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Principles of how we work and how we support you

22 Sep 2022

Our role and how we work with you

Our education quality assurance model has been in operation for over a year, and we recently evaluated our performance against our aims and objectives. 

We thought this provided a good opportunity to remind education providers of some core model principles, and the way we work, to enhance understanding of our role and how we work together. 

The HCPC’s Education function is flexible, intelligent and data-led in its quality assurance of institutions and programmes. To support this aim, we embed the following principles into the way we work: 

 Principle  

Aim  

Benefits  

Institution / programme level assessment  

Recognise institution-wide approaches, and focus on professional level detail where we need to 
  • Consistency in standards application  
  • Reduced burden for us and stakeholders  

Flexibility 

Focus on the areas that need it, applying a ‘right touch’ rather than one-size-fits-all approach 
  • Reduced burden for us and stakeholders  
  • Better assessment and understanding of quality  

Data and intelligence  

Use a broad range of information (including from external sources) to  

  • Inform decision making and our understanding of risks, issues and performance  
  • Prioritise interventions  
  • Broader range of information to inform our decision making  
  • Aligning with sector conventions to embed recognised data points  
  • External influence on decision making  

Regional approach  
  • Facilitate a collaborative approach to quality assurance  
  • Understand and influence developments and what is important to our stakeholders  
  • Understanding plans, to enable planning and prioritisation of our work  
  • Influencing early, to reduce problems later in interactions / processes  
  • Gives a broad picture to understand the quality of provision  

Key differences you will notice in the way we work compared to our previous model are: 

  • Our focus on the institution, including having institution-wide ‘quality assurance’ contacts – this means that institutions should engage with us in a joined-up way, through the quality assurance contact where possible. You also have a nominated HCPC contact, who is responsible for national and regional ‘patches’. This helps you and us keep things consistent, and to consider where we can save time and effort through our interactions; 
  • Our approach to change – we no longer need providers to engage in a ‘major change’ process, to flag changes to us as they happen. Rather, we ask that providers reflect on changes through their ‘performance review’ monitoring return.

More information about our approach to change, including situations where you should contact us, is available here. 

Page updated on: 22/09/2022
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