What is the purpose of the fitness to practise process?

Purpose

Fitness to practise proceedings are about protecting the public. They are not a general complaints resolution process, nor are they designed to resolve disputes between registrants and service users or registrants and their employers.

The fitness to practise process is not designed to punish registrants for past mistakes but to protect the public from those registrants who are not fit to practise. Finding that a registrant's fitness to practise is 'impaired' (negatively affected) means that there are concerns about their ability to practise safely and effectively. This may mean that they should not practise at all, or that they should be limited in what they are allowed to do.

Sometimes registrants make mistakes that they are unlikely to repeat. This means that their current fitness to practise is unlikely to be impaired. People sometimes make mistakes or have a one-off instance of unprofessional conduct or behaviour.

What happens if a concern is raised about me?

The Health and Care Professions Council publishes a booklet which gives details of its investigation process. You can find this booklet at hcpc-uk.org/complaints/registrants.