HCPC launches Diversity Data Survey

Today, the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) has launched its annual Diversity Data Survey to increase its understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) among its registrants. The survey will help the HCPC create and develop strategies, policies and regulatory processes that are inclusive and fair.

Jacqueline Ladds, Executive Director, Policy and External Relations comments:

We’re committed to being an inclusive and diverse regulator and ensuring that our services are accessible and free from discrimination. We’ve launched this survey so that we can get a better understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion across our professions and use it to inform our improvement work in these key areas.

“We’ll use the findings to help create and develop policies, regulatory processes and strategies, which accurately reflect the diversity of our registrants. That’s why we are asking all our registrants to get involved, to ensure they complete the survey and to spread the word using #HCPCMyEDI.”

As part of HCPC’s commitment to enhancing equality, diversity and inclusion across the professions, the regulator hopes to hear from all HCPC registrants in this survey, which will be open from 15 December 2020 – 14 March 2021.

Since last year, HCPC has pushed for a stronger focus on EDI, with the development of a strategy to engage all stakeholders on these issues. The organisation has also created an EDI Forum, which guides HCPC on a range of relevant issues and concerns. The Forum also provides advice on the development of HCPC policies and procedures. The HCPC also routinely undertakes equality impact assessments for all major pieces of work.

Jacqueline Ladds, Executive Director, Policy and External Relations continues:

“We want to understand the issues that our registrants face and identify the measures that can be put in place to support them better. Our first Diversity Data Survey last year provided a good starting point, but this year we want more registrants to get involved to help create a deeper understanding. We know that sharing this kind of data is incredibly personal, and can feel daunting, but doing so will help us implement the best regulatory policies and processes for registrants and for service users and patients.

“As well as increasing our understanding of the equality, diversity and inclusion issues and challenges faced by our registrants, it will also create a picture of HCPC registered allied health professionals, healthcare scientists and practitioner psychologists in all four countries of the UK, working across health and care settings. This could help address wider workforce planning issues, and boost the understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion issues across the sectors.”

 

IOCP Midland Regional Director David Ayres has represented The Institute of Chiropodists and Podiatrists and our membership at the HCPC’s EDI development meetings.

 

Notes to editors

The Health and Care Professions Council is an independent regulator set up by the Health and Social Work Professions Order 2001. The HCPC keeps a register for 15 different health and care professions and only registers people who meet the standards it sets for their training, professional skills, behaviour and health. The HCPC will take action against professionals who do not meet these standards or who use a protected title illegally.

The HCPC currently regulates 15 health and care professions. Each of these professions has one or more ‘protected titles’. Anyone who uses one of these titles must register with the HCPC. The full list of protected titles can be found here.

Requests for interview should be made through the HCPC Press Office on 07585 992 942 or press@hcpc-uk.org.

Health Education England, along with the Foot Health Consortium are launching a consultation to seek the views of stakeholders on a draft set of standards for the foot health practitioner and podiatry support workforce.

The consultation will be open from Monday 23 November 2020 – midday Friday 15 February 2021.

The Standards have been developed to support the NHS to effectively use the full skills mix of the foot health workforce to meet demand by providing a clear understanding of the footcare treatments that foot health practitioners and the podiatry support workforce can safely perform. The needs and safety of patients is central in this work.

We would therefore value your feedback about the standards via the consultation and look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions as we take this vital and important next step.

Please visit the HEE consultation webpage for the consultation survey link and two important documents that will help you respond to the consultation.

The Consultation on standards for the non–regulated foot health workforce sets out the background to the work to develop the Standards. It then explains more about how the Standards have been developed and how it is proposed they will be used. The draft Standards on which we are seeking your feedback have been published alongside this consultation document.

Visit the HEE website for the Standards and Consultation document that will accompany the consultation

In 2019, we gathered as a Consortium of Foot Health Leaders to address the problem of the falling recruitment numbers on traditional routes into podiatry. The priority of the Consortium is to develop a foot health career ladder and educational resources that will support and increase the number of podiatrists and podiatry support workers working in the NHS.

The work of the Consortium has enabled a better understanding of the workforce that provides foot care, with the aim of optimising this workforce for the benefit of those who use the services of any practitioner, in England, who work in this arena.

These Foot Health Education and Training Standards are the result of a year’s work to increase the supply of podiatrists in the NHS workforce. We also want to ensure that the NHS recognises the knowledge and skills of the wider foot care support workforce.

The Institute of Chiropodists & Podiatrists has agreed with HMCA to offer discounted rates for medical plans, dental plan, hospital cash plans, travel plan, income protection and vehicle breakdown products.


Are you paying too much for your present private medical plan? Why not take a look at the HMCA plans and compare the benefits and subscriptions offered? You may transfer to HMCA at any age and without a medical examination; there will be no break in protection and there is a 14 day money-back guarantee.

 

HMCA only offer medical plans to membership groups and can offer up to a 40% discount off the underwriter’s standard rates. This is a comprehensive plan which provides generous cash benefits for surgery and other charges

 

Who are HMCA? – HMCA has specialised in providing benefits and services to associations and professional groups since the 1970s. HMCA is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

For further information and quotations contact HMCA by telephone on 01423 799949 or visit the exclusive HMCA Institute of Chiropodists & Podiatrists website here: https://www.hmca.co.uk/icp

HMCA/S PLC (trading as Hospital and Medical Care Association, HMCA and HMCA Members) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN:307587). HMCA/s PLC is a company registered in England, company number: 01362094, registered office: Beech Hall, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, HG5 0EA.

Open Letter to: The Rt Hon Matt Hancock, MP; Edward Argar, MP; Jo Churchill, MP; Helen Whately, MP; Nadine Dorries, MP; John Barwick, Chief Executive, HCPC; Christine Elliott, Chair HCPC; Suzanne Rastrick, Chief Allied Health Professions Officer, NHS England; Beverley Harden, Health Education England
 
 

17th April 2020

Dear Ministers and Professional Regulators

 

An open letter

Podiatry – A caring profession in the shadows

 

I write further to my previous letter highlighting that whilst we as a profession applaud the wonderful selfless efforts of front-line staff in other areas of health care fighting the current dreadful disease, podiatry faces major challenges both now and for the future that could if unchecked irreversibly damage our profession and the care that we give to millions of UK citizens.

 

In addition to some NHS podiatry care, more than 50% of podiatry treatments are delivered in the private sector by private clinics, including some of the most advanced therapies for treating the feet and associated structures as well as the specialist care that we give to the feet of people with diabetes, infections, damaged joints etc plus routine foot care to maintain the foot health of millions of elderly and vulnerable people and therefore their mobility and consequently their general health and quality of life.

 

I must point out there is now a real danger that the private sector especially may find its businesses destroyed due to lack of support and resources, and therefore our ability to care reduced beyond a level of sustainability which could mean millions of new cases being presented to the NHS.

 

Let me be clear, I am not talking about just trimming nails and digging out the odd corn which is still a perception of what we do amongst certain other sectors of healthcare about Chiropody/Podiatry (although that is also essential if you cannot do it yourself) but diabetic amputations being necessary because routine regular specialist care has not been given, unchecked osteomyelitis developing and potentially killing people for the simple lack of a foot wound being knowledgably cared for and treated by a podiatrist and so many other specialist tasks that our profession quietly performs day in and day out.

 

I have been receiving reports from private practitioners of their total inability to source PPE, of local councils treating private clinics less well than local non-health related retail shops for grants and rates relief and other instances of inequality and recognition too frequent to mention. As for any prospect whatsoever of CV-19 testing for the private (and indeed NHS) podiatry workforce, I am not aware of any mention of this being suggested and neither is my organisation as one of the UK’s oldest professional Podiatry/Chiropody bodies.

 

I would request that as a matter of the most extreme urgency you reach out to UK podiatry and give us, or at least facilitate supply of, the tools, support and recognition to do our job. If private clinics fail then the resultant overload could destroy any semblance of ability to cope by either our NHS colleagues or by other area’s of medicine who are neither trained, qualified or equipped to perform our specialist care.

 

Yours In Hope

Martin Harvey, FPodM, PGC, BSc

HCPC Registered Podiatrist Independent Prescriber

Chair of Executive Council, Institute of Chiropodists and Podiatrists

 

 

 

Now in its second year, The College of Foot Health Ltd, was established and fully accredited by the UK professional organisation The Institute of Chiropodists and Podiatrists to clearly announce and support the professional status of Foot Health Practitioners.

In more recent months our team have been working with Health Education England (HEE) on the Foot Health Consortium, established to set an agreed benchmark for training, standards, ethics and continuing professional development within the profession.

As a result of this and with the continuing growth and requirement for Foot Health Practitioners within our society/community, we are delighted to launch our dedicated social media pages specifically for Foot Health Practitioners. You can follow us now via twitter @TheCoFH and like our page @TheCoFH on Facebook, where we will be sharing all FHP related articles from our dedicated newsletter, information on CPD training, events and details on our online course to become an FHP.