Standards of proficiency review postponed

Published: 29 March 2020 HCPC

The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) have approved the draft consultation documents for the Standards of Proficiency review but the consultation has been postponed because of Covid-19.

The review will cover all 15 of the professions regulated by the HCPC, including radiography.

Olivia Bird, the Council's policy manager, said, "We are acutely aware that this is a particularly stressful and busy time for our registrants, and that many of the organisations we work closely with are busy supporting frontline staff.

"We will only go ahead with the consultations when our registrants, employers and other stakeholders can meaningfully engage and feedback. At this stage we have not set a new date, although still hope to be able to consult over the summer. We will continue to monitor how the Covid-19 situation develops, and inform stakeholders at least a few weeks in advance of when we intend to go live."

Olivia continued, "To be fair to all groups, we also propose to change our consultation approach and go out to consult on all the groups at once. We understand that several stakeholders may want to respond to multiple consultations, and so we expect to hold the consultation for longer than our usual 12 weeks, to give all stakeholders the opportunity to respond.

"I understand some of you had made plans around the consultation dates we had shared. We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused, but hope you can understand in light of the unique circumstances."