The future
We are working to support the delivery of the NHS 10 Year Plan in England, where it is within our regulatory role to do so, and where we can provide useful insight for others in the sector. We are also cognisant that the Plan is England only and are working with key stakeholders in all four nations on similar initiatives.
We have started to review our standards of education and training (SETs) and are consulting on these at the time of writing. These standards are a crucial part of our regulatory role, as they underpin all of the work we do. We recognise that changes will impact HCPC approved education providers and programmes and are therefore working closely with the sector on developing the SETs and considering implementation timeframes and activities.
We are strengthening our engagement model with education providers and stakeholders across all nations and English regions. Building on recent progress, we have established direct contacts and preferred engagement methods, delivering clear benefits and reinforcing our role as a trusted sector partner. Our focus is on deepening these relationships to enhance quality assurance by understanding stakeholder priorities, offering support, and clarifying regulatory requirements.
We are considering how we can further reduce areas of regulatory overlap, linked to our operating model and across the education sector. Our aim is to continue to make good independent regulatory decisions, whilst considering the work of others to reduce burden for education providers.
Key areas of focus
We are currently focused on the following areas, through our assessment and engagement activities.
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Continuous improvement
Our education quality assurance model does not stand still. Continuous improvement is embedded into the way we work, with internal structures in place to inform areas where we should improve.
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From September 2025, we introduced a requirement for physical visits to education providers who are seeking HCPC approval for the first time. This change strengthens our approach to assessing institution-level standards during stage 1 of the approval process.
Our stage 1 assessment for new education providers is partner-led and involves a detailed review of documentary evidence to determine whether institution-level standards are met. This assessment may include a physical visit but has not required one to this point. Once an education provider is approved, new programme proposals would normally have an executive-led stage 1 review, without further partner scrutiny of institution-level standards. This approach is consistent with our quality assurance model and supports our aim to reduce regulatory burden.
Institution-level approval has significant implications. We have seen some education providers rapidly introduce multiple programmes in a short time after the approval of their first programme, and approval of these programmes relies heavily on the original judgement that the institution-level standards were met through the first review. This highlighted the need for greater assurance at the outset.
To address this, physical visits will become a formal part of our quality activities for new education providers. These visits will allow us to triangulate the documentary evidence by engaging directly with staff, other institution stakeholders, and reviewing facilities. This will help us identify potential risks and ensure that institution-level standards are robustly met, particularly given the possibility of future programme development.
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In 2024-25, we have also:
Refreshed our expectations with education providers about apprenticeship programmes (as covered in the above section).
· Delivered improvements to our records change process, to ensure we have the checks in place to accurately update our list of approved programmes.
· Developed our assessment reports, for clarity and consistency.
· Introduced a requirement for education providers to update their ‘baseline’. information, which enables us to understand key approaches across the whole education provider, through performance review assessments.
· Captured further structured data to enable more powerful insight from the data we hold.
· Developed our quality checking mechanisms so we can categorise our checks across timeliness, administrative and quality areas, enabling better reporting and more focused improvement activities.
Future areas of focus
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We are working to support the delivery of the NHS 10 Year Plan in England and recognise the significant shift that the Plan will have for education and training. Developing the ‘three shifts’ within the plan will require changes within education and training, including curriculum developments, different practice-based learning opportunities to support delivery of curricula, and changes to workforce supply.
We have refreshed our information for education providers, and insight about our approval of apprenticeship programmes (both produced in response to the previous Long Term Workforce Plan), to help education providers understand our regulatory approach and how our role needs to be taken into account through changes to education and training provision. We are continuing to engage with the sector to support delivery of the Plan, in keeping with our regulatory role.
We are also cognisant that the Plan is England only and are working with key stakeholders in all four nations on similar initiatives. For example, we are members of the Advisory Board for the Scotland Education and Workforce Policy Review.
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Our standards of education and training (SETs) are a crucial part of our regulatory role, as they underpin all of the work we do. The SETs set requirements for education providers and programmes, to ensure that those who complete programmes meet our requirements for registration.
We have worked with stakeholders to develop proposals for revisions to our SETs, and within the remainder of the 2025-26 financial year we will develop the revisions to these standards.
This is likely to be a large piece of work for education providers we approve, and within the education team at the HCPC. We recognise that implementing revisions will require proper consideration by education providers, and are currently reviewing our implementation timeframe for changes. We are also assessing the mechanisms by which we will review changes made by education providers to ensure they align with our revised standards.
