Management Information Pack Marc Seale, Chief Executive & Registrar Report to Council meeting 6 July 2009

Chief Executive’s Report to Council meeting on 6 July 2009 Contents Department Chief Executive – Mr M Seale

Page 3

Business process improvement – Mr R Dunn

4

Communications – Ms J Ladds

6

Education – Ms A Gorringe

9

Facilities management – Mr S Hall

11

Finance – Mr S Leicester

12

Fitness to practise – Ms K Johnson

14

Human resources – Ms T Haskins

16

Information technology – Mr G Gaskins

18

Partners – Ms D. Dawkins

20

Policy and standards – Mr M Guthrie

21

Registration – Mr R Houghton

24

Secretariat – Ms L Hart

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Date 2009-06-01

Ver. a

Dept/Cmte INF

Doc Type CER

Title CE written reports July 2009

Status Draft DD: None

Int. Aud. Public RD: None

Chief Executive – Mr Marc Seale 1. Completed meetings 1 May to 30 June 2009 NHS Education for Scotland House of Lords Charlotte Atkins MP RNID parliamentary reception Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence Pre-hospital Emergency Care Council Deparment of Health Legislation Project Board Welsh Assembly Government National AHP Professional Advisory Board DHSSPS ‘Confidence in Care’ event Institute of Biomedical Science Department of Health Modernising Scientific Careers Department of Health Section 60 process meeting Bircham Dyson Bell ‘Can you keep a secret?’ event Australian Institute of Radiography Department of Health Legislation Project Board Chartered Society of Physiotherapy/London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games Department of Health British Chiropody & Podiatry Association Metaprima Department of Health Chief Executives Steering Group British Psychological Society

2. Scheduled meetings International OT Credentialing Network National Athletic Trainers’ Association CLEAR International Congress on Professional and Occupational Regulation Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence Northern Ireland Social Care Council College of Physiotherapists of Ontario Department of Health Legislation Project Board Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence regulators’ forum Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain

5 May 5 May 6 May 6 May 7 May 7 May 11 May 12 May 18 May 26 May 27 May 28 May 8 June 11 June 12 June 15 June 18 June 22 June 22 June 23 June 24 June 25 June 29 June

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1 July 2 July 2-3 July 8 July 9 July 13 July 15 July 16 July 16 July 27 July

Business process improvement – Mr Roy Dunn Other information & data security work across HPC is ongoing. We are currently looking at matching requirements highlighted by CISMP as best practice.

1. Human resources No changes. 2. Quality Management System (QMS) review meetings and internal audits An internal audit schedule for 2009-10 is underway. The HR partner processes have been audited. A medium scale IT project (PC Refresh) has been audited.

HMRC Corporate Governance have supplied information on their corporate risk management but not the actual roles required by the Poynter Review. We have made a second Freedom of Information request and are awaiting the outcome. The probable Chief Information Security Officer will be tackled at the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) meeting in June, to determine if the Poynter Review is being followed completely. The proposed risk and security roles will be evaluated as potential new best practice.

Feedback and Customer Service has been audited again. Mapping all Facilities processes in greater detail is continuing. Mapping Communications processes in greater detail has commenced.

4. British Standards Institute (BSI) audit BSI audited the Fitness to Practise, and Quality Management Systems organisation and review process on 28 April 2009. No nonconformities were reported. We maintain our registration.

3. QMS process updates Risk management processes have been updated to include changes to the process of updating the Register.

BSI evaluated our existing ISO 9001:2000 systems to determine if upgrading to 9001:2008 was possible. Key changes are round how we use suppliers for delivery of key business services, risk management, environment and customer data. Two minor changes were made on the spot to the wording of individual sections and our management system has been recommended for approval to the ISO9001:2008 standard. A new certificate has been issued.

A combined feedback & information requests process is being developed to run across the entire organisation as a result of an earlier QMS internal audit. This include specific statutory process routes, fitness to practise where we must ensure the Fitness to Practise Department gets earliest possible site of potential new cases. A “Corrective and preventive action process sign off” process has been developed. (Process for process changes checking).

The next audit by BSI will be on 22 October 2009. Cherise Evans attended the BSI Regional Business Forum on ISO9001 and how it can be used to improve businesses. Roy

A log of required changes will now be maintained.

4

Dunn attended the BSI Regional Business Forum on Risk Management.

7. Risk Register The next update to the Risk Register is being prepared for and will take place in the autumn.

5. Business continuity A test of HPC’s business continuity provision took place on 22 May, with EMT members and CDT members being intercepted as they arrived. The scenario was based on environmental impact. CPSM at Park House was severely disrupted in the 1970’s by a sewerage flood in the basement. This formed the basis for the test. Systems were rapidly brought into service from the replicated servers at Star. The current disaster recovery/business continuity plan was followed, and a report on how the test worked will be provided. On the 20 May a group of Registrations and Finance Department employees visited the DR site near Uxbridge to be shown around the types of facilities offered, listen to a presentation on HPC’s cover and take part in a quiz on staying or leaving Park House under certain types of scenario. 6. Information & data management We are planning to integrate all intranet based information sources, ie, Springfield, QMS and “Intranet”. Report templates have been updated for the new financial year. Advice has been received from our legal advisors, resulting in further negotiation on terms with the preferred supplier.

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Communications – Mrs Jacqueline Ladds Chiropody Review and the British Journal of Podiatry. We have also exhibited at a number of regional care manager conferences including one in the North East and Yorkshire Region and two in the South West Region in Cornwall and Weston-Super-Mare as well as the National Care Show.

1. Media and campaigns Since April 2009, the Press and Public Relations Manager has continued to issue a range of press releases and news items including the appointment of the new Council and the new Chair, statutory regulation of practitioner psychologists, the launch of the CPD video and the publication of the standards of entry threshold level and the publication of the Standards of Proficiency for practitioner psychologists. She continues to write general HPC update articles for the website and a range of professional journals and writes a regular feature in the bi-monthly publication Complete Nutrition.

2. Public affairs and stakeholder communications We exhibited at the Welsh Labour Party conference in Swansea. We had over 150 visits to the stand over the weekend with the First Minister, the Health Minister and the Secretary of State for Wales all making a visit. We also attended and participated in a joint fringe meeting with Help the Aged and Age Concern (Wales), the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, the College of Occupational Therapy and the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists on foot services for older people in Wales. The importance of checking registration and our older people campaign was highlighted during the discussion.

The Communications Officer continues to issue media alerts highlighting upcoming fitness to practise hearings to the media and has issued 12 press releases on professionals who have been struck off or suspended between April and June 2009. Coverage continues to be monitored on a daily basis. All press releases can be viewed on the HPC website in the media and events section and the press coverage reports are uploaded to the Council extranet.

Members of the Executive met the following key stakeholders in Brussels to find out more from those in the field of health regulation about the different issues in the Europe Union. •

In addition to the media coverage, the Press and Public Relations Manager has continued to manage the older people campaign. The mailing of an information pack to 22,000 care home managers has now been completed. The regional media campaign has also been rolled out and coverage has been achieved across a range of local media, including the Newcastle Journal and Evening Chronicle, Sunday Sun, Edinburgh News, Llanelli Star, Wakefield Express, Radio Carmarthenshire and Scarlet FM. Coverage has also been achieved in professional journals including Podiatry Now,

• • •

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Liz Kidd, DG SANCO, Directorate General for 'Health and Consumers' Ilaria Passarani, BEUC (The European Consumers' Organisation) John Bowis MEP (Conservative spokesman on the Environment, Health and Food Safety in the European Parliament) Pamela Brumter-Coret, Thomas Wiedmann, Andras Mogyoro, DG Internal Market and Services

• • •

The Public Affairs and Stakeholder Manager has also participated in a number of events including: • ‘Returners to Practice’ NHS Education for Scotland event in Aberdeen with the Acting Director of Policy and Standards, who gave a presentation. • ‘Regulation and quality: who calls the shots’ – Kings Fund breakfast debate with Baroness Young, Chair of the Care Quality Commission. • RNID Deaf Awareness Week and NMC parliamentary reception. • Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) consultation with professional associations at the Kings Fund.

Monika Kosinska and Caroline Bollars, European Public Health Alliance Dr. Koutroubas and Laurent Louette FEPI (European Council of Nursing Regulators) Elisabetta Zanon, Helena Bowden, the NHS Confederation (Brussels office)

The Chief Executive and the Public Affairs and Stakeholder Manager met the following key stakeholders in Belfast: • • •

Joyce Cairns and Gail Anderson from the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety for Northern Ireland (DHSSPSNI) with the Chief Executive The Chief Executive from the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC) The Chief Executive and the Head of Public Affairs at the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI)

3. Web As well as further developing our section on ‘aspirant groups’, we have created a new section for practitioner psychologists looking to come onto the HPC Register. This section explains the process and potential routes to registration, as well as frequently asked questions including those relating to their qualifications. The new 'online information pack request' facility has gone live allowing users to order public information material via the website. As well as being a benefit to website users, it also enables us to manage resources more effectively by removing some manual processes. We also have the option to extend this facility to other publications as well as being able to outsource these mailings using the data received through the website.

Other meetings with stakeholders included: •

• • •

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) meeting with the Chief Executive, Acting Director of Policy and Standards, Director of Operations, Education Manager and the NES Chair, Chief Executive and various Directors across the organisation. annual meeting (with the President and Chief Executive) with the Society and College of Radiographers (SoR) The British Psychological Society (BPS) and General Dental Council (GDC) Communications teams. Various Health Hotel meetings. The Public Affairs and Stakeholder Manager has also been appointed to the Political Engagement Task Group for the Health Hotel 2009/10.

Our ‘health regulation worldwide’ website has been completely redesigned improving its navigation, search facility, while also 7

giving it a fresh new look in line with our visual identity. It will also allow users to submit information through the site.

information about renewals has been uploaded to the website and is linked from our home page.

4. Communications support for organisational activities CPD: the programme of talks and workshops is now booked until the autumn with several extended tours of the UK planned including the South West and the Isle of Man. The CPD communications manager has completed visits to Wales, Scotland and the North East. There have now been more than 150 talks delivered to over 9,500 registrants across the UK. The CPD dvd is now available on the website.

Practitioner psychologists: Current work to date includes the development of a welcome letter which will be sent to all those transferring from the AEP and BPS voluntary registers, a series of adverts have been developed for professional journals including HSJ, Health Director, Community Care, the web pages have been continuously updated with news and information and we are attending a series of domain-specific conferences to enable practitioner psychologists to meet us. In addition to this, we have generated a series of press releases aimed at the public and the professions announcing the opening of the Register.

Psychotherapists and counsellors: we will continue to monitor media coverage and respond to journalist queries as required. A positioning statement has been uploaded to the website and “lines to take” have been developed for journalist queries. Any requests for interviews are considered on a case by case basis and to date we have written a letter to the Guardian (not published), a letter to the Observer (published), and undertaken interview with More4 news and Radio 4’s “You and Yours” programme.

5. HR update Interviews for the Press and Public Relations Manager were held in March and Ebony Gayle has been appointed to the role. We are currently recruiting a full-time Communications Officer.

Registration renewals: we are working closely with the Registration Department to support the renewals process. To date, we have held meetings with Membership Managers for each professional body and are working closely with them to ensure their members are fully up to date with the renewal requirements. This includes mailings to relevant personnel with renewal posters and reminders and detailed information on their websites. We are also undertaking mailings to employers to remind them to encourage their employees to renew. In addition to this we have a rolling programme of articles for professional press detailing the audit requirements. Additional 8

Education – Ms Abigail Gorringe 1. Approval process The Department has seven visits in June 2009 and one in August 2009. The 2008-09 academic year has seen a total of 37 visits, considering 87 programmes. Both the number of visits and the number of programmes visited is on a par with the last academic year. Month

Visits

Sep-08 Oct-08 Nov-08 Dec-08 Jan-09 Feb-09 Mar-09 Apr-09 May-09 Jun-09 Jul-09 Aug-09

4 5 1 1 4 2 2 6 5 6 0 1

Audit submissions Deadline* Number of submissions received Jan-09 71 Feb-09 36 Mar-09 33 Apr-09 14 May-09 0 Jun-09 0 Jul-09 0 Aug-09 0

Programmes to be visited 4 9 1 7 6 2 12 13 24 7 0 2

Number signed off by ETP** 54 24 24 0 0 0 0 0

Number of submissions not received 0 0 1 4 0 0 10 0

* = The expected submission dates from education providers are at the end of each month. ** = Includes 20 May 2009 ETP Declarations forms Deadline* Number of Number of submissions submissions not received received Jan-09 65 0 Feb-09 54 0 Mar-09 42 0 Apr-09 7 6 May-09 2 2 Jun-09 1 1

2. Annual monitoring process The Department is coming towards the end of the peak of its annual monitoring work. An additional annual monitoring assessment day was held in April 2009 to consider a number of late submissions. The submissions due to be received in July 2009 will be considered by correspondence. The tables below provide a summary of the submissions received to date.

3. Major change process The Department has received 218 notifications of potential major changes since the start of the academic year. 9

• Introductory mailings to education providers; and • Preparing for a series of seminars for education providers.

Process

Number of programmes Referred to annual monitoring process 36 Referred to approval process 52 Retained in major change process 95 Withdrawn 19 Pending decision 16 Approximately 40% have been filtered out and directed to the approval or annual monitoring process.

5. Liaison with stakeholders The Department launched the new ‘Education Update’ in May 2009. It is a new initiative and intended to act as a channel of communication from the HPC to education stakeholders across the UK. The updates distil all major HPC communications with education providers to a single communication distributed at three key times during the year: May, October and January. These months have been selected to reflect the time period when education providers receive major communications from the Education, Registrations, and Policy and Standards Departments at the HPC.

The table below shows the notifications referred to the full major change process. Decision Number of programmes Sufficient evidence through documentation 65 (69%) that SETs still met Insufficient evidence through documentation 6 (6%) that SETs still met – visit required Pending decision 24 (25%)

Members of the Department have met the following groups over the last few months; • British Psychological Society annual conference; • Scottish Core Curriculum Scoping Project; • NHS Education for Scotland; • Welsh Agency Government • Professional, Statutory & Regulatory Body Forum (Facilitated by the Quality Assurance Agency & UK Interprofessional Group); • Educators of Paramedics conference (Coventry & Hertfordshire Universities) • ALPS Professional & Statutory Regulatory Bodies; and • British Psychological Society.

4. Practitioner psychologists Over the last two months, the Department has maintained their work geared towards the practitioner psychologist part of the Register opening. Activities have included: • Contributing towards the update of the FAQs on the website; • Ongoing correspondence with the BPS to help determine the approved programme list and future visit schedules • Work with the Education and Training Committee to agree the approved programme list and future visit schedule and monitoring arrangements; • Work with the BPS and IT Department to ensure receipt and transfer of data into HPC information systems;

6. Employees Anne Shomefun left the Department in June 2009. It is anticipated that the recruitment for this vacant Education Officer position will begin in July 2009. 10

Facilities management – Mr Steven Hall 1. Employees There are six permanent employees including the Facilities Manager. Services provided include reception, building maintenance, postroom, catering, health & safety, insurance and building project management. 2. 22-26 Stannary Street building project The final invoice value for Phase 1 works is still being negotiated on HPC’s behalf by Davis Langdon, cost consultants and quantity surveyors for the project. The works have commenced on-site in mid-May for Phase 2 and the steel framework of the new building is now in place. It is anticipated that they will be complete by the end of September 2009. 3. Other building works Orders have been placed to replace the external windows and doors to the kitchen of Park House and to replace the central heating boiler for the same. Work is to be carried out during the summer of 2009.

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Finance – Mr Simon Leicester (SIBA) on a rolling monthly basis, earning 0.48% per annum. £1.5M is invested in a Barclays money market account earning 1.82% for 6 months and £1M in a Lloyds TSB money market account earning 0.9% for 1 month.

1. General Since the last Council meeting, the Finance Department has produced the final March year end management accounts and statutory financial statements and is working on the May yearto-date management accounts.

The investment portfolio (excluding £143k portfolio cash) at the end of April was valued at £1.5M. The investment portfolio value including cash & money market instruments was £1.64M. This compares with £1.89M at 30 April 2008.

2. Supplier payments At the end of April, 98% by value of the £532k creditor payments (April aged creditor listing) were in the 30 days or less category.

6. Pensions In May, there were 56 active members in the Friends Provident Scheme and no active members in the Capita Flexiplan Scheme, excluding the 6 “notional” members.

3. Fee adjustments and income receipts handling At 11 June, there was a half-day backlog in registrant direct debit cancellations and amendments against a two-day backlog target. We had no processing backlog on rejected payments/refunds against a two day backlog target and no backlog on mid-cycle lapsing of registrants. The banking of registrants’ cheques is up-to-date and there is no backlog on credit-card reconciliations against a two-day backlog target.

7. Employee training and levels There are seven full-time permanent employees in the Department with one additional permanent post to be filled. Temporary employees are periodically hired to cover for staff on annual or sickleave and to help achieve Finance Department service level targets.

4. Income collection cycle Direct debit collections of registrants’ fees (cover 83% of registrants) are done by the Finance Department, with collections made two months in advance. Chiropodist collections occurred in early June. Orthoptist, paramedic and radiographer collections are scheduled for early July. Most of the income comprises renewal fees collected.

8. Sage system support and development In mid May, we were informed by Sage that BDE Group Ltd, the supplier we used to provide annual system support and development for our Sage financial system was no longer trading as a Sage business partner, due to excessive debts owing to Sage. We are in the process of appointing a replacement vendor and getting them familiar with our organisational requirements.

5. Funds under management At 11 June, the business reserve account balance was £0.5M, earning an interest rate of 0.065% per annum. £1.6M was invested in the NatWest Special Interest-bearing Account 12

9. Significant financial projects/issues (next few months) • Complete the Annual Report and Statutory Accounts process for tabling in Parliament in July, as per the timetable; • Prepare and complete the IFRS financial statements to 31 March 2009 for audit in August; • Commence the Fees Project 2011.

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Fitness to practise – Ms Kelly Johnson Committee. We are currently awaiting a hearing date in all of those cases

1. Final hearings 22 final hearings took place in May 2009, 15 cases were concluded. There were 209 cases awaiting hearing at the end of May 2009.

9. Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) We are seeking the recovery of costs in relation to an appeal withdrawn by the CHRE

2. Review hearings 10 review hearings took place in May 2009, 5 registrants were struck off and 3 registrants had their suspension continued. At the end of May 2009 there were 90 registrants subject to a conditions of practice or suspension order.

10. Court of Appeal The case of Stanley Muscat has been listed for hearing by the Court on 29 or 30 July 2009 11, Meetings Kingsley Napley - 6 weekly review meeting Reading University statistics department National Offender Management Service CHRE Sexual Boundaries seminar Suzanne Mcartney - Public Guardian Board ISA/PVG Meeting Darlington, Cross Border Session ISA/PVG Regulators Meeting Gary Lewin, The Football Association Notifiable Occupations Scheme Networking Day, Home Office Jon Dee, PKF, National Clinical Assessment Service Forum NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service.

3. Interim orders There were 10 interim order hearings in May 2009 4. Investigating Committee At the end of May there were 280 open cases. Of those cases 64 had not yet met the standard of acceptance for allegations. 5. Health and character At the end of May there were 64 open cases 6. Protection of title At the end of May there were 67 open protection of title complaints.

12. Resources Alan Shilabeer joined the Department on 5 May 2009 as a Case Manager in Case Team 3. Anaru Smiler has been promoted to the newly created position of Lead Hearings Officer and took up his new position on 1 June 2009. Jameel Anwar has been promoted to the newly created position of Administrative Co-ordinator and also took up his new position on 1 June 2009. Gary Rope joined the Department from the

7. Registration appeals There were 14 open registration appeals at the end of May 2009 8. High Court appeals There are currently 4 cases where a registrant has appealed the decision of a panel of the Conduct and Competence 14

Registration Department on 15 June 2009 as Team Administrator. This role is a replacement role. Cara Donald and Emily Parker join the Department in early July 2009 as Case Managers in Case Teams 1 and 2. The Department is now at full employee capacity for the 2009-10 financial year. Customer service and complaints handling training has been organised for the whole Department over the summer. We have also initiated the project to review the fitness to practise case management system We are in the middle of the tender process for transcript writer services. We hope to have concluded this process by 1 July 2009 Refresher training for existing panel members has continued. We have also undertaken training for new panel chairs.

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Human resources – Ms Teresa Haskins Policy Following Charlotte Urwin’s internal promotion to the post of Policy Manager, interviews were held for the resultant Policy Officer vacancy on 7 May 2009. Megan Scott was appointed and started in the role on 8 June 2009.

1. Employee resourcing Director vacancies Following a second round of interviews on 24 April and a question and answer session with EMT on 27 April 2009, Gary Butler was appointed as Director of Finance. Gary joined the HPC on 25 May 2009 and is currently receiving a handover from the outgoing Director of Finance, Simon Leicester, who leaves on 30 June 2009.

Registrations Following interviews on 16 April for registration adviser vacancies arising from internal promotions, Emily Cattle and Jennifer Oramah joined the HPC in May.

Following the resignation of Rachel Tripp, the post of Director of Policy and Standards has been advertised with a closing date of 19 June 2009, and a proposed first interview date of 13 July 2009.

Interviews for further registration adviser vacancies arising from internal promotions and turnover were held on 9 June 2009. At the time of writing three offers of employment have been made and have been accepted verbally.

Fitness to Practise Interviews for the new post of Administration Co-ordinator were held on 5 May 2009. Jameel Anwar, FTP Team Administrator, was appointed with effect from 1 June 2009. Gary Rope, Registration Adviser, was also a strong candidate, and was offered and has accepted the post of Team Administrator vacated by Jameel. Gary started his new role on 15June.

Communications Interviews for the newly approved post of Communications Officer were held on 5 May 2009. Unfortunately the successful candidate declined, due to being offered a more senior post elsewhere. The post is currently being re-advertised.

Anaru Smiler, Hearings Officer, was appointed with effect from 1 June to the new post of Lead Hearings Officer following internal interviews held on 5 May 2009.

2. Other HR activities Training Equality and diversity training has been arranged for 11 managers on 18 June, and around 13 employees on 26 June and 3 August.

Interviews were held for two Case Manager vacancies on 29 May 2009. One post was a new six-month fixed term vacancy to deal with the on-boarding or practitioner psychologists. The other was a permanent replacement due to a resignation. Emily Palmer will take up the fixed term post from 1 July, and Cara Donald will start in the permanent post on 6 July.

Operational work There was an unusually high volume of HR operational work and cases in April and May. This work has now levelled and the HR team have begun to address other work such as 16

analysis of training needs following annual appraisals, and analysis of exit interview and diversity data. Employee consultation arrangements Following approval by the Finance and Resources Committee and work done by HR last year around the Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) Regulations, the HR Director has drafted an agreement which has been considered by EMT. The next steps are for employee representatives to be elected and trained before the agreement is finalised and a consultation group set up.

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Information technology – Mr Guy Gaskins •

1. Resource • There are anticipated resource levels with some weekend work to support the desktop refresh project and the upgrade to the directory services.

Implementation of new enterprise backup software for backup and recovery of the core server infrastructure has been completed

3. Additional planning activities • A visit took place to the InfoSecurity conference at Earls Court to start the research for the network and end point encryption project; • Home working policy development is now in draft waiting for the new HR director; • Planning for redeployment of the file and print server at Park House is taking place; • Planning for rollout of the desktop technology refresh project for Finance and remaining specialist PCs is taking place; • Planning for the remaining phases of the Network Segmentation project to separate network traffic for Maintainability and Security benefits is taking place; • Planning for revisions to the backup strategy and retention policies is taking place; • A webinar of firewall infrastructure tutorial for the online renewals application took place; • On site account meeting with DRS the supplier of the form scanning solution: this meeting addressed support and disaster recovery services; • Online renewals technical workshop to agree upon the technical designs for a number of raised issues: this was completed successfully with clarity to all service providers; • Planning for implementation of new service desk tool is taking place.

2. General IT Infrastructure • A successful IT and business continuity test was completed on 22 May 2009. The IT systems covered within the IT continuity plan were available within approximately 30 minutes of reaching the invocation site and the on-line register was ‘available’ within an hour of declaring an emergency. • The rollout of the new desktop technology was completed successfully except for specialist PCs such as those in Finance. The replacement of the remaining PCs is being scheduled to support business cycles; • The service desk tool has been installed and IT training session completed. The software will need to be configured to support the internal processes and to tailor the application to the HPC IT function. It is expected that the new web portal function will be available towards the end of this year for users to log service desk tickets; • The first phase of the Network Segmentation project to separate network traffic has started with a discovery session completed by external consultancy; • The file and print server was replaced but due to a fault that developed while under load in the production environment the service was rolled back. The server has subsequently been replaced by the hardware supplier and is being rebuilt for redeployment; • Implementation of the upgrade to the directory services with new hardware and software upgrades has been completed successfully; 18

•

4. Projects Registration system • Practitioner psychologists: Test data has now been received from both the BPS and AEP for validation of the data migration strategy. The system changes are being user acceptance tested (UAT) from 8 June 2009; • Online renewals: A new leased-line provider has been selected and a site visit has been completed with an anticipated installation date of 7 July 2009. The selection of a load testing consultancy has been completed. The application and database servers have been installed and deployed at the hosting centre and final configuration of the environment is now being undertaken. • Hearing aid dispensers: We are following the project plan; • ISA project initiation has been completed; • FTP case management system project has started with meetings to define the project brief.

•

Finance systems • PRS: Small changes and fixes were released in June. HR system • Starters and leavers database development is complete, awaiting release. This will now go through a further cycle of testing and validation with the new HR team; 5. Service availability • Due to a failed air-conditioning unit on 9 April 2009 the email service and the registration service (NetRegulate) was unavailable for 2.5 hours. Once the air-conditioner was repaired and the temperature in the server room returned to normal levels the services were restored. 19

Following intermittent issues with the newly deployed file and print server on 27 April 2009 the server upgrade was rolled back. The root cause has been identified as a hardware issue and a replacement server has been delivered. Following the reboot of the registration service during the air-conditioning failure, NetRegulate suffered a further failure on 13 May 2009. The root cause has been identified and is being planned for implementation. The issue has been resident in the infrastructure since the service was upgraded in March 2008.

Partners – Ms Deborah Dawkins 1. Recruitment The main activity for Partners this year continues: Practitioner psychologists: The third round of recruitment for the remaining Partners is now complete. Council has now approved those to whom we have made provisional offers. Training for panel members and registration assessors will be taking place in July. All in all we have recruited seventy-three persons covering one hundred and seven roles across the seven domains. CPD assessors: Interviews for the next five professions that are due to undergo CPD audit (clinical scientists, prosthetists / orthotists, speech & language therapists, occupational therapists and biomedical scientists) will be taking place at the end of June into the beginning of July 2. Training Training for CPD assessors recruited for one orthoptist and five paramedics took place in May. Refresher training is currently ongoing for Panel Members (led by the Fitness to Practise Department) and registration assessors (led by Registrations). This continued throughout May and June. 3. Appraisals These have begun for Panel Members. Currently, we are appraising during hearings running for two days and over.

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Policy and standards – Mr Michael Guthrie, Acting Head of Policy Meetings undertaken Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Department of Work and Pensions Work Psychology Conference, Glasgow National AHP Professional Advisory Board Skills for Health Hearing Aid Council Stakeholder event, Cardiff Department of Health, Leeds Maximising the AHP Potential Conference British Association for Sport and Exercise Sciences NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service University of Coventry – Student talk Dance Movement Psychotherapists Society of Homeopaths British Association of Hearing Aid Audiologists, Harrogate GB Training Hearing Aid Council Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain Protecting Vulnerable Adults (PVGA) meeting, Glasgow National Practice Learning Partnership British and Irish Orthoptic Society Department of Health Metaprima Guys Hospital – psychologists presentation British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Board of Governors, Lutterworth

3. Closed consultations Health Professions Council (Practice Committees (Constitution) and Miscellaneous Amendments) Rules 2009 This consultation closed on 13 April 2009. The Rules were agreed by the Council at its meeting in May 2009.

12 May 13 May 18 May 21 May 21 May 22 May 27 May 28 May 28 May

Amendment to the Standards for Continuing Professional Development This consultation closed on 11 May 2009. The results of the consultation were agreed by the Council at its meeting in May 2009. The amended standard is now effective.

2 June 3 June 3 June 4 June

Guidance on health and character This consultation closed on 30 April 2009. A good response was received, with many respondents making very detailed comments on the consultation draft which the Executive is now analysing.

5 June 8 June 9 June 9 June

In order to full take account of the comments received, the results of the consultation will now be considered later than the planned timetable, at the Education and Training Committee’s September 2009 meeting and the Council’s meeting in October 2009. However, the overall deadline for publication of the final guidance in November 2009 will be unaffected.

16 June 20 June 22 June 23 June 24 June 26 June

Guidance on conduct and ethics for students This consultation closed on 30 April 2009. The Council will be asked to ratify the Education and Training Committee’s decision to recommend the consultation analysis and revised guidance to the Council at its meeting on 6 July 2009. The revised guidance will be published alongside the health and character guidance in November 2009.

2. Consultations There are currently no open consultations. 21

5. New professions Practitioner psychologists The Department has continued to participate in the crossdepartment project to register practitioner psychologists.

Amendments to the Registration and Fees Rules and Grandparenting criteria – practitioner psychologists This consultation closed on 8 May 2009. The Education and Training Committee and the Council agreed the consultation analysis, rules and grandparenting criteria at their meetings in May 2009.

The standards of proficiency and threshold level of qualification for entry to the Register were agreed by the Council in May and June 2009.

4. Professional Liaison Groups Psychotherapists and Counsellors The Professional Liaison Group had its last meeting prior to the consultation on its recommendations in May 2009. The PLG will reconvene in November 2009 to consider the responses about the standards of proficiency and threshold level of qualification for entry to the Register.

The Department has also continued to meet with stakeholders in this field to explain the proposals for regulation. Hearing aid dispensers The Department has continued to participate in the crossdepartment project to register hearing aid dispensers.

In addition to writing and presenting papers for the PLG, the Department has continued to respond to emails and letters from interested individuals and organisations and has also continued to meet with stakeholders in the field. A number of meetings / presentations are planned over the summer period.

A draft response to the Department of Health consultation on the Section 60 Order under the Health Act 1999 necessary to bring practitioner psychologists into regulation is due to be considered at this meeting of the Council.

The Department is also working with a consumer advocacy organisation to explore ways in which service users of psychotherapy and counselling can be engaged in the process and their views fed into the final report considered by the Council.

The Department has continued to meet stakeholders in the industry to discuss the regulation of hearing aid dispensers. Further work is planned to produce information about the forthcoming regulation for the Council, for internal use and for external stakeholders.

A consultation document based on the papers considered by the PLG and the recommendations made is due to be considered at this meeting of the Council.

Dance movement psychotherapists The Department has met the Association of Dance Movement Psychotherapy (formerly the Association of Dance Movement Therapists) to discuss draft standards of proficiency and to agree likely recommendations for regulation. 22

A consultation document based on the ADMT’s previous application for regulation and subsequent discussion with them is due to be considered at this Council meeting. The consultation will be run alongside the consultation on the regulation of psychotherapists and counsellors. 6. Welsh language scheme The HPC is required to publish a Welsh language scheme under the Welsh Language Act. The Department is currently working with internal colleagues and the Welsh Language Board to prepare a scheme for consultation. Welsh language schemes have to be approved by the Welsh Language Board prior to consultation and therefore this project has been subject to delay. The Department anticipates bringing a substantive paper on this topic to a Council meeting in the near future. 7. CPD profiles The Department is currently reviewing profiles for practitioner psychologists and dietitians, and finalising profiles for radiographers. 8. Resourcing Megan Scott started at the HPC on 8 June 2009 as a Policy Officer.

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Registration – Mr Richard Houghton processing applications within three months of receipt of all documents.

1. Operational performance a) Telephone calls The Registration Department answered 99.2% of calls within 30 seconds which exceeds our service standard of answering 80% of calls within 30 seconds.

c) Emails i) UK emails: The team received approximately 60 emails per day and responded to these on the day of receipt which is well within our service standard of five working days.

i) UK telephone calls: During the period from 1 April 2009 to 31 May 2009 the team received a total of 7,388 telephone calls which is 1,668 less than the same period two years ago and 99% of these calls were answered.

ii) International emails: The team received approximately 20/30 emails per day and managed to respond to these on the day of receipt which compares favourably with our service standard of five working days response time.

ii) International telephone calls: During the period from 1 April 2009 to 31 May 2009 the team received a total of 2,100 telephone calls which is 632 less than the same period two years ago and 95% of these calls were answered.

d) Continuing Professional Development (CPD) audit There were no assessment days during this period but registration assessors continued to assess profiles that required further information.

b) Application processing i) UK applications: A total of 675 new applications were received during this period and 628 individuals were registered, which is 371 less than the same period last year. Applications took less than one working day to process which is well within our service standard of processing applications within ten working days of receipt.

2. Resources a) Employees The Department is operating within the budgeted headcount. Chantelle Mayoss joined the team as a Team Leader.

Applications for readmission also took less than one working day to process, which is well within our service standard of processing applications within ten working days of receipt.

b) Partners The Department has worked with the Partners Department to recruit and train psychologist registration assessors. The team also commenced delivering a series of six refresher registration assessor training days to 136 registration assessors and also delivered training to seven newly recruited orthoptist and paramedic CPD registration assessors. The Department is currently recruiting CPD registration assessors for the next five professions that are due to be audited.

ii) International applications: A total of 282 new international applications were received in this period and 312 individuals were registered which is 10 more than the same period last year. Applications were on average being processed within six weeks of receipt which exceeds our service standard of 24

c) Registration renewals At the start of June 2009, paramedics and orthoptists were invited to renew their registration.

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Secretariat – Miss Louise Hart The HPC Annual Meeting will be held on 10 September 2009, invitations for which will be dispatched over the summer.

1. Council members’ self-assessment The President has completed the current round of members’ performance reviews. A paper which includes feedback from the reviews has been prepared by the Secretariat and is included on the Council agenda for the current meeting.

6. Code of Corporate Governance The final part of the HPC’s Code of Corporate Governance, the composition of the Committees, was agreed at the additional meeting of Council held in June. The Code (which incorporates the key documents that underpin the HPC’s decision-making processes) can now be found on the website.

2. October awayday This year’s awayday will be held in Belfast on 6-7 October. Details of the venue and location will be sent out over the summer and will also be made available on the members’ extranet.

7. Training for employees Members of the Secretariat team attended the following training:

3. Induction of new Members An induction for all members will be held 6-7 July. The areas to be covered are as follows: HPC’s visions and values, the role of the Council, the role of the Executive and the structure of the organisation. The induction will also include sessions with each of the members of the Executive together with a lunch to which managers who work closely with Council members have been invited.

June – Steve Rayner attended a seminar run by the Department of Health on the Section 60 Order.

4. New calendar The mini calendar of Council and committee meeting dates for 2009/10 has now been sent to all members of Council. Further copies are available from the Secretariat on request. 5. Annual Meeting The Annual Meeting is an opportunity for our stakeholders to come to Park House and listen to a presentation delivered by the Chair before being afforded the opportunity to ask the Chair and Chairs of Committees any questions on their work.

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