Approval process

Since September 2004, our Education Department has been carrying out approval visits to education providers and programmes throughout the UK.

During that time, the executive team has gained experience and received feedback on the process from a number of people involved, including education providers and professional organisations.

Revised Standards of Education Training

The revised Standards of education and training come into affect as of 1 September 2009. Any approval visit conducted on or after this date will be assessed against these revised SETs.

We visit all the programmes we approve to make sure that:

• the educational programme meets our standards of education and training;
• graduates of the programme are able to meet our standards of proficiency (SoPs) for their part of the Register;
• we assess all programmes and education providers fairly and consistently

When we carry out an approval visit, we are represented by what we refer to as the HPC panel. The HPC panel is normally made up of one education executive and two visitors - at least one of whom is from the same part of the Register as the profession with which the programme is concerned.

Throughout the visit, we ask questions of education provider staff, students, senior managers and placement providers. We relate all our discussions back to our standards.

At the end of the approval visit, our panel will make a judgement about whether, or to what extent, the programme meets our standards and make the appropriate recommendation to our Education and Training Committee which makes the final decision.

Both we and the education provider have specific roles to play and tasks to carry out for the process to flow smoothly.

Broadly speaking, you are responsible for:

• giving us a visit request form telling us which dates you would like us to visit;
• giving us appropriate documents before the visit;
• arranging the agenda and the meetings for the day;
• providing an independent chair;
• providing a minute-taker;
• providing a response to any conditions; and
• giving feedback on our process.

We are responsible for:

• keeping you informed about our role, timelines and deadlines;
• appointing appropriate visitors;
• accommodation and travel for our panel; and
• managing the post-visit process.

After a visit has taken place, the HPC panel may recommend a programme to our Education and Training Committee for one of the following:

• To approve the programme.
• To set conditions on the programme, all of which must be met before the programme can be approved.
• To not approve the programme.
• To withdraw our approval of the programme.

If the HPC Panel recommends non-approval or withdrawal of approval from a programme, the graduates of the programme will not be entitled to register with the HPC and as such will not be able to practise in the UK using one of the titles protected by the HPC. We do not take the decision not to approve a programme, or withdraw approval from a programme lightly.

When we have approved a programme, we grant the programme what we refer to as ‘open-ended approval’ and we then monitor it using the annual monitoring and major/minor change processes. These are documentary processes by which we decide whether a programme continues to meet all of our standards against which it was originally assessed.

For additional information or queries regarding the approvals process please refer to the supplementary information for education providers or visit our Approvals Process points of information page.

Alternatively please contact the Education Department direct at:

Health Professions Council
Park House, 184 Kennington Park Road, London, SE11 4BU.
Phone: 44 (0)20 7840 9812
Fax: 44 (0)20 7820 9684
Email: approvals@hpc-uk.org