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What an HCPC Professionalism Course Covers for HCPC Registrants

Dr Shehzad Iqbal

A health and care professional at a desk reading through professional standards on a laptop

Written and reviewed by Dr Shehzad Iqbal, MBBS, MRCS, MRCGP, Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Law and Ethics · Updated 10 November 2026

In short

An HCPC professionalism CPD course covers how the HCPC expects you to behave as a registrant: the standards of conduct, performance and ethics, how they meet the standards of proficiency for your own profession, boundaries with a service user or a colleague in person and online, and the fitness to practise process with insight and remediation. Our Probity & Ethics HCPC professionalism course, the CPD course Professionalism and the Professional Standards for HCPC Regulated Health and Care Professionals, sets this out in six sections and 22 lessons and gives 2 CPD hours for £79 (£50 with Bulk Buy 10), with a certificate on completion. With your own reflection, it supports your response to an HCPC concern or investigation; with no concern raised, the same CPD course counts in your HCPC CPD record.

A concern about how you behaved?

Your manner, a boundary with a service user or a colleague, or work outside your scope has been raised with your employer or the HCPC.

Building your HCPC CPD record?

You want CPD on the standards and on your profession’s standards of proficiency, with a certificate and a reflection you can show at audit.

What does an HCPC professionalism course cover?

Six sections and 22 lessons, online and self-paced:

  1. What professionalism means for an HCPC registrant, apart from clinical skill.
  2. The standards of conduct, performance and ethics, one at a time.
  3. Your profession’s standards of proficiency and scope of practice.
  4. Boundaries with a service user or a colleague, in person and online.
  5. The fitness to practise process, with insight, reflection and remediation.
  6. An assessment and a dated certificate.

Which HCPC concerns a professionalism course fits

It fits when the question is how you conducted yourself, not how you reasoned through one decision:

  • a complaint that you were rude to a service user, a carer or a colleague;
  • a boundary with a service user or a colleague, such as a dual relationship or a post online;
  • work beyond your knowledge and skills, or a task delegated without supervision;
  • a safety concern you did not report, or did not act on when a colleague raised it;
  • a change in your own health you did not allow for in your practice.

The two sets of HCPC standards behind it

The standards of conduct, performance and ethics, effective from 1 September 2024, apply to every registrant, and the HCPC uses them “to help us decide whether we need to take action”. A professionalism concern draws on these in particular:

  • 1.9: “set and maintain appropriate professional boundaries with service users, carers and colleagues”;
  • 2.1: “You must be polite and considerate”, with 2.10 to 2.12 on social networking sites;
  • Standards 3 and 4: work within your limits and delegate appropriately;
  • 6.3 and 6.4: your own health and your practice;
  • Standard 7, Report concerns about safety;
  • 9.1: conduct that “justifies the public’s trust and confidence in you and your profession”.

The standards of proficiency, valid from 1 September 2023, are the threshold standards for safe and effective practice in each profession. Standard 2 asks you to “practise within the legal and ethical boundaries of their profession”, starting with “maintain high standards of personal and professional conduct” (2.1). Standard 4 asks you to practise as an autonomous professional who is “personally responsible for, and must be able to justify, their decisions and actions” (4.1). If your practice is called into question, the HCPC considers both sets.

Where the course and a reflection count with the HCPC

Once a concern passes triage, an initial investigation and the threshold criteria, the HCPC sends you the allegation and you can reply in writing within 28 days of its letter. It suggests a timeline and evidence of learning and of steps you have taken to improve your practice: the certificate, and a reflection naming the standard you fell short of, go here. An Investigating Committee panel then decides whether there is “a real prospect of proving the facts”. At a final hearing, the panel considers whether you have taken action to correct your behaviour and “whether you have insight”. More in our guide to being told by the HCPC to complete a course.

When a different course fits better

If the concern is how you weighed one duty against another, Ethics and Ethical Standards for HCPC Regulated Health and Care Professionals is the pair to this course; see When Does an HCPC Registrant Need an HCPC Ethics Course?. If the whole concern is one post or message online, Ensuring Professionalism and Boundaries in Use of Social Media goes further into Standard 2. See also our HCPC courses guide.

HCPC professionalism CPD

The HCPC sets no hours or points; its CPD standards ask for a continuous record and at least two different types of learning activity. If picked in the random audit at renewal, you send a written profile covering the previous two years. The course gives 2 CPD hours and a dated certificate; a short reflection on what you changed is also the kind of recorded reflection the standards of proficiency value (10.1).

Please note

This guide is general information, not legal advice. No course decides the outcome of a case. Speak to your defence organisation, indemnity provider or union before you send anything to the HCPC.

The course for an HCPC conduct concern, and for CPD

For HCPC-registered health and care professionals

Professionalism and the Professional Standards for HCPC Regulated Health and Care Professionals

Conduct, scope and boundaries with a service user or a colleague, tied to the HCPC standards, with insight and remediation for your response. Probity & Ethics is CPD certified and accredited by The CPD Certification Service (provider no. 13197).

  • £79 (£50 with Bulk Buy 10)
  • 2 CPD hours
  • Certificate on completion
View Professionalism and the Professional Standards for HCPC Regulated Health and Care Professionals →HCPC ethics course

Courses that sit beside it

Ethics and Ethical Standards for HCPC Regulated Health and Care Professionals£79 (£50 with Bulk Buy 10) · 2 CPD hours Ensuring Professionalism and Boundaries in Use of Social Media£79 (£50 with Bulk Buy 10) · 2 CPD hours Module on Reflection£49 · 1.5 CPD hours · counts towards Bulk Buy

Bulk Buy covers the £79 courses: 3 for £200, 5 for £300, 10 for £500. Not sure? Book a free 15-minute call.

This guide is part of our Professional Misconduct hub, which brings together every Probity & Ethics guide and course on the subject.

The CPD courses linked from this guide, Professionalism and Professional Standards for HCPC Regulated Health & Care Professionals, Ethics and Ethical Standards for HCPC Regulated Health & Care Professionals, Professionalism and Boundaries in Use of Social Media and Module on Reflection, are by Probity & Ethics, written by Dr Shehzad Iqbal, CPD certified and accredited by The CPD Certification Service (provider no. 13197) and offered since 2020.

Questions and answers

Does an HCPC professionalism course cover the standards of proficiency?

Ours does, in one section: how the standards of proficiency for your profession sit beside the standards of conduct, performance and ethics, and what the HCPC looks at when a concern involves scope of practice.

Does the HCPC professionalism course suit an occupational therapist or a radiographer?

Yes. The standards of conduct, performance and ethics are the same for an occupational therapist, a radiographer and every other HCPC registrant.

Where does the course count if the HCPC sends me an allegation?

In your written response, due within 28 days of the HCPC’s letter, as evidence of learning and of steps you have taken, with your own reflection.

Is a professionalism course the same as an HCPC ethics course?

No. Professionalism covers conduct, scope, boundaries and how you work with others; ethics covers how you weighed one duty against another. Where a concern covers both, take both.

Does the HCPC professionalism course count as HCPC CPD?

Yes, as one learning activity in your record, with 2 CPD hours and a dated certificate. Our courses are CPD certified and accredited by The CPD Certification Service, not by the HCPC or any regulator.

Sources

This guide is based on the following HCPC pages, read on 10 November 2026.

Key Takeaways

  • Which course should I take for an HCPC professionalism or conduct concern? Our Professionalism course is written for this, for HCPC registrants, and follows the HCPC standards of conduct, performance and ethics; pair it with a written reflection that names the standard engaged.
  • Will a course help my HCPC investigation? A course is evidence of insight and remediation, which the HCPC case examiners or Investigating Committee look for — strongest with a written reflection and changes in your practice. No course can guarantee an outcome.
  • When should I send the certificate and reflection to the HCPC? With your written response, before the HCPC case examiners or Investigating Committee decide — or before an HCPC final hearing or a review if the case has gone further.
  • Can I finish the course before my deadline, and is it CPD accredited? Yes — it is online and self-paced with a certificate on completion, and CPD certified and accredited by The CPD Certification Service, counting towards your HCPC CPD record.
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