HCPC publishes latest Fitness to practise annual report for 2019

Protecting the public, promoting professionalism

HCPC has published the 2018–19 Fitness to practise annual report, which offers an overview of the work undertaken between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019. The report highlights key statistics and insights and explains how we protect the public and ensure our registrants meet our standards.

Key facts and figures

There were 2,424 new concerns raised in 2018–19, a 5.3% increase compared to the previous year. However, the proportion of registrants who had concerns raised about their fitness to practise remained very low, at 0.66%, with only 0.06% subject to a sanction.

The largest number of concerns (47%) were submitted by members of the public, followed by registrants’ employers (24%). The third largest group (18%) was registrants themselves.

Of the 2,917 cases we closed:

• 62% were closed as they did not meet our Standard of acceptance or Threshold policy respectively;
• 19% were concluded at Investigating Committee panels as, on further investigation, they did not meet our Standard of acceptance or Threshold policy;
• 12% were concluded at final hearings; and
• 7% were concluded at review hearings.

Improvements made during the year

In 2018–19, the HCPC concluded a major programme of work. This included the Fitness to Practise Improvement Project, which was designed to address the areas for improvement identified in the Professional Standards Authority performance review of the HCPC’s activity in 2016–17. Key improvements made during 2018–19 include:

• implementing a new Threshold policy for fitness to practise investigations setting out a new approach to investigating concerns in the early stages and to ensure that more serious and high-risk cases are prioritised and advanced;
• implementing a new approach to the investigation of health matters;
• developing e-learning materials to help teams assess and manage risks to ensure public protection;
• publishing self-referral guidance for our registrants; and
• implementing a new Indicative sanctions policy to ensure our decision-making process is more consistent.

The full report, including breakdowns by profession is available on the HCPC website.