The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) has met 16 of the 18 Standards of Good Regulation in the performance review by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) for last year.
The PSA highlighted a number of areas of strong performance and improvement, including progress on equality, diversity and inclusion indicators, improvements to the international application process. The review comments on the improvements in the quality of our investigations, and continued assurance in decision making and risk management, which are key to how HCPC ensures public protection.
The organisation has also continued to modernise its standards, improve digital services, and strengthen the way it handles concerns, alongside wider work to support workforce planning through data sharing.
The review comes at a time where there are thousands of new applications to join the Register and a 41% increase in the last year in the number of concerns raised about registrants. While concerns represent around 0.5 percent of those on the Register, the sustained and unprecedented increase in volume continues to place pressure on the HCPC’s work.
The HCPC did not meet Standard 15, which relates to the timeliness of progressing fitness to practise cases, and Standard 18, which focuses on ensuring that people involved in complaints and investigations are properly informed and supported throughout the process.
Bernie O’Reilly, Chief Executive and Registrar, said:
Meeting 16 standards reflects the continued hard work of colleagues across the organisation and points to consolidation of the progress we have made in recent years.
We did not meet two of the standards in last year’s reporting period. We are continuing to see sustained and unprecedented levels of demand, with increasing numbers of concerns and applications.
We are determined to improve the timeliness of our fitness to practise processes and to ensuring that everyone involved in our processes feels informed, supported and able to engage effectively. Work to address these areas is already underway, and we will continue to focus on practical improvements that strengthen both the experience for service users and the efficiency of our processes.
Christine Elliott, Chair of HCPC’s Council, said:
The report sets out much of the superb work done by the HCPC over recent years and our consolidated improvement as an organisation. We remain fully focused on continued improvement at the HCPC and are resolved to meet the two remaining standards in the shortest time possible.
The sustained over 40% increase in demand we are seeing across fitness to practise reflects the growing scale and complexity of health and care regulation. At the same time, much of our legislative framework remains outdated, which limits the flexibility we have to respond as effectively and efficiently as we would like. Legislative reform must be undertaken by the Government as soon as possible.
The HCPC will continue to work closely with stakeholders as it drives further improvement across its functions.