Professionalism for Healthcare Professionals HCPC: Complete Guide

What Does the HCPC Mean by Professionalism?

For the HCPC, professionalism is defined by the Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics — a set of 10 overarching standards that apply to all 15 regulated professions. These are not guidelines or aspirational values. They are regulatory requirements. Every HCPC registrant is personally responsible for meeting them, and they are the benchmark against which all fitness to practise concerns are assessed.

The HCPC regulates a diverse range of professions: physiotherapists, occupational therapists, paramedics, radiographers, dietitians, speech and language therapists, operating department practitioners, biomedical scientists, clinical psychologists, counselling psychologists, podiatrists, prosthetists and orthotists, orthoptists, arts therapists, and hearing aid dispensers. Despite the diversity of clinical practice, the professionalism standards apply equally to all.

The standards were most recently revised in September 2024, with significant changes to social media guidance, colleague relations, health management, and equality and diversity requirements. If you have not reviewed the 2024 standards, you should do so immediately — the revised standards are now the benchmark for all fitness to practise decisions.

The 10 HCPC Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics

Each standard covers a critical dimension of professional practice. Together they form the complete picture of what the HCPC considers professional behaviour. Understanding each one — not just knowing they exist, but understanding what they mean in practice — is essential for every registrant.

This is the foundational standard. You must treat service users and carers with respect and dignity, work in partnership with them, empower them to make informed decisions about their care, and ensure you have valid consent before providing treatment. The 2024 revisions specifically require you to be aware of the potential impact that your personal values, biases, and beliefs may have on the care you provide.

You must communicate clearly, sensitively, and in a way that service users can understand. The 2024 revisions significantly expanded this standard to include treating colleagues with respect and consideration, and using all forms of communication — including social media and networking sites — responsibly. You must ensure information you share online is accurate, does not mislead the public, and maintains professional boundaries.

You must only practise in areas where you have the appropriate knowledge, skills, and experience. If a task falls outside your scope of practice, you must refer to or seek guidance from an appropriately qualified professional. This standard also requires you to keep your knowledge and skills up to date through continuing professional development.

When you delegate tasks, you remain responsible for ensuring that the person you delegate to has the knowledge, skills, and support to carry out the task safely and effectively. Delegation does not transfer accountability — the responsibility remains with you.

You must treat all information about service users as confidential. You must only disclose information when you have consent, when it is required by law, or when it is necessary to protect the safety of the service user or the public. This applies equally to digital and physical records, and to information shared in person, by phone, or online.

You must take all reasonable steps to reduce the risk of harm to service users, carers, and colleagues. The 2024 revisions clarified your responsibility to assess whether changes to your own physical or mental health will affect your ability to practise safely. If your health is impaired, you must adjust your practice or stop practising until it is safe to resume.

You have a duty to report concerns about the safety or wellbeing of service users. This includes concerns about the conduct, competence, or health of colleagues, as well as concerns about the environment or systems in which care is delivered. You must not be deterred from raising concerns by fear of consequences.

You must be open and honest when things go wrong with a service user's care. This means informing the service user (or their carer) about what has happened, offering an apology where appropriate, and taking steps to put things right. You must also report errors to your employer and take action to prevent them from happening again.

You must act with honesty and integrity in all your professional dealings. This includes being truthful about your qualifications and experience, declaring conflicts of interest, and not abusing the trust placed in you by service users, employers, or the public. Dishonesty — even outside clinical practice — can result in fitness to practise proceedings.

You must keep accurate, legible, and complete records for every service user you treat. Records must be made promptly, stored securely, and only accessed by those who are authorised. Poor record-keeping is one of the most common issues raised in HCPC fitness to practise proceedings — and one of the most preventable.

What Happens When Professionalism Fails: HCPC Fitness to Practise

When a concern is raised about an HCPC registrant, the HCPC assesses whether the concern amounts to a potential breach of the standards. If it does, a formal fitness to practise investigation may be opened. If the concern is serious enough, the case may be referred to the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) for a hearing.

Common professionalism concerns that trigger HCPC investigations include:

• Clinical competence failures — practising outside your scope, inadequate assessments, poor clinical reasoning
• Record-keeping failures — incomplete, inaccurate, or missing records
• Dishonesty — falsifying records, misrepresenting qualifications, insurance fraud
• Boundary violations — inappropriate relationships with service users or colleagues
• Confidentiality breaches — sharing patient information without consent or justification
• Social media misconduct — posting inappropriate content, breaching patient confidentiality online, or behaving unprofessionally on social platforms
• Communication failures — rude, dismissive, or unprofessional communication with service users, carers, or colleagues

The outcomes of an HCPC fitness to practise hearing range from no action through to conditions on practice, suspension, or striking off. The level of insight and remediation you demonstrate is a critical factor in determining the outcome.

The HCPC Standards are not just a document to read once and file away. They are the yardstick against which every fitness to practise concern is measured. Knowing them, understanding them, and evidencing them in your daily practice is the single most important thing you can do to protect your registration.

How to Evidence Professionalism for Healthcare Professionals in Fitness to Practise

If you are facing an HCPC investigation, demonstrating professionalism is not just about what you did before the concern was raised — it is about what you have done since. Panels assess your current fitness to practise, and the evidence of your response to the concern is critical.

1. Complete CPD targeted to the concern — if the concern relates to ethics, complete an ethics course. If it relates to professionalism, complete a professionalism course. Panels assess whether your CPD is relevant and whether you can articulate what you learned
2. Write a structured reflective statement — demonstrate that you understand the standards you breached, why it matters, and what you have done to address it. Your reflective statement is the document that ties your remediation together
3. Engage with supervision — a supervisor report that specifically addresses the concern and confirms your current safe practice carries significant weight
4. Gather targeted references — ask referees to address the specific concern, not just provide generic character endorsements
5. Document practice changes — describe what you have changed in your practice and how it addresses the identified risk

Courses for HCPC Professionalism and Remediation

Our CPD-certified courses are specifically designed for HCPC-regulated professionals facing fitness to practise proceedings or seeking to strengthen their professional development. Each course provides documented evidence of your engagement with the standards.

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The 2024 Revisions: What Changed and Why It Matters

The HCPC revised its Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics in September 2024, following extensive consultation with stakeholders. The core 10 standards remain the same, but several significant changes were introduced that every registrant needs to understand:

• Colleague relations (Standards 2.8-2.9) — new explicit requirements to treat colleagues with respect and consideration, both in person and online. Unprofessional behaviour towards colleagues is now more clearly a standards issue
• Social media (Standards 2.10-2.12) — significantly expanded guidance on responsible use of social media and networking sites. You must ensure information you share online is accurate, does not mislead the public, and maintains professional boundaries
• Health management (Standards 6.3-6.4) — clearer expectations about your responsibility to assess whether your own physical or mental health affects your ability to practise safely, and to adjust your practice if it does
• Equality, diversity and inclusion — strengthened requirements to be aware of personal biases and their impact on care, aligning with amendments already made to the Standards of Proficiency
• When things go wrong (Standard 8) — clearer process guidance for registrants to follow when errors occur, better aligned with the HCPC's existing guidance

Professionalism in Daily Practice: A Practical Checklist

Professionalism is not demonstrated once — it is demonstrated every day, in every interaction. The following checklist is based directly on the HCPC standards:

• Before every clinical encounter — do I have valid consent? Am I working within my scope of practice? Do I have the knowledge and skills for this task?
• During every clinical encounter — am I communicating clearly and respectfully? Am I treating this person with dignity? Am I maintaining appropriate boundaries?
• After every clinical encounter — have I made accurate, complete, and timely records? Have I documented my clinical reasoning?
• When things go wrong — have I been open with the service user? Have I reported the incident? Have I reflected on what happened and why?
• Online and on social media — would I be comfortable with my regulator seeing this post? Does it maintain professional boundaries? Is the information accurate?
• With colleagues — am I treating them with respect and consideration? Am I communicating professionally, including online?

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