Corporate strategy

Our priorities

• Putting patients at the centre of smarter, preventative regulation

  Objective: To shift regulation from a focus on reacting when things go wrong to proactive regulation by embedding patient experience, data, and behavioural insight into our work, ensuring that the voices and needs of patients drive our priorities and decisions.

  Our regulation listens, learns, and leads before harm occurs.

  We place the public at the heart of everything we do and work proactively to protect them. We listen to individuals’ experiences and learn from data and behavioural science, to shape standards, guidance and wider interventions that reflect what matters most to those receiving care.

  By embedding these insights into our work, we can anticipate risks, support safe, compassionate and inclusive practice, and influence the environments and cultures in which care is delivered.

  By focusing on what could prevent harm, we protect the public more effectively by shaping the standards that guide professional practice. This approach supports registrants to deliver safe, high-quality care and helps foster a culture where safety, quality, inclusion and patient voice are embedded from the outset.

  We will:

  • Embed lived experience and patient voice into how we regulate, strengthening our ability to identify risks and respond to emerging concerns.
  • Apply behavioural science and data insight to influence professional behaviours, empowering professionals to speak up and learn from mistakes.
  • Use safe, ethical technologies to generate real-time and predictive analytics that help prevent harm.
  • Enhance the accessibility of our data, and deliver actionable insights that guide our regulatory work.
  • Work with educators and employers to support prevention, early intervention, and safe, inclusive, high-quality practice.
  • Continue our work to foster better working cultures within our professions, through our focus on areas such as sexual safety, exploring the principles of trauma informed approaches.
  • Collaborate across health and care to build shared insight, improve services and amplify our impact.
• Supporting healthcare workforce development through proportionate, agile regulation

  Objective:  To deliver modern regulation that strengthens the UK healthcare workforce by supporting safe, effective practice, removing unnecessary barriers, and adapting to the evolving and diverse needs of professionals and patients.

  Our regulation supports growth, adapts to change, and strengthens the workforce for the future.

  To meet the needs of a growing, diverse population and a complex care environment, regulation must actively support a strong, sustainable workforce that is empowered to innovate, collaborate, and adapt.

  Our approach will be proportionate, agile, and enabling, supporting professionals to practise safely and effectively while recognising the realities of modern healthcare, including, interdisciplinary teamworking and the use and impact of emerging technologies such as AI.

  We will:

  • Raise public awareness of our registrants' roles and expanded responsibilities in a changing healthcare landscape.
  • Establish HCPC as the definitive source of allied health workforce data for workforce planning across the four nations.
  • Support innovation through outcome focussed standards and evolving our guidance to safely support and enable innovation.
  • Enable flexible, interdisciplinary practice by aligning our standards and guidance with the realities of modern healthcare delivery, including team-based care and evolving scopes of practice.
  • Improve our regulatory performance through innovation, collaboration and technology integration.
  • Enable a future-ready, resilient workforce through regulation that supports continuing professional development and inclusive access to practice.
  • Modernise our fitness to practise processes through legislative reform and risk-based policies that ensure proportionate, efficient case handling.
• Technology-enabled regulatory excellence and organisational sustainability

  Objective: To invest in our people, harness emerging technologies and modernise our systems to deliver efficient, high-quality, and user-focused regulation that meets the evolving needs of public protection.

  We invest in people, technology, and smarter ways of working to deliver high-quality, efficient, and user-focused services.

  We are committed to delivering high-quality regulation that meets the expectations of the public, registrants, and stakeholders. By simplifying processes and adopting smarter ways of working, we will improve outcomes, reduce burden, and enhance the experience of those we serve.

  Technology - from AI-powered case management to predictive analytics - will future-proof our operations and deliver value for money.

  At the heart of this transformation is our workforce. By equipping our people with the skills, tools, and support they need, we will foster a culture of excellence, resilience, and continuous improvement.

  We will:

  • Transform registrant services creating a seamless, accessible experience.
  • Harness emerging technologies safely and transparently to enhance public protection, operational efficiency, and user experience.
  • Deliver consistently high performance across all areas of our work by simplifying processes, strengthening accountability, and embedding continuous improvement.
  • Empower our workforce by upskilling staff to use new technologies confidently, enabling them to focus on meaningful, value-adding work.
  • Develop a forward-looking, inclusive, and resilient culture that empowers colleagues to contribute ideas and initiate change.
  • Ensure financial sustainability and organisational efficiency that secures the protection of the public into the future.
• Strengthening public protection through the regulation of NHS managers

  Objective: To extend regulatory oversight to NHS managers* ensuring a consistent level of accountability, professionalism, and ethical leadership.

  Our regulation recognises the power of leadership and ensures it is used to protect the public.

  Leadership shapes culture, drives safety, and influences outcomes. Yet the most senior NHS hospital managers, as a defined professional group, have not previously been within the scope of healthcare professional regulation.

  Bringing NHS managers into regulation is a strategic step toward stronger public protection. It ensures leadership is held to a consistent level of professionalism and accountability.

  We will:

  • Implement government-mandated barring system for NHS board-level managers and their direct reports*, ensuring clear standards of conduct and accountability.
  • Align our regulatory approach with wider healthcare reform, ensuring our work supports system-level improvements in safety, culture, and governance.
  • Coordinate with other professional regulators and stakeholders to ensure consistency and oversight for dual-registered NHS managers.

  * The definitions of which senior leadership roles will be within scope is yet to be determined and will be determined based on public protection impact.