HCPC Council Chair Elaine Buckley reflects on her first year in office.
12 months into my tenure as Chair of the HCPC, a busy and
very interesting year. I thought I knew a fair bit about regulation, but I have
learnt a great deal more with more still to come.
Since July 2015, I've had the pleasure of meeting many
interesting people: Ministers, civil servants, and professional bodies. There is
a great deal of consensus about the need for professional regulation, but also healthy debate about how this is best achieved. It is important for the HCPC to
continue its relentless work meeting stakeholders, listening, as well as
advising.
One of the great highlights of the past year has been travelling
around the country meeting registrants. I have attended 6 events and met over 400
registrants, some in major cities; such as Manchester, London and Belfast. However HCPC
feels it is very important to visit those areas slightly less accessible so we visited Stornaway, Fort William and Dalton on Furness. This is a crucial
activity for the organisation, as it is essential that we stay in touch with all
our registrants and listen to their views and comments, as well as providing
opportunities for HCPC regulated professions to meet our employees and Council members. The theme for
this year's events is our refreshed Standards of Conduct, Performance and
Ethics. These have been received very positively and we have had some rich discussions
about how valuable the Standards are in providing a framework for the
supervision of students, appraisal conversations and peer support. Keep an eye
on our
website for events and in our newsletter
'In Focus'.
This year we welcomed a new registrant member of Council;
Maureen Drake, an OT working at the Community Healthcare Trust, in Leeds. We
also continue to enjoy the support from over 800 partners, who are registrants
from all parts of the register and who undertake vital work and make key
decisions within our regulation model. These include membership of fitness to
practice panels, continuing professional development portfolio assessors and
education programme visitors. As a former partner for more than 8 years, I
found working with the HCPC both rewarding and insightful and it helped me
appreciate the work of a regulator and most importantly understand the benefits
for me as a registrant. See
the opportunities to work with the HCPC.
The coming year is gearing up to be equally busy with the
Government currently planning a consultation about the future shape of
regulation in the Autumn and the proposals for the regulation of social workers are becoming
clearer. I have a presentation at the Malaysian regulatory conference already
in the diary. But most of all I am looking forward to meeting many more
registrants, managers and education providers, as I attend the ambitious
programme of events already planned, across the UK.
Hope to see you there!
