Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) is failing in fitness to practise standards according to Professional Standards Authority.

The Professional Standards Authority has published its annual performance review of the HCPC.  The HCPC’s performance was assessed against the Professional Standards Authority’s standards of good regulation – designed to ensure that the regulators are protecting the public and also promoting confidence in health and care professionals and themselves.

Whilst the HCPC met all the standards for Guidance and Standards, Education and Training, and Registration it failed to meet six of the ten fitness to practise standards.  The HCPC has failed to meet the fitness to practise standards for its previous two performance reviews by the Professional Standards Authority.

The standards not met by the HCPC were:

1. Anybody can raise a concern, including the regulator, about the fitness to practise of a registrant
2. Where necessary, the regulator will determine if there is a case to answer and if so, whether the registrant’s fitness to practise is impaired or, where appropriate, direct the person to another relevant organisation
3. All fitness to practise complaints are reviewed on receipt and serious cases are prioritised and where appropriate referred to an interim orders panel
4. The fitness to practise process is transparent, fair, proportionate and focused on public protection
5. Fitness to practise cases are dealt with as quickly as possible taking into account the complexity and type of case and the conduct of both sides. Delays do not result in harm or potential harm to patients and service users. Where necessary the regulator protects the public by means of interim orders
6. All fitness to practise decisions made at the initial and final stages of the process are well reasoned, consistent, protect the public and maintain confidence in the profession

The Professional Standards Authority stated in its report that: “The HCPC accepted our concerns and developed an improvement plan to address them. We carried out a targeted review of these Standards this year. The HCPC has made significant changes to its policies, procedures and processes and it anticipates that these will successfully address our concerns.”