HCPC fitness to practise annual report 2025-26

The overwhelming majority of professionals on our Register practise safely and effectively.

Our annual report provides an account of our work investigating fitness to practise (FTP) concerns raised with us across the 15 professions we regulate. The overwhelming majority of professionals on our Register practise safely and effectively. Fewer than 0.8% of the professionals we regulate had a concern raised about them in 2025–26, in line with previous years. 

We will always listen to anyone who feels they have not had safe or effective care or who has concerns about someone on our Register, and we encourage anyone with a concern to come forward. 

In our annual performance review by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) last year, we did not meet Standard 15 and Standard 18 of the Standards of Good Regulation. Standard 15 relates to the timeliness of progressing fitness to practise cases, and Standard 18 focuses on ensuring that people involved in complaints and investigations are properly informed and supported throughout the process in the reporting period. The review comes in a year where we have seen a significant increase in the number of concerns raised about registrants. The sustained and unprecedented increase in volume continues to place pressure on the HCPC’s work.

The trend in increased concerns is one being experienced by professional regulators across the healthcare system. There are no clear themes behind the increase for the HCPC, however it may show that the public is becoming more aware of and more engaged in the formal processes available to them. We recognise that we can do more to ensure people involved in fitness to practise cases receive timely outcomes and are supported well through the process. We have taken action to adapt our ways of working to respond. This has included building our resource to accommodate the additional pressures, reviewing our processes and ensuring those involved in fitness to practise are well-supported.

While demand has been challenging, we have again seen benefits from our FTP improvement programme. In 2025–26 we continued to implement and embed changes to our fitness to practise operating model, including our streaming process and frontloading of investigations to increase our ability to progress cases fairly, efficiently and compassionately. These are already supporting better outcomes and experiences for those involved in fitness to practise cases. We are conscious that there are still improvements to be made and our work will continue. 

We have again built on our ability to share information relating to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in our fitness to practise processes this year. Instead of a snapshot included in an annual report, we have launched a new dashboard on our data hub, which will provide a consolidated and more comprehensive look at the information we hold in this area. This step shows again our commitment to building our own, and others’, understanding in this important area. As we look to the future, our new corporate strategy (launched in May 2026) outlines clearly that improving our fitness to practise processes will continue to be a priority for the HCPC in the coming years. We look forward to continuing to make progress as we seek to protect the public.    

Laura Coffey                                                                                                                                              Executive Director of Fitness to Practise and Tribunal Services