The PSA publishes its review of the Health and Care Professions Council’s performance for 2023/24

The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) published its annual performance review of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

For this period, covering 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, the HCPC has met 16 out of the 18 Standards of Good Regulation.

The judgements we make against each Standard incorporate a range of evidence to form an overall picture of performance. Meeting a Standard means that we are satisfied that a regulator is performing well in that area. It does not mean there is no room for improvement. Similarly, finding that a regulator has met all of the Standards does not mean perfection. Rather, it signifies good performance in the 18 areas we assess.

Specifically in relation to fitness to practise, the PSA concluded that:

“The HCPC continued to embed a number of projects designed to improve its fitness to practise processes. Despite this, it is still taking too long to progress cases to a final Fitness to Practise Committee decision, and the HCPC has therefore again not met Standard 15.

“We also identified weaknesses in the HCPC’s oversight of cases handled by its external legal providers. As a result, a registrant had been able to practise for three months after they had been charged with a serious offence against a patient, exposing the public to serious risk. We concluded that Standard 17 was not met.

“Although we received mixed feedback from stakeholders regarding the support provided to parties involved in the FTP process, there was enough evidence of improvement this year for us to conclude that Standard 18 is met.”

What the HPCP said

Bernie O’Reilly, Chief Executive and Registrar commented: 

“We are encouraged to have met 16 of the PSA’s Standards of Good Regulation again. We are already nearly halfway through this performance year and determined as ever to continue to build on the improvements made over the last few years.”

“Protecting the public is always our core focus and we want to thank everyone who has supported our work.

“The report shows how our outcome-based approach to regulation is helping our 340,000 registrants to provide excellent care across the 15 professions we regulate.

“We know there is still work to do to improve in certain areas and we have already taken steps to address points made in the report. We are also seeking to work with partners in Government to remove any legislative barriers to improve the efficiency and timeliness of our fitness to practise investigations.” 

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