Events

Party conferences 2010

At this year's main political party conferences the Health Professions Council (HPC) is holding fringe meetings with fringe partners the Medical Protection Society (MPS) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM).

We will be debating 'Trust and Openness in the NHS: From Paternalism to Partnership.' Can health professionals do more to inform and explain care to patients, especially when things go wrong? The meeting will explore ways of developing more open, accountable and patient-centred health care.

HPC’s Parliamentary Reception 26 March 2009

To promote the HPC’s role in enhancing public protection

The Health Professions Council hosted a parliamentary reception on 26 March in the House of Commons.

This is an important time for health regulation. The event was held to raise awareness of the HPC’s role in enhancing public protection while recognising the importance of appropriate and effective regulation of health professionals.

Kate Hoey MP sponsored the event which provided an excellent opportunity for stakeholders – including members and representatives of both Houses of Parliament, the Department of Health, the HPC Council, practitioners, patient and advocacy groups, professional bodies, regulatory bodies and others – to meet and discuss the future of health care regulation.

The Minister of State for Health Services, Ben Bradshaw MP, who leads on professional regulation, spoke about how this is an important year for the HPC with a newly restructured Council in the summer which will be smaller, more board like and independently appointed. The Minister then highlighted the HPC’s role in taking forward the rest of the Trust, Assurance and Safety – The Regulation of Health Professionals White Paper reforms, which includes bringing practitioner psychologists on to the HPC register. He concluded by saying how delighted he was that the HPC’s President, Anna van der Gaag, had been reappointed.

The HPC’s President followed on by highlighting three key areas where HPC is making a significant contribution – regulating additional professions, raising public awareness of the role of regulation and building the evidence base of regulation. She spoke about the importance of good working relationships with stakeholders and our recent public awareness campaign directed at older people and their carers in residential homes. The reception was also a good opportunity to update a range of stakeholders about our work and the future of regulation.

The HPC also exhibited in the Upper Westminster Waiting Halls during the week of Monday 23 March. This was a unique opportunity for the HPC to explain its work to parliamentarians, particularly our public facing campaigns and the work we are doing to engage our registrants

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