Revised standards of conduct, performance and ethics: supporting registered professionals

With the publication of the revised standards of conduct, performance and ethics (‘the standards’) coming soon, you are no doubt wondering what you can do to support your HCPC registrants with embedding them into everyday practice. We're here to help! 

1. Get the conversation going 

Knowing that the standards have changed is obviously a good start, and you could ensure that this is known by those in your team. Raise it at one-to-ones, in team meetings, on your intranet and team chats. Just get the conversation going.  

The revised standards can be found at www.hcpc-uk.org/revised-scpe, and they take effect from 1 September 2024.  

The key changes for employers are outlined in a recent Insights article, and a more detailed explanation of what's changing is also available.

2. Focus on a standard or two 

Pick one or two of the standards that have changed and pull your team - or a small group - together to explore that standard in detail and discuss how it might look in practice. Identify where you are doing well as a team, a group or as individuals, and where you might need to develop your understanding, knowledge or skills about the subject. (These discussions will count towards your HCPC CPD!)

We’d suggest focusing on the revisions made to: 

• Maintain appropriate boundaries, standards 1.8-1.12 – focusing on the power imbalance between health and care professionals and their service users and carers, and boundaries between colleagues including the power imbalance between senior and junior colleagues, and mentors, educators and students and learners.  
• Social media and networking sites, standards 2.10-2.12 and the social media guidance – focusing on how to ensure the information you are posting or sharing is accurate, true and does not mislead the public. 
• Manage your health, standards 6.3-6.4 – focusing on how your health might detrimentally impact your ability to practise safely and effectively, and what to do if it does.  
• Openness with service users, standards 8.1-8.2 – focusing on when and how to apologise when something has gone wrong with the care, treatment or service you provide.  

Bring into the discussion any internal policies or guidance that you might have, for example about the duty of candour, challenging discrimination or using social media. 

3. Empower and encourage 

Empower and encourage those in your team to undertake their own learning about the revised standards. They could attend our #myHCPCstandards webinars, which are running through the summer and into early autumn. (Better still, we could come to you and deliver a session in person.) 

Or why not take the opportunity to empower and encourage yourself? Through our Employer Hub you can find articles about supporting your employees, and we also run dedicated webinars for employers – Employer Insights webinars – which cover topics from the revised standards of conduct, performance and ethics to creating just and learning cultures.

Browse and register

You can also contact our Professional Liaison Service to arrange for an in-person session by emailing professional.liaison@hcpc-uk.org. We can’t wait to hear from you!

4. Reflect on your systems, culture and process 

And finally, we suggest taking a moment as an employer or manager to reflect on the processes, systems and culture that you have in your organisation and team. Do they support and enable your professionals to achieve the standards expected of them?

We know that poor workplace cultures can have a significant impact on those within them. This can affect registrants’ ability to meet the standards and deliver high quality care.  

To explore the culture that exists in your workplace and your role within it, some questions you might reflect on are: 

• Does the culture in your team encourage openness when things have gone wrong?  
• Do team members feel empowered and able to raise a concern with you?  
• Do you listen when they do raise a concern? Or do you find ways to justify, explain or dismiss?  
• Do you encourage an inclusive culture, that respects and celebrates differences? Or do you tolerate sexualised language, jokes and harmful ‘banter’? Have you witnessed incivility without challenging it?  

Our reflective practice tools are designed for registrants and employers alike, to help support the reflection process and identify where things could be done better. Give it a go: reflective practice toolkit

Most of all... 

Enjoy the revised standards and learning all about them! 

Employer Insights webinars

We are running a total of six Employer Insights webinars in 2024, designed for those who manage, lead or employ HCPC registrants. Each webinar looks at a key topic, providing education, learning and highlighting the HCPC resources available on it:

• Introducing the revised standards of conduct, performance and ethics
  19 June 2024, 13:15-13:45
• Supporting employees through preceptorship
  11 September 2024, 13:15-14:00
• Are you really listening?
  1 October 2024 16:00-16:45
• Just a learning culture
  24 October 2024, 13:15-13:45
• Boundaries matter: challenging sexual misconduct (part 1)
  13 November 2024, 13:15-13:45
• Boundaries matter: challenging sexual misconduct (part 2)
  4 December 2024, 13:15-13:45
  
  

We aim to influence and support employers in creating cultures that enable registrants to embed and achieve high professional standards. The Employer Insights webinars allow us to do this, starting key conversations on challenging topics and building relationships.

You can browse all sessions via hcpc-uk.org/EmployerInsightsWebinars

More information