After carefully considering the views of education providers, our partner visitors and members of the HCPC executive team, the Education and Training Committee decided to make changes to our approval process at their meeting on Thursday 7 March 2019.
We reviewed the approval process to ensure it remains fit for purpose as the most intensive quality assurance mechanism used to assess new and existing programmes against our education standards. The main changes to the process are as follows.
More support for you
We will increase support for education providers by:
- introducing a pathway through the process for programmes identified requiring further support from the HCPC;
- formalising ‘touch points’ with education providers at specific points in the process; and
- providing visitor feedback on education providers’ documentary submissions in good time before the approval visit.
Greater flexibility
We will allow more flexibility by:
- requiring an electronic-only documentary submission;
- asking for documentation that addresses certain areas, rather than a list of specific documents; and
- forming visit-specific agendas to address the needs of all groups relating to the proposal.
Consistent decisions
We will ensure consistency in our decision making by:
- creating a range of materials to be used by our partner visitors through specific stages of the process; and
- ensuring HCPC staff members are able to guide visitors in the application of our standards.
We would like to thank you for providing feedback through our review process. This feedback was very useful in reaching our decisions, with many of the developments noted above (for example, electronic-only submissions and flexibility in the visit agenda) being suggested by education provider stakeholders.
We will be updating our advice, guidance and pro-forma over the summer. If you are currently undertaking the process we will let you know if and when any changes will impact you.