date. You can find your revalidation due date on your most recent certificate. If you miss your revalidation due date, you will have up to six months to make an application, after which your competency certification will be suspended and we cannot verify to your employer that you are competent in the relevant areas.
To revalidate you will need to complete a revalidation application form, which can be found here.
We will review your application and, unless you are selected for audit, we will confirm your revalidation and email you an updated certificate including your next revalidation due date.
BASHH will audit a percentage of all revalidation applications. If you are selected for audit, we will contact you and ask you to provide evidence to support your application. Additionally, a registered STI Foundation Trainer will need to confirm that you are competent in all elements included in your original competency. If you do not have access to a registered trainer, please email stif@bashh.net. You may lose your certification status if sufficient evidence is not provided as requested.
All Competencies
- You need to have seen a minimum of 15 patients/year with sexual health related problems.
- You need to have maintained competency in all elements covered by your original competency.
Health advisor, intermediate and advanced level Competencies
- As well as the above, you need to have achieved 10 CPD points/hours over the five years since your certification/last revalidation date.
Advanced level only
- As well as all of the above, you need to have completed a clinical audit relating to sexual health care within the past five years.
There is no charge to revalidate if you are a BASHH member. To claim a free revalidation you will need to enter your BASHH membership number in the revalidation form—to find your BASHH membership number go to www.bashh.org and log in, then navigate to members area > members certificate.
If you are not a BASHH member we will email you a £60 payment link.
For most nurses and health advisors a year's BASHH membership costs £41, which can be spread over four quarterly payments. By joining BASHH before revalidating you will save money and gain access to all of the BASHH member benefits including, free scientific meetings, access to bitesize sessions, and reduced fees for other training and events. To join BASHH please go to www.bashh.org/join/
Six months after your revalidation due date, we will suspend your certification. You should let your employer know that you are no longer validated as competent in the areas covered by your competency certification. If asked, we will not be able to confirm to your employer that you are competent.
To reactivate your certification you should complete the revalidation form here. You can reactivate your certification up to ten years after your certification/last revalidation date. After ten years, you will be removed from the register and you will need to re-register and re-do the full competency.
Once we have reviewed your application, unless you are selected for audit, we will confirm your revalidation and email you an updated certificate including your next revalidation due date.
BASHH will audit a percentage of all revalidation applications. If you are selected for audit, we will contact you and ask you to provide evidence to support your application. Additionally, a registered STI Foundation Trainer will need to confirm that you are competent in all elements included in your original competency. In situations where you do not have access to a registered STI Foundation trainer, you can self-certify by providing a written reflection for each of the competency elements. You may lose your certification status if sufficient evidence is not provided as requested.
We will consider all requests for a revalidation extensions. If you would like to apply for an extension, please email stif@bassh.net
If you are working towards a higher level competency at the time of your revalidation due date, you do not need to revalidate. If for any reason you do not complete your higher level competency, you will need to revalidate your original competency.
No, your revalidation will be for the curriculum of your original certification. Over time, we make changes to curriculum content. You can upgrade to the most recent curriculum for your competency at any point. For information about upgrading your STI Foundation Intermediate or Advanced competency to the most recent curriculum please email stif@bashh.net
If you progress onto a higher level competency and have not completed an upgrade of your existing competency the upgrade elements will be added to your higher level competency for completion on ePortfolio.