A review of Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) has found “serious concerns about the HCPC’s performance in its fitness to practise work.”

The most recent PSA review of the HCPC has found that it is only meeting one of the five Standards of Good Regulation for fitness to practise work.  The concern over the HCPC’s fitness to practise work is not new.  The previous PSA review raised similar concerns with the HCPC over its performance in fitness to practise.

Read more about the PSA’s role in fitness to practise

What are the issues?

The PSA said in its report that whilst some progress has been made on improvements to the HCPC’s initial triage work, the PSA “remain concerned” about a number of other areas of the HCPC’s work in fitness to practise.

In particular, only limited progress has been made in addressing concerns about its management and investigation of cases. These concerns relate to the quality of investigations completed by the HCPC, decision-making, record-keeping, compliance with policies, timeliness and customer service.  The PSA concluded that, in some cases, the HCPC fitness to practise failing “had the potential to undermine public protection and public confidence in the HCPC.”

As a result, the HCPC did not meet Standards 15, 16, 17 and 18 which assess the key aspects of the regulators’ fitness to practise processes.

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

The extent of the PSA’s concerns about the HCPC’s failure to meet standards of good regulation in fitness to practise is such that it has written to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the Ministers in the devolved administrations and the Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee outlining our concerns.

In addition, the PSA said it was seeking an urgent meeting with the Chair of the HCPC to understand how the HCPC plans to address our concerns and achieve improvement.