1st September 2004

NEWS RELEASE

New Director of Education and Policy at the Health Professions Council

The Health Professions Council has announced that Fiona Nixon has been appointed as the new Director of Education and Policy.

Fiona Nixon has been involved in training and education for over twenty years. She comes to the Health Professions Council from Imperial College where she held the post of Director of Operations (Physical Sciences) for almost three years. Prior to this Fiona was at the University of Glasgow where, over a period of nine years, she served in a number of administrative and management roles. She served latterly as Head of Internal Operations and Senior Administrator in the Senate Office, which, amongst other areas of responsibility, provided direction and support to the University with regard to all aspects of internal and external Quality Assurance. Fiona began her career in local government in the administration of special employment and training programmes, progressing to management of a number of private training companies offering vocational education and work-based learning. From there she moved to the Higher Education sector.

Fiona is looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead, "I am pleased to be joining a leading regulatory body whose ethos is to work with key stakeholders and registrants to ensure that legislative requirements are met in the most efficient way possible. A lot of work has gone into setting and refining the Standards of Education and Training, the Standards of Proficiency and now the Standards of Continuing Professional Development.

“The Education & Training Team will be working hard over the next few months to implement the processes that will ensure the delivery of these standards. We also welcome aspirant professions who are moving towards inclusion under the regulatory umbrella of the HPC. I look forward to meeting and hearing the views of many of our registrants and key stakeholders from around the UK at the CPD consultation events being held over the next three months."

Marc Seale, the Chief Executive and Registrar of HPC, said, “I am delighted to welcome Fiona to the management team. Education and Policy is one of our key functions, with Fiona leading the department, I am confident that we can build on and further develop Standards for Education, Training and Policy and develop a CPD framework that is robust, comprehensive and developed in collaboration with registrants and stakeholders.”

ENDS