A UK wide Council for a UK wide Regulator

Vibrant, successful governance depends upon maintaining a strong team. In August, the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) is launching its recruitment campaign to appoint new members to its Council. Four of our existing members are coming to the end of their term of office, and cannot be re-appointed as they have reached the maximum time period allowed for serving on a Board.
This has been another year of achievement for the organisation. We continue to meet the standards set by the Professional Standards Authority, and we were described in its latest report as an effective regulator (1). Our UK wide Register holds 320,000 professionals from 16 professions, and we constantly improve our processes to ensure that we deliver our regulatory functions. There is no room for complacency, and as we grow we remain focused on continuous improvement in our processes. HCPC has always had a strong commitment to extending public protection through statutory regulation, and there is no sign of this diminishing. Next year, we will open a new register for Public Health specialists, and we continue to contribute to the debate about further professions and whether or not statutory regulation should be introduced for them. Over the last few years, we have had a particular focus on the challenges of holding care workers to account. This year, the Health Select Committee Report supported our proposals for the implementation of a new form of regulation for adult care workers (2).

Beyond this, we are undertaking further reviews of our standards and research to bring better understanding of regulation and its purpose. Health and social care is becoming ever more complex, and public expectations of what professionals deliver is changing. We continue to engage with other agencies and with government to raise standards and deal swiftly with instances of poor care.

These are just a few of the challenges that our four new members will be engaging with as they join our Council. We are non executives who want to see better protection for the public, and ever better, more efficient regulation of health and care professions across the UK. This UK wide perspective has always been of great importance to the HCPC, and throughout our history we have maintained a team drawn from all four countries of the UK. Health and social care is in a constant state of change, and there are significant differences between the four countries of the UK. The Council must continue to engage with this diversity and understand the implications for regulation.

Perhaps most critical of all, we are seeking new members with a personal commitment to public service (3). It was Bob Greenleaf who observed many years ago that legitimacy begins with trust. ‘The only sound basis for trust is for people to have the experience of being served by their institutions’  HCPC’s sole purpose is to deliver public protection. It exists to serve the public through setting and maintaining standards for many thousands of health and care professions. A huge, exciting challenge.



References
1. Professional Standards Authority Performance Review 2013-2014. www.professionalstandards.org.uk
2. 2014 Accountabilty hearing with the Health and Care Professions Council. First Report of Session 2014-15. http://www.parliament.uk/
3. Good governance http://hcpc-uk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/striving-for-good-governance.html

Anna van der Gaag
Chair
HCPC

Benefits of being a Council member

Striving for good governance

On 29 July, the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) launched its campaign to recruit a new Council. This rose from a government directive that all UK professional regulatory bodies for health and care create smaller, ‘more board like’ governance structures. The General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the General Dental Council have already made this change. Over the last 7 years, HCPC has moved from a Council of 26 appointed and elected members and 13 alternate members (39 in total), to 20 appointed members. It is now moving to an appointed Council of 12 members.

HCPC has enjoyed a period of substantial growth under the direction of a strong and cohesive Council. We must maintain our UK wide focus and ensure that we recruit individuals who provide the strategic and financial oversight required. I have no doubt that we will continue to attract individuals with a wide range of skills and expertise from different arenas including service user advocacy, social care, health and psychological services, education, commerce and finance.

We also need individuals who can engage with the big, difficult issues facing public services. Recent events have revealed serious breaches of public trust and confidence in the governance of health and social care providers. Mid Staffordshire, Winterbourne, Ash Grove, Gwent, Vale of Leven and Rochdale all point towards serious failures of governance as well as failures of care. There will continue to be conversations around the HCPC table about these failures and how and why they occurred and what can be done to mitigate the risk of such failures occurring in other contexts. No-one in health and social care regulation can be complacent and HCPC has a shared responsibility with other regulators to make improvements.

The move to a smaller Council also creates the space to think about the underpinnings of good governance. We need people with a range of skills and expertise and big picture thinking, but we also need to create a governing body with shared values. One of the themes across a range of guidance documents on governance (1-4)  is fidelity to values. This means not simply being able to articulate the seven principle of public life, (4) but to have an appetite to re-visit what they mean on a day to day basis, how they impact on relationships, decision making, outcomes. How they can challenge and create conflict. How they influence the culture of the organisation at every level.

It is the combination of skills, expertise and the values of public service that are critical to this new Council. We need individuals who can hold the purpose of professional regulation at the centre of corporate decision making. That purpose is to provide public protection for those who use the services of professionals on the HCPC Register. Clarity of purpose, fidelity to core values are key.


Anna van der Gaag
Chair
The HCPC

References

1. Carver, J. (2006) Boards that make a Difference. Jossey-Bass, California

2. Independent Commission on Good Governance in Public Services (2004)
http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/good-governance-standard-public-services

3. PSA (2013) Fit and Proper? Governance in the public interest.
www.professionalstandards.org.uk

4. Committee on Standards in Public Life (2013) Standards matter: a review of best practice in promoting good behaviour in public life.