The Health Professions Council (HPC) currently regulates a total of 15 health professions. These include: Arts therapists, biomedical scientists, chiropodists/podiatrists, clinical scientists, dieticians, hearing aid dispensers, occupational therapists, operating department practitioners, orthoptists, paramedics, physiotherapists, practitioner psychologists, prosthetists/orthotists, radiographers, and speech and language therapists.
We operate a 24 hour initial telephone advice service for all professionals who require emergency assistance. For advice call us on 0845 00 20736, alternatively please submit our online enquiry form and a member of the professional discipline team will contact you.
We specialise in representing health professionals before the fitness to practice panel of the Health Professions Council who decide whether an individual possesses the skills, knowledge and character to practise their profession safely and effectively. The fitness to practice panel can consider allegations against health care professionals that include:
- Misconduct
- A lack of competence
- A criminal conviction or caution
- A registrant’s physical or mental health
- A determination made by another health or social care regulator
- Whether an entry to the HPC register has been made fraudulently or incorrectly
Sanctions available to the fitness to practice panel include cautions, conditions of practice, a suspension from the register or a striking off or erasure from the register.
Registrants investigated by the investigation committee or those called to appear before the fitness to practice panel should seek expert legal advice and representation in order to protect themselves against regulatory action and potentially to protect their future career in health care.
Case study - Saunders v The Hearing Aid Council [2010] EWHC 629 (Admin)
A Hearing Aid Dispenser represented himself during a 9 day hearing before the disciplinary committee of the Hearing Aid Council following allegations of storing pornographic images on a works laptop. This resulted in an order for erasure from the register. Professional discipline Partner, Sean Joyce, advised the registrant in bringing his appeal against this decision when the Court of Appeal overturned the order and our client was reinstated to the register.
