The HCPC are currently seeking orthoptists to undertake the role of FTP panel member for the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service. The HCPTS is the fitness to practise adjudication service of the Health and Care Professions Council. Panels hear and determine cases on behalf of the HCPTS’s three Practice Committees: the Investigating Committee, Conduct and Competence and Health Committees.

You must be *registered with the HCPC* and meet the criteria set out in the Information for Applicants. It is expected that panel members commit to around ten days per year to ensure skills and competencies are retained which includes training. The length and notice for tribunal appointments are variable and can fit most diary commitments and working patterns.

The HCPTS  pay a rate of £206 per day as well as travel and accommodation expenses in accordance with the HCPC Partner Expense Policy.

The HCPC is committed to equality of opportunity and actively guards against unfair discrimination on any grounds (including sexual orientation, religion or beliefs, race, sex, age or disability).

You can find out more about the work of HCPTS by visiting their website. More information on Partners and partner roles can be found by visiting the Partners website.

Closing date for applications: 01 May 2024 at 1pm
Interviews will take place: between 04 June to 28 June 2024
Compulsory training date: 23 and 24 July 2024

Please note:
All applications must be submitted via the recruitment microsite to be considered. CVs & covering letters are not accepted. They reserve the right to close the campaign early if we receive a sufficient number of applications

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If you are interested in finding out more:

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Find out more about HCPTS Partners here

Apply here

The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) is delighted to announce the appointment of Christine Elliott as its Chair.

Currently, Christine is the Senior Independent Director on the College of Policing Board, where she has chaired the Regulatory Consultative Group and Audit and Risk Committees. She is an independent member of the Editors’ Code of Practice Committee and Chair of Borough Market.

In her career, Christine has held a number of Chief Executive roles, including Bletchley Park, where she led the regeneration of the Second World War code breaking site, turning it into an internationally renowned and award winning museum. She has also been the Chief Executive of the Institute for Turnaround, the UK’s leading source of knowledge, education and best practice in transformation. She is currently concluding her role at Collaborate CIC, a think tank tackling complex social challenges.

Christine said:

“I am honoured to have been appointed Chair of the HCPC Council.

“This is a hugely important time for regulation with Government proposing reforms to how regulation is delivered and an acceptance within the sector that regulators need to move away from the current reactive model to one which actively support professionals’ practice to help prevent harm to service users.

“The Council and Executive have an ambitious and growing agenda, and I am looking forward to working with them and the wider stakeholder community to continue the HCPC’s development and ensure that we continue to deliver a high level of public protection. I very much look forward to working with our stakeholders and everyone at the HCPC to achieve this”

Marc Seale, Chief Executive and Registrar of the HCPC said:

“It was with great pleasure that everyone in the HCPC learned that Christine has been appointed as our new Chair.  She has a wealth of experience and we all look forward to working together to continue to deliver our important responsibility of public protection.”

Christine’s term of office runs for four years from 1 March 2019 to 28 February 2023.

Ends

Further information can be obtained from the HCPC Press Office on 020-7840 9172 or press@hcpc-uk.org

BIOS strongly opposes the 18% increase in registration fees proposed by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) from 2019. In our response to the HCPC consultation on these changes, we argue that they have failed to provide a clear justification for why the increase is necessary and would encourage them to explore other ways of producing efficiency savings or streamlining their processes before committing to a substantial rise.

First announced in September, the proposals would see the standard renewal fee for our members rise from £90 to £106. Combined with similar rises in 2013 and 2015, this would amount to a 40% increase in seven years, at a time when many of our members have been subject to an NHS pay cap.

The HCPC see these increases as necessary to invest in improving services and, in particular, to improving the capacity, quality and timeliness of their Fitness to Practice process. However, it is not clear from the information given so far how these measures necessitate such a large increase. Further, as many of the improvements suggested are focused on improving efficiency it is unclear why the costs cannot be offset against future savings, removing the need for a permanent increase.

Instead, BIOS felt that the increase seems designed to merely cover the loss in incoming fees caused by the government’s decision to remove social workers from the HCPC’s remit next year. Social workers currently make up 25% of the registrants to the HCPC and will therefore lead to a proportionate cut in their income. However, this loss in fees should also be reflected in a similar reduction in many of the organisation’s costs. In particular, social workers account for a disproportionately high 50% of their fitness to practice cases and therefore their removal should lead to extra capacity and resources to improve services for their remaining registrants.

BIOS will continue to engage with the HCPC on this issue going forward, alongside our AHP colleagues, in order to best represent the views of our members.

Orthoptists please see the attached advert from the HCPC.  Click here to view.

HCPC fees consultation

HCPC are consulting on the fees to be charged in connection with registration and renewal.  The main renewal fee will rise from £90 to £106 annually with similar increases in other fees.

This takes place in the context of changes to fitness to practice, need to invest and reduction in  numbers registered by the HCPC (due to social workers moving to a new register).

The consultation can be read http://www.hpc-uk.org/assets/documents/100058C0ConsultationonHCPCregistrationfees.pdf

Email your comments to bios@orthoptics.org.uk by 23 November or respond directly to the HCPC.

The consultation questions

Q1 Do you agree that the HCPC should invest in preventing fitness to practise issues arising?

Q2 Do you agree that the HCPC should invest in improved services?

Q3 Do you agree that the HCPC should invest in the necessary resources to improve the capacity, quality and timeliness of our FtP performance?

Q4 Do you agree that the renewal fee should increase from £90 to £106 to support the proposals outlined in this consultation document?

Q5 Do you agree that the scrutiny fee for applicants from approved programmes should increase in line with the renewal fee from £63 to £74?

Q6 Do you agree that graduate applicants should no longer receive a 50 per cent discount on the cost of registration?

Q7 Do you agree that the restoration and readmission fees should also increase in line with the increase in our registration renewal fee?

Q8 Do you agree that the international and grandparenting scrutiny fees should increase in line with the increase in our registration renewal fee?

Q9 Do you agree that we should regularly review our fees to avoid infrequent but larger increases in the future?

Q10 Do you agree that we should investigate additional charging models for services including charging for the approval of education programmes?

Q11  Do you agree that a higher fee should be charged for those who request paper renewal forms?

Q12 Do you consider there are any aspects of our proposals that could result in equality and diversity implications for groups or individuals based on one or more of the following protected characteristics, as defined by the Equality Act 2010 and equivalent Northern Irish legislation?

Q13 Do you have any further comments on our proposals?