27 January 2016

HCPC revised Standards of conduct, performance and ethics

The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) has published its revised Standards of conduct, performance and ethics.

These are high level ethical standards which state in broad terms the behaviour expected of professionals regulated by the HCPC.

A comprehensive review has taken place to gather feedback from employers, professional bodies, registrants and service users and carers to make sure the standards continue to be fit for purpose and up to date.

A number of changes have been made, including.

• A standard about registrants reporting and escalating concerns they might have about the safety and wellbeing of service users (standard 7). Registrants must, for example, ensure that the safety and wellbeing of service users always comes before any professional or other loyalties.
• A standard about registrants being open and honest when things go wrong (standard 8). Registrants are expected to tell service users and carers when they become aware that something has gone wrong with the care, treatment or other services that they provide and to take action to put matters right wherever possible. They are also required to consider making an apology and to make sure that the service user receives an explanation of what happened.
• There have also been more general changes made to the overall structure of the standards. These include the reduction in the number of standards from fourteen to ten, as well as an easier to follow format.

Revised guidance on conduct and ethics for students based on the new standards is expected to be published in summer 2016. The existing guidance will remain valid until the revised version is published.

The revised Standards of conduct, performance and ethics are effective from today and will be posted to every HCPC registrant in the coming weeks. A range of communications has been produced to highlight the revised Standards, including an event in Manchester on Tuesday 2 February 2016, which will be live-streamed, and articles the HCPC In Focus newsletter.

Download the revised Standards of conduct, performance and ethics.