We’re reviewing our sanctions policy to improve consistency and further strengthen decision-making by independent fitness to practise (FTP) panels.
The sanctions policy is a guidance document that outlines the principles for determining appropriate outcomes of FTP cases. It is designed to support panels in making fair, consistent, and transparent decisions, ensuring that regulatory outcomes maintain public confidence and uphold professional standards. The policy was last updated in 2019.
Key areas in which we are proposing changes relate to sanctions imposed for discrimination, breaches of professional boundaries, and sexually motivated misconduct.
The proposed changes will provide more clarity and guidance for panel members when deciding on the appropriate sanction in HCPC FTP cases. The updates will further support them to make informed, fair, proportionate, and consistent decisions that maintain trust and confidence in health and care professions and protect the public.
We have been working with stakeholders such as professional bodies, unions, and panel members to inform the proposed changes to ensure they effectively meet the needs of the public and the professions we regualte.
The consultation launches today, 29 May 2025, and closes on 1 September 2025.
You can read about all the proposals in the consultation document, and share your views with us through our online survey, both available via the consultation page.
Frequently asked questions
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We’re reviewing our sanctions policy, which sets out the principles that FTP panels must consider when making decisions on the appropriate sanctions in FTP cases.
We’re proposing changes to strengthen decision making by independent FTP panels to improve consistency in the outcomes from decisions across FTP cases – especially in areas such as discrimination, professional boundaries, and sexually motivated misconduct.
As part of this review, we’re consulting on the proposed changes and welcome feedback from the public, registrants, professional bodies, unions, employers, learners, education providers, and panel members themselves, to help us ensure that the revised policy is robust, fair, and effective in meeting the needs of the public and the professions we regulate.
The revised policy will help provide more transparency in the way decisions are made in hearings, ensuring that registrants, stakeholders, and the public, can continue to have confidence that decisions are fair, proportionate, consistent, and to maintain trust and confidence in health and care professions.
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As well as making the guidance easier to use, our proposed changes include:
- Making it even clearer that all forms of discrimination are considered unacceptable.
- Providing additional guidance to help panels consider a registrant’s intent and state of mind to assess whether misconduct may have been sexually motivated.
- Providing more information to help panels consider whether registrants have failed to maintain professional boundaries in line with our recently updated standards of conduct, performance and ethics.
- Providing clarity and improving transparency on when interim orders are applied.
- Providing greater clarity about which types of conduct are considered incompatible with continued registration and should therefore lead to a registrant being removed from our Register.
- Providing more guidance to help panels assess how dishonest actions may affect trust or cause harm, so they can make more informed and consistent decisions.
- Offering more detailed guidance to panels about how to assess apologies made by registrants when things go wrong.
- Clearly setting out the aggravating and mitigating factors that panels should consider, to enhance transparency and accountability.
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We review our policies regularly to ensure they remain up to date and reflect current practice and wider society. The review is an opportunity to bring the sanctions policy in line with existing Practice Notes.
We also want to make changes to provide greater clarity, providing additional guidance where necessary, to best support panels make informed, fair, proportionate, and consistent decisions to maintain trust and confidence in health and care professions and to protect the public.
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The changes proposed as part of this review will serve to strengthen decision making by providing better support for independent FTP panelists, so that they are able to make decisions on the appropriate sanctions in each case, while ensuring a level of consistency across cases.
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You can provide feedback by completing our short survey consisting of 14 questions.
You can find the survey as well as our consultation document and proposed draft policy on our website here: www.hcpc-uk.org/sanctions-policy-consultation
We advise that you read the consultation document before taking part in the survey.
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Once the consultation period has finished, we will analyse the responses we have received. We will then publish a document detailing the comments received and explaining the decisions we have taken as a result, including any further amendments needed.
Subject to consideration of responses, we intend to update our sanctions policy and publish it on our website.