HCPC fitness to practise annual report 2024-25

The overwhelming majority of professionals on our Register practise safely and effectively.

Fewer than 1% of the professionals we regulate had a concern raised about them in 2024–25, in line with previous years. We will always listen to anyone who feels they have not had safe or effective care, or who has concerns about someone on our Register, and we encourage anyone with a concern to come forward.

In 2024–25 we have seen another increase in the number of new FTP concerns we receive, which is a trend being experienced by other professional regulators across the healthcare system. There are no clear themes behind the increase for the HCPC, however it may show that the public are becoming more aware of and engaged with whistleblowing procedures. As you would expect, we have taken action to adapt our ways of working to respond. We have again seen benefits from our FTP improvement programme, which has resulted in another Professional Standards Authority1 standard being achieved this year. In 2024– 25 we have implemented and embedded changes to our fitness to practise operating model and processes to increase our ability to progress cases fairly, efficiently and compassionately. We are conscious that there are still improvements to be made and our work will continue.

We have recently introduced a new streaming process which allows more complex cases to be identified and investigated at an early stage. We have also continued our frontloading of cases to improve the timeliness of our investigation.

For the third year running, we are able to include equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) data analysis in our FTP annual report, which again shows the progress we are making in building our understanding in this important area.

Continuing to improve how we investigate FTP concerns has been a core element of our Corporate strategy 2021–26 and will continue to be a priority for the HCPC in 2025–26, as we strive to maintain high standards for the professions we regulate and to protect the public. We look forward to our work forming a key part of our ongoing strategic priorities as we seek to develop our next corporate strategy in this coming year.

Laura Coffey
Executive Director of Fitness to Practise and Tribunal Services