Invitation to tender for the provision of research

Deadline for tender was 5pm on Monday 29 August 2022

To:

Sara Harris
Health and Care Professions Council
184 Kennington Park Road
London
SE11 4BU

Email address:

sara.harris@hcpc-uk.org

procurement@hcpc-uk.org

Purpose

Some recent survey findings (see Appendix 1 in doucment) identified potential gaps in the confidence new registrants have in their preparedness for practice and preceptorship support to help them transition from student to autonomous practitioner. While the overall response was positive, the survey had a 7% response rate and represents a graduate perspective only, so there are limitations to the inferences we can make from the data.

The intention of commissioning this research is to better understand how well newly qualified HCPC registrants, from each of the HCPC’s 15 professions, are prepared for practice. This research will help us to understand any areas where additional support may be needed and inform areas of our work such as:

1. The development of resources for students and newly qualified registrants (learning materials, guidance documents, learning events, etc);
2. Targeted engagement with education providers to enable them to address any areas of challenge through their education programmes;
3. Engagement with employers and professional bodies to ensure additional support is provided where possible; and
4. The forthcoming planned review of our Standards for Education and Training.

Scope of proposed research

The primary research question is ‘how well are newly qualified HCPC registrants prepared for practice?’.

As part of this we would like to understand:

1. whether there are any differences in the level of preparedness for newly qualified HCPC registrants who have one or more protected characteristic, and what causes those differences;
2. what support exists for newly qualified registrants, and whether additional support may be required, to provide for their transition from graduate to autonomous practitioner; and
3. whether different support might be needed for newly qualified HCPC registrants who have one or more protected characteristics.

Impact of the pandemic

We know that the Covid-19 pandemic has been disruptive to the delivery of education including access to placements and that this means students graduating during the pandemic years have faced new experiences and challenges with their education. We would like to gain an understanding of the impact that the pandemic may have had on the level of preparedness to practice of newly qualified HCPC registrants.

Target stakeholder groups for the research

We expect that all relevant stakeholders should be appropriately involved in the conduct of HCPC commissioned research. Proposals should clearly outline how the involvement of relevant stakeholders will be addressed during the research process.

We require the research team to have regard of the need to attract diverse views from across the UK, and from range of individuals with different backgrounds and characteristics.

We believe the views of the following groups will be important in establishing a clear understanding of newly qualified preparedness for practice:

1. Practice placement supervisors who have supervised students on their first clinical placement;
2. Newly qualified HCPC registrants who have been practicing between six to 18 months;
3. Employers who have employed newly qualified HCPC registrants in the past year; and
4. Service users who have experienced treatment by a newly qualified HCPC registrant in the past year.

The research team may also wish to seek the views of other stakeholders across all 4 UK nations, such as education providers, Chief Allied Health Professions Officers, Chief Scientific Officers, psychology profession leads, employers and professional bodies.

EDI data should be collected as part of this stakeholder engagement and reported (anonymously) as part of the results.

The tender proposal should include details of the proposed research methods to undertake this work.

Deadline

The deadline for proposals is 29 August 2022. We reserve the right to hold interviews as part of the tendering process and, if required, interviews will be held week commencing 3 September 2022.

Once appointed, we would seek to have an early meeting with the successful tenderer to confirm the final timeline for delivery.