As part of the changes to our approval process, education providers will make electronic-only documentary submissions from September 2019.
What our stakeholders said
Education providers have consistently told us they would prefer electronic-only documentary submissions. In our last education provider survey, 92 per cent of respondents noted this would be their preference, focusing on environmental, cost and resource implications in their reasoning.
While two thirds of visitors noted they would prefer a physical submission, one third said electronic submissions would be easier or make no difference to their review. Across the majority of respondents, moving to electronic submissions was the expected direction.
Why we’re taking this step
Physical submissions have environmental, cost and resource implications for education providers, as well as the HCPC. Processing and posting physical submissions takes time and costs money. Electronic submissions are more secure and enable simpler data protection and document retention.
After considering the benefits of physical submissions, the resource cost for ourselves and education providers, and feedback from education providers and visitors, we have decided that moving to e-submissions is a reasonable step.
Electronic submissions are already working
In undertaking reviews for the HCPC’s Education department, you will already review electronic submissions, for example:
- links in education providers’ mapping documents in the approval process do not need to be replicated in the physical submission, but you would review these as part of your assessment;
- all documentation in the major change process is provided electronically; and
- submissions in the annual monitoring process are electronic only from this academic year onwards.
In all of these processes, visitors make good judgements against our standards using electronic documentation.
What this means for you
We will no longer post documentation to you when you undertake an assessment via the approval process. Instead, we will send the submission to you via email for you to review against our standards.
You will need to take the submission, along with your notes, to the approval visit. You can do this by bringing your own electronic equipment, or by other means. We will not provide electronic equipment, bring physical documentation or ask education providers to supply equipment or documentation.
How we will support you
We will support you to best access and review the documentation and give you guidance on navigating and making notes on electronic submissions, to help you undertake your assessment.
We will also work with providers to ensure their electronic submissions are easy to access and navigate. We will give them general guidance, check each submission to ensure it is well put together, and require resubmission if it is not.
If you have specific suggestions or you require physical documentation due to a pre-agreed reasonable adjustment, please contact us to make arrangements.