Professionalism and Professional Standards for HCPC regulated Health and Care Professionals
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Remediation · Health and Care Professions Council CPD Certified
Professionalism and Professional Standards for HCPC Regulated Health & Care Professionals
Facing an HCPC complaint, fitness to practise investigation or HCPTS hearing? Start here. A CPD-certified remediation course for registrants across all fifteen HCPC-regulated professions — Paramedics, Physiotherapists, Radiographers, Occupational Therapists, Practitioner Psychologists and the rest. Written for allegations about professional boundaries, consent and communication, record keeping, probity and dishonesty, social media conduct and duty of candour — built on the ten standards revised on 1 September 2024.
Who this course is for
Registrants across all fifteen HCPC-regulated professions, at any stage of a concern or before one arises.
You have just had a letter
A complaint, concern or fitness to practise investigation has been raised and you need to respond. Start here, and start now — evidence built early always reads better than evidence assembled the week before a deadline.
You are preparing your response
You are writing to the regulator, or working with your union, professional body or insurer, and need documented CPD and written reflection to put behind what you say.
Your case is going further
The matter is heading towards the Investigating Committee or an HCPTS panel hearing, and you need to show sustained change rather than good intentions.
You are applying for restoration
You are off the register and working towards going back on it. Evidence of what you have done in the meantime is the heart of a restoration application, and you do not need to be registered to take this.
You have been selected for CPD audit
You need activities, evidence and a written account of how the learning benefited service users. This course, with your reflection, produces all three.
Nothing has been raised
You want your practice to stand up to scrutiny, and verifiable CPD in your record at the same time.
The concerns this course speaks to
Concerns about HCPC registrants cluster into a small number of areas. These are the ones this course works through, and the standards each one engages.
Professional boundaries
Boundaries with service users, carers and colleagues, dual relationships, and the prohibition on romantic or sexual relationships with service users. Several sub-standards on boundaries were added in 2024.
Consent and communication
Valid consent that is voluntary and informed, explaining risk, and communication that service users later say they did not understand. Standards 1 and 2.
Record keeping and documentation
Clinical notes, what they must contain, and why poor records so often turn a defensible complaint into an indefensible one. Standard 10.
Probity, honesty and dishonesty
Honesty about your experience and qualifications, accuracy in promotional activity, declaring conflicts, and allegations of dishonesty — the category regulators treat most seriously. Standard 9.
Social media and digital conduct
What you post, how you respond to reviews, and contact through personal accounts. The HCPC's social media guidance was revised alongside the standards in 2024.
Duty of candour and adverse events
Being open when something goes wrong, apologising properly, and the difference between explaining and defending. Standard 8.
What the course covers
Six sections and 22 lessons, with a post-module assessment at the finish.
Overview of professionalism
Defining professionalism for health and care professionals, why it matters, and the HCPC's role in setting and upholding standards.
Core principles
Nine lessons: patient-centred care, integrity and honesty, accountability and responsibility, confidentiality and privacy, effective communication, respect and dignity, teamwork and collaboration, documentation, and reflective practice.
Standards of conduct, performance and ethics
The HCPC's ten standards, revised on 1 September 2024, which apply across all fifteen regulated professions rather than to any one of them.
Professional boundaries and ethical conduct
Boundaries with service users, carers and colleagues, and the HCPC's own guidance on where the lines sit.
Breaches, consequences and remediation
What a breach looks like, what follows from one, the regulatory actions available, and the practical steps remediation involves.
Conclusion and assessment
Key takeaways, followed by a post-module assessment. Your certificate is issued on completion.
How this helps if a concern has been raised
Answer the standard you are being measured against
The HCPC’s standards of conduct, performance and ethics run to ten standards and apply across all fifteen professions rather than to any one of them. Standard 9, be honest and trustworthy, is where most conduct concerns land, with standard 8 carrying the candour duty and standard 10 the records. Where a concern engages a standard, a response written against that standard is more persuasive than one written in general terms about professionalism.
The other thing worth getting right is the order. Insight comes first, then reflection as its written record, then remediation as the evidence. A response that supplies remediation without insight is a stack of certificates; one that supplies insight without remediation is an account. Both are routinely described as incomplete, and about responses that were otherwise perfectly sincere.
On completion you receive a certificate recording the course title, the CPD hours and the date — which, with your own written reflection, is suitable for inclusion in a remediation portfolio, a restoration application, a CPD profile or a regulatory submission. For the wider picture see HCPC remediation courses.
Read the HCPC’s own guidance Standards of conduct, performance and ethics ↗ What changed in the revised standards ↗ How we can support you ↗ Threshold policy for investigations ↗ Completing a CPD profile for audit ↗
Ready to start? Written for registrants of all fifteen HCPC-regulated professions, including those working towards restoration. Instant access, 2 CPD hours, certificate on completion.
Buy this course — £79.00Who wrote it
Course facilitator and author, Probity & Ethics
Dr Iqbal has designed and delivered ethics, probity and professionalism training for UK healthcare professionals since 2020, working with registrants of all nine UK healthcare regulators, online and face to face. He combines clinical practice with formal postgraduate training in healthcare law and ethics.
MBBS · MRCS · MRCGP · Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Law and Ethics, University of Dundee
Written and reviewed by Dr Shehzad Iqbal. Last reviewed August 2026.
Which standards will my case be measured against?
The HCPC’s standards of conduct, performance and ethics — ten standards, revised on 1 September 2024, applying across all fifteen regulated professions rather than to any one of them: promote and protect the interests of service users and carers; communicate appropriately and effectively; work within the limits of your knowledge and skills; delegate appropriately; respect confidentiality; manage risk; report concerns about safety; be open when things go wrong; be honest and trustworthy; and keep records of your work.
Where a concern is about conduct, standard 9 is usually the one engaged, with standard 8 carrying candour and standard 10 the records. That has a direct consequence for how you write: name the standard and answer what it requires. A response written in general terms about professionalism answers nothing in particular.
What these words mean
The terms the regulators use about a concern, and what each one means in practice.
Standards of conduct, performance and ethics
The HCPC's ten standards, revised on 1 September 2024, applying across all fifteen regulated professions rather than to any one of them. They are what the HCPC uses when someone raises a concern about a registrant's practice.
The ten standards
Promote and protect the interests of service users and carers; communicate appropriately and effectively; work within the limits of your knowledge and skills; delegate appropriately; respect confidentiality; manage risk; report concerns about safety; be open when things go wrong; be honest and trustworthy; and keep records of your work.
Standard 9
Be honest and trustworthy. It requires conduct that justifies public trust and confidence in you and your profession, honesty about your experience, qualifications and skills, accuracy in promotional activity, and declaring anything that might create a conflict of interest.
Standard 8
Be open when things go wrong. The candour standard, and one of the six revised in 2024 — the changes set out a process to follow when something goes wrong that aligns with the HCPC's own guidance.
Guidance on social media
Separate HCPC guidance that sits alongside the standards and was updated on the same date. Where a concern is about something posted online, this is the document read next to the standard.
Threshold criteria
The test the HCPC applies after investigating: whether the concern and the information gathered amount to an allegation that fitness to practise may be impaired on one of the statutory grounds. Its published criteria include whether the registrant has taken action to remediate their practice.
Case to answer
The decision an Investigating Committee Panel makes on a referred allegation. Once a case is with the panel it cannot go back a stage — it closes only if the panel finds no case to answer, or it proceeds to a hearing.
HCPTS
The Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service. The HCPC investigates; the HCPTS adjudicates, and what a panel assesses is current fitness to practise rather than only what happened.
Restoration to the register
The route back for someone who has been struck off or has come off the register. Evidence of what you have done in the meantime sits at the heart of the application, which is why registration is not a prerequisite for this course.
Insight
Understanding what went wrong, why it happened, and the effect it had on service users, colleagues and public confidence in the profession. The element most often described as lacking.
Remediation
The concrete steps taken so the same thing does not happen again — training, supervision, changes to how you work — together with evidence that they happened and have been sustained.
The ten standards, and where a concern lands
Ten standards, one framework, fifteen professions. Find the one your concern engages, and answer what it actually requires — that is what turns an account into a response.
Standard 1 — Promote and protect the interests of service users and carers
Working in partnership, empowering and enabling people to play a part in their own health and wellbeing, and valid consent that is voluntary and informed before care, treatment or other services. Standard 1.5 also requires you to be aware of the impact your own values, biases and beliefs may have.
Standard 2 — Communicate appropriately and effectively
One of the standards revised in 2024. It covers communication with service users, carers and colleagues, and it is where complaints about what someone was or was not told usually land.
Standard 3 — Work within the limits of your knowledge and skills
Scope of practice, strengthened in 2024 to make clear the need to have the knowledge, skills and experience to practise safely and effectively. It engages where something was attempted, continued or accepted beyond what your training covers.
Standard 4 — Delegate appropriately
What you hand to someone else, whether they are equipped to do it, and the fact that delegating a task does not delegate the accountability for it.
Standard 5 — Respect confidentiality
Service user information, who sees it, and how it is held and shared.
Standard 6 — Manage risk
Identifying and acting on risk to service users and others, rather than noticing it and leaving it.
Standard 7 — Report concerns about safety
Speaking up, and revised in 2024 to add standard 7.5: you must raise concerns about colleagues if you witness bullying, harassment or intimidation of a service user, carer or another colleague, following your organisation's procedures and keeping everyone involved safe.
Standard 8 — Be open when things go wrong
The candour standard. The 2024 revision sets out a process to follow when something goes wrong, aligned with the HCPC's own guidance: tell the person, apologise, and put things right where you can.
Standard 9 — Be honest and trustworthy
The professionalism standard, and where most conduct concerns land. 9.1 conduct that justifies public trust and confidence; 9.2 honesty about your experience, qualifications and skills; 9.3 promotional activity that is accurate and not misleading; 9.4 declaring anything that might create a conflict of interest. Standard 9.6 also requires you to cooperate with any investigation into your conduct or competence, or that of others.
Standard 10 — Keep records of your work
Records that are full, accurate and made at the time or as soon as possible afterwards. The standard that decides more cases than it should, because what was not recorded is treated as not done.
Every profession the HCPC regulates
The standards of conduct, performance and ethics apply across all fifteen rather than to any one of them, which is why a single course serves the whole register.
Arts Therapists
Biomedical Scientists
Chiropodists and Podiatrists
Clinical Scientists
Dietitians
Hearing Aid Dispensers
Occupational Therapists
Operating Department Practitioners
Orthoptists
Paramedics
Physiotherapists
Practitioner Psychologists
Prosthetists and Orthotists
Radiographers
Speech and Language Therapists
The standards changed on 1 September 2024
The first revision since 2016. If your understanding of the standards was formed before then, it predates the version a panel is now reading.
Six of the ten were updated
The headings stayed the same and there are still ten standards, but six were revised and the guidance on social media was updated alongside them.
Five themes drove the changes
Communication; the duty of candour; upskilling and training responsibilities; managing existing health conditions and disabilities at work; and equality, diversity and inclusion.
New sub-standards on boundaries
Several were added, setting out more clearly what is expected of registrants in their behaviour towards service users, their carers and their colleagues.
A duty to act on bullying
Standard 7.5 now requires you to raise concerns about colleagues if you witness bullying, harassment or intimidation of a service user, carer or another colleague — following your organisation's procedures and keeping everyone safe.
What happens after a concern reaches the HCPC
Set out in the HCPC’s own threshold policy. Knowing which stage you are at tells you what your response has to do — and the earlier stages are where most cases end.
Triage
A simple assessment of whether the concern is one the HCPC can deal with: does it relate to an identifiable registrant, is it in writing, and does it raise one of the five statutory grounds. The HCPC describes this as a low bar, and it runs a risk assessment on receipt to identify anything needing priority.
Investigation, and the threshold test
Information is gathered — service user records, employer investigation documents, witness statements, independent clinical advice, police or court documents. The test is whether all of it amounts to an allegation that fitness to practise may be impaired on one of the statutory grounds.
Remediation is part of that test
The HCPC's published threshold criteria expressly include whether you have taken action to remediate your practice. Where it considers that retraining, learning or improvement is embedded, it may decide you no longer present a risk and that the threshold is not met — though a serious enough concern can still go forward in the public interest.
The Investigating Committee Panel
If the threshold is met, allegations are drafted and referred to a panel, which decides whether there is a case to answer. Once a case is in the panel's jurisdiction it cannot go back a stage: it closes only on a no case to answer decision, or it proceeds.
Interim orders, at any point
Where concerns are serious enough that public safety, the public interest or the registrant would be at risk, the HCPC can apply to restrict or suspend practice while the case is investigated. An application automatically takes the case into the panel's jurisdiction.
A hearing before the HCPTS
The HCPC investigates and presents; the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service arranges and conducts the hearing. What a panel assesses is current impairment — the process is not designed to punish past mistakes.
The three things a regulator looks for
Named in almost every decision, in this order. A response that supplies only the first is incomplete.
Insight
Understanding what went wrong, why it happened, and the effect it had on service users, colleagues and public confidence in the profession. It is the element most often described as lacking.
Reflection
Setting that understanding down honestly and in your own words, including what you would do differently and what you have already changed. Reflection is the written record of insight.
Remediation
The concrete steps taken so the same thing does not happen again — training, supervision, changes to how you work — together with evidence that they happened.
Frequently asked questions
Which standards will my case be measured against?
The HCPC's standards of conduct, performance and ethics. There are ten of them and they apply across all fifteen regulated professions rather than to any one of them: promote and protect the interests of service users and carers; communicate appropriately and effectively; work within the limits of your knowledge and skills; delegate appropriately; respect confidentiality; manage risk; report concerns about safety; be open when things go wrong; be honest and trustworthy; and keep records of your work. Conduct concerns usually engage standard 9. Naming the standard and answering it directly is more persuasive than writing in general terms about professionalism.
What changed on 1 September 2024?
The standards were revised for the first time since 2016. Six of the ten were updated and the guidance on social media was revised alongside them. The changes cluster around five themes: communication, the duty of candour, upskilling and training responsibilities, managing existing health conditions and disabilities at work, and equality, diversity and inclusion. Several new sub-standards on maintaining professional boundaries were added, setting out more clearly what is expected of registrants towards service users, carers and colleagues. If your understanding of the standards was formed before September 2024, it predates the current version.
What does standard 7.5 require about bullying or harassment?
It is one of the additions made in 2024, and it catches people out because it is a duty to act rather than a duty to refrain. You must raise concerns about colleagues if you witness bullying, harassment or intimidation of a service user, carer or another colleague — following the relevant procedures in your practice or organisation, and maintaining the safety of everyone involved. Witnessing it and saying nothing is itself capable of engaging the standards.
What actually happens after a concern reaches the HCPC?
The HCPC's threshold policy sets it out. At triage it decides whether the concern is one it can deal with — an identifiable registrant, in writing, and raising one of the five statutory grounds. If so it investigates, gathering records, employer documents, witness statements and where needed independent clinical advice, then applies its threshold test: does all of that amount to an allegation that fitness to practise may be impaired. If it does, allegations are drafted and referred to an Investigating Committee Panel, which decides whether there is a case to answer. If there is, the case goes to a hearing arranged by the HCPTS.
What are the five grounds of impairment?
Misconduct; lack of competence; a conviction or caution for a criminal offence; physical or mental health; and a determination by another health or social care regulatory or licensing body. A concern has to engage at least one of them. The HCPC is also explicit that its focus is on current impairment — whether you may continue to present a risk — rather than on punishing past mistakes, which is precisely why evidence of what has changed since carries weight.
Does evidence of remediation actually make a difference before a decision?
Yes, and the HCPC says so in its own threshold policy. Whether you have taken action to remediate your practice is one of the listed criteria it weighs, and where it considers that retraining, learning or improvement is embedded in your practice it may decide you no longer present a risk and that the threshold is not met. That is not a guarantee — a sufficiently serious concern can still go forward in the public interest, and once a case is with the Investigating Committee Panel it cannot be reassessed against the threshold. But it is the clearest published reason to start early rather than wait for an outcome.
Which professions is it for?
All fifteen the HCPC regulates: arts therapists, biomedical scientists, chiropodists and podiatrists, clinical scientists, dietitians, hearing aid dispensers, occupational therapists, operating department practitioners, orthoptists, paramedics, physiotherapists, practitioner psychologists, prosthetists and orthotists, radiographers, and speech and language therapists. The standards of conduct, performance and ethics apply across all of them, which is why a single course serves the whole register.
I am not currently registered — can I still do the course?
Yes. There is no registration check and no requirement to be on the register. The course is taken as often by people who are suspended, who have removed themselves from the register, or who are working towards restoration as it is by registrants responding to a live concern. If you are applying for restoration, evidence of what you have done in the meantime is the heart of the application, and a certified course with your written reflection is exactly that.
What is the HCPTS, and does this help there?
The HCPC investigates; the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service adjudicates. Where a case reaches a hearing, what a panel is assessing is current fitness to practise, not only what happened. Documented CPD and written reflection are evidence you can point to. They do not determine the outcome, but the absence of them is noticed.
Does this count towards my CPD?
Yes, as verifiable CPD. The certificate records the course title, the hours and the date, and your written reflection is what turns it into something a reader can assess. Check the HCPC's current CPD requirements, which are linked above, for what your own renewal needs to contain — and keep the reflection, because it does two jobs at once if a concern is also open.
Is this course approved or endorsed by the HCPC?
No. The Health and Care Professions Council does not approve, accredit or endorse courses from any provider, including us, and it does not keep an approved list. The course is certified by The CPD Certification Service, an independent accreditation body, under Provider No. 13197.
Will completing this course resolve my case?
No. No course, from us or from anyone else, determines the outcome of a fitness to practise matter. What a course can do is help you build the insight and reflection your response needs, and give you a verifiable certificate to evidence it. Your professional body, union, insurer or a specialist regulatory adviser should advise on your own case.
I have interim conditions or a suspension — is this still worth doing?
Yes, and arguably more so. Where an interim order, conditions of practice or a suspension is in place, the question at review is what has changed since. Verifiable CPD completed while the order is running and reflected on in writing is one of the few things entirely within your control. It does not determine the outcome, but it is evidence you can point to.
Can I use it for my employer or appraisal?
Yes. The certificate and your written reflection are structured CPD evidence, suitable for appraisal, employer review, remediation plans, professional portfolios and regulatory submissions.
How long does it take?
It runs to 2 CPD hours across six sections and 22 lessons. Most people complete it in one or two sittings; it is self-paced and you can return to it as often as you like.
Is it “fitness to practise” or “fitness to practice”?
Both are in use. In British English practise is the verb and practice is the noun, so the regulators — the HCPC, GMC, NMC and the rest — write fitness to practise, and this page follows them. Most people searching for help type fitness to practice, and plenty of professional bodies use that spelling too. They mean the same thing, and nothing turns on which you use in your own response.
Can I buy more than one course?
Yes. Our Bulk Buy offer covers any 10 courses and works out considerably cheaper per course. Most concerns touch more than one area of practice — boundaries and record keeping, or probity and communication — so a bundle is usually the better answer to a real allegation.
Courses that work alongside this one
The ethics pair to this course: how a decision was reached, where this one covers how you conducted yourself.
The element assessed in almost every case, whatever the allegation, and the one most often described as lacking.
How to write reflection that reads as understanding rather than regret, in your own words.
Turning insight into concrete, evidenced change that a decision maker can see actually happened.
The forward-looking half of remediation: what you have put in place so it cannot happen again.
What fitness to practise means, how the process works, and what is being assessed at each stage.
Restoring confidence after a concern — with service users, with colleagues and with the regulator.
This course. Boundaries, consent, records, probity and candour across all fifteen professions under the standards of conduct, performance and ethics — and the evidenced remediation that answers a concern.
See all HCPC remediation courses →
Start your remediation today, finish at your own pace
Instant access on purchase. Certificate on completion, CPD certified by The CPD Certification Service.
Buy this course — £79.00 Bulk buy — any 10 courses