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home > Education > Information for education providers > Annual monitoring

Annual monitoring

The revised standards of education and training

The purpose of annual monitoring is to ensure that the HPC approved programmes continue to meet the standards of education and training, thereby ensuring that students who successfully complete these programmes meet the standards of proficiency.

The HPC Standards of education and training (SETs) were revised in July 2009 however these SETs were not put in to effect until September 2009. As Annual Monitoring is a retrospective process during the 2009/10 academic year the process will remain unchanged and education and training programmes will still be assessed against the old (unrevised) SETs.

Programmes will not be required to demonstrate they meet the revised SETs until annual monitoring rounds the following academic year – 2010/11. At that time, education providers will submit a declaration stating their programme meets the revised SETs or an audit which gives evidence of how these revised SETs are met.

The HPC is communicating to all education providers in the autumn to explain what annual monitoring will mean for them and will highlight when the revised SETs must be met.

Please note education providers will need to follow our Major Change process when considering changes to their programmes in order to meet the revised SETs. This can be at any time from the start of the academic year 2009/10.


For more information about annual monitoring for practitioner psychologists, please see the section ‘Submitting an annual monitoring audit submission in 2009-2010’ on this page .


Annual monitoring

Following the approval of an education programme by us, the programme obtains what we refer to as 'open-ended approval' and is then subject to monitoring. Annual monitoring is a documentary, retrospective process where we consider whether a programme continues to meet our standards of education and training (SETs) and continues to effectively deliver and assess the standards of proficiency (SOPs).

We try to build on your own processes for monitoring and draw heavily on your documents to remove the need for regular visits.

The Supplementary Information for Education Providers and the forms for both annual monitoring audit and annual monitoring declaration are available on the document downloads page.

Annual monitoring: the process
The following points are provided as an elaboration of the steps outlined in the annual monitoring flowchart . Each autumn, HPC will write to the person you have named as the main annual monitoring contact with information on the annual monitoring process for the programme over the forthcoming academic year.

Annual monitoring involves two types of monitoring submissions: an audit or a declaration. Education providers are divided into group A and group B and each year will either submit and audit or a declaration according to their group.

The table below illustrates the groups and the forms they need to complete for the coming years. There is a list below where you can find which group you are in.

Academic Year Group A Group B
2008/2009 Audit Declaration
2009/2010 Declaration Audit
2010/2011 Audit Declaration
2011/2012 Declaration Audit
2012/2013 Audit Declaration

Once you have identified your group, you can move onto either the declaration form or audit form as appropriate. You must complete the relevant forms and submit them to us by the deadline stated in the initial correspondence from us. This date will be after your own internal annual monitoring process.

Each academic year, programmes that were approved by HPC the prior academic year, or are currently going through the approval process, will not normally be subject to annual monitoring. Therefore, if you have an agreed approval visit in the present academic year 09/10, or were visited last academic year (08/09), you will not normally be subject to annual monitoring. The following table shows how an approval visit will affect the following annual monitoring submissions.

Academic year HPC process required to be completed
2009/2010 Approval visit takes place - no annual monitoring
2010/2011 Programme not required to complete annual monitoring
2011/2012 Programme required to complete annual monitoring

Annual monitoring declaration
Once we have received your declaration form an acknowledgement letter will be sent to you confirming the receipt of the form. It will then be submitted to the Education and Training Committee (ETC) for approval. Failure to submit an annual monitoring declaration form by the due date will be reported to the ETC, which will consider the future of HPC approval of your programme.

Annual monitoring audit
When we have received the forms and documentation from you, the complete audit form and reports will normally be reviewed by two HPC visitors. At least one visitor will be from the relevant part of the Register and all visitors undergo a conflict of interest process.

In some cases, visitors may request additional information in order for them to make their recommendation. If additional information is required we will contact you to request this. You will then have 14 days to submit the requested information.

Once the visitor(s) have assessed the documentation, they will make the appropriate recommendation to the ETC. The Committee, based upon the recommendation of the visitors, will decide either:

  • there is sufficient evidence to show the programme continues to meet our standards; or,
  • there is insufficient evidence to show how the programme continues to meet our standards. A visit is required to gather evidence to show how the programme meets the SETs and SOPs and, if required, place conditions on ongoing approval.


Education providers will be informed of the ETC decision, in writing, within 28 days of the Committee meeting. If the Committee decides a programme requires us to visit, a member of the Education Department will liaise with you and agree a suitable date.

If an audit is not submitted, not complete, or no additional documents are sent, then this is referred to the ETC for a decision to consider the future approval of the programme.

At the end of the academic year, the Education Department will report to the ETC on the annual monitoring process, highlighting trends and areas of best practice.

If you have any questions, please email annualmonitoring@hpc-uk.org

Group A
The following education providers are in group A and in 09/10 they are required to complete an annual monitoring declaration form. Please note:

  • any programmes which had a visit in 08/09 or have an upcoming visit in 09/10 will usually be exempt from annual monitoring.
  • only programmes which have been approved by HPC can complete annual monitoring submissions. Information on the approvals process can be found on the approval page.

University of Bedfordshire
University of Birmingham
Birmingham City University (formerly University of Central England in Birmingham)
University of Bournemouth
University of Bradford
University of Brighton
Brunel ODP Centre
Brunel University
Canterbury Christ Church University
University of Central Lancashire
Centre for Psychotherapy
University of Chester
University College Plymouth St Mark and St John
Coventry University
University of Cumbria
De Montfort University
University of Derby
University of East Anglia
University of East London
University of Exeter
University of Hertfordshire
University of Huddersfield
University of Hull
King's College London
University of Lancaster
University of Leeds
University of Leicester
University of Liverpool
Liverpool John Moores University
London Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University
University of Manchester
Middlesex University
New College Durham
Newcastle University
University of Nottingham
Open University
Oxford Brookes University
University of Portsmouth
University of Reading
University of Salford
University of Sheffield
University of Southampton
St George's, University of London
Staffordshire University
Suffolk, University Campus
University of Sunderland
University of Surrey
University of Swansea
Thames Valley University
University Centre Yeovil
University College London
University of the West of England, Bristol

Group B
The following education providers are in group B and in 09/10 they are required to complete an annual monitoring audit form. Please note:

  • any programmes which had a visit in 08/09 or have an upcoming visit in 09/10 will usually be exempt from annual monitoring.
  • only programmes which have been approved by HPC can complete annual monitoring submissions. Information on the approval process can be found on the approval page.

University of Abertay Dundee
Anglia Ruskin University
Bangor University
The University of Bolton
Cardiff University (Prifysgol Caerdydd)
The Central School of Speech & Drama
City University
Colchester Institute
University of Dundee
East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust
East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Edinburgh Napier University (formerly Napier University)
Edge Hill University
University of Essex
Glasgow Caledonian University
Glyndwr University (formerly North East Wales Institute of Higher Education)
Goldsmiths College University of London
University of Greenwich
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Institute of Arts in Therapy and Education
Iron Mill Institute, Exeter
Keele University
Leeds Metropolitan University
University of Lincoln
London Ambulance Service NHS Trust
London South Bank University
Matthew Boulton College
Medway School of Pharmacy
The University of Northampton
Northumbria University at Newcastle
Northern Ireland Ambulance Service Health and Social Care Trust
North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Nottingham Trent University
Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre
University of Plymouth
Open University
Queen Margaret University
The Robert Gordon University
Roehampton University
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
Scottish Ambulance College
Sheffield Hallam University
South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust
University of Stirling
University of Strathclyde
Teesside University (formerly University of Teesside)
University of Ulster
University of Wales
University of Wales Institute Cardiff
Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust
University of Westminster
University of the West of Scotland
University of Wolverhampton
University of Worcester
York St John University
University of York
Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust



Related Documents
Annual Monitoring - supplementary information for education providersAdobe PDF Document259kb
Annual Monitoring - flowchart of the processAdobe PDF Document12kb
Standards of education and training guidance (pre Sept 2009)Adobe PDF Document238kb
Ambulance Trust Annual Monitoring Audit Form and Guidance 0910Microsoft Word Document288kb
Annual monitoring audit form and guidanceMicrosoft Word Document277kb
Annual monitoring declaration form and guidanceMicrosoft Word Document80kb
New profession monitoring form and guidance1Microsoft Word Document91kb

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