Press Release

HPC launches consultations on the Standards of conduct, performance and ethics and guidance for registrants on confidentiality

4 June 2007

The Health Professions Council (HPC) has launched consultations on the Standards of conduct, performance and ethics (SCPE) and guidance for registrants on confidentiality.  Both consultations run for three months until 7 September.

The HPC publish the Standards of conduct, performance and ethics which explain their expectations of registrants in terms of their behaviour. The standards are also used to consider cases of misconduct as part of the HPC’s fitness to practise process.

The review of the standards was undertaken to ensure that they continued to be relevant to registrants and conformed to public expectations.

Standard two of the Standards of conduct, performance and ethics requires registrants to ‘respect the confidentiality of service users’. The proposed guidance offers more information to registrants about how to ensure their practise adheres to the above standard.

Rachel Tripp, Director of Policy & Standards said “We are looking forward to listening to registrant and stakeholder views on both the confidentiality guidance and SCPE consultations.

"We have produced the confidentiality guidance in order to provide registrants with additional information and advice on how to handle issues around confidentiality. We hope that the document provides more information about our expectations of health professionals in this important area.

“Anyone who wishes to take part in the consultations and have their views heard, can write to us with their comments by post or email. We look forward to hearing a variety of views over the coming months and I would encourage anyone who wants to get involved to send their thoughts and ideas to us."

The consultations will put the Council’s guidance and standards before a wide range of stakeholders including professional bodies, employers and education providers. We would like to invite any individual or organisation with an interest in these issues to respond to the consultations. They will both run until 7 September 2007 and further copies of the consultation documents will be available on our website to download.