Our performance, improvement plans, and vision for the reform of professional regulation
HCPC welcomes the Professional Standard Authority’s (PSA) performance review report. We are pleased that we continue to meet the standards relating to education, guidance and standards and registration, and welcome the recognition of our progress towards achieving those standards that have not been met this year.
We are the first regulator to undergo a PSA review of our performance during the pandemic and are pleased that the PSA acknowledged that we maintained and indeed improved, during a highly demanding 12-month period.
We are committed to meeting all the PSA’s Fitness to Practise standards and welcome the PSA’s recognition of our energy and commitment to accelerating the pace of our improvement programme, which it says should have a positive impact. We remain committed over the coming months to the successful implementation and embedding of the Fitness to Practise improvement programme.
We have also made significant improvements in EDI, having made a considerable investment in our data collection, ensuring that policies and procedures are more accurately tailored to meet the needs of our registrants. We were particularly pleased that the PSA noted that it received positive feedback about our 2021-26 EDI strategy. This is an issue which is a priority for HCPC us and we have a clear plan in place to meet the PSA standards.
The HCPC continues on its journey to transform and innovate, improving how we support our registrants and keep patients and service users safe. We have undertaken many new initiatives, aimed at increasing our ability to protect patients and service users, supporting our registrants and improving our performance against PSA standards.
To further this transformation and innovation, we are championing the need for regulatory reform. We fully welcome the Department of Health and Social Care’s review of professional healthcare regulation in the UK and we look forward to continuing to work with the Department on this once in a generation opportunity to create a system of health care regulation in the UK that supports high quality, flexible and multi-disciplinary patient centred care.
HCPC is the only truly multi-profession regulator in the UK. We regulate 15 health and care professions. If the regulatory system is to keep pace and support the rapidly changing nature of how health and care services are delivered, we suggest that reforms need to recognise the benefits that multi-profession regulation can bring as well as the contribution it can make to workforce planning, career development and continuing professionalism.