We are seeing increasing concerns about the conduct of health professionals towards each other, students and learners and service users. This relates to the crossing of professional boundaries and sexual misconduct, and involves HCPC registrants as well as other health and care professionals.
Incivility and unprofessional behaviours have a significant and harmful impact on individual colleagues and teams. These behaviours can propagate unhealthy workplace cultures leading to poor service user outcomes.
Sexual misconduct, harassment, grooming and behaviours of a sexual nature can be particularly harmful, causing serious psychological, emotional and physical harm, which can remain long after the abuse has happened.
We are calling on employers, managers, education providers, professional bodies and unions to prevent these behaviours from happening, and to encourage greater reporting when they do.
As a regulator of 15 different professions, the HCPC has a role to play too.
What we have done
In 2022 we began a programme of work which aims to:
- Raise awareness of the impact of sexual misconduct and
- Help improve the sexual safety of service users, those working within health and social care, and students and learners on our approved education programmes.
This work has included the development of new sexual safety resources. The sexual safety hub draws together news and existing material, and is the result of work with victims and survivors. The resources provide important information on the standards expected of our registrants, and where to seek help and support if you have experienced or witnessed these behaviours.
Our revised standards of conduct, performance and ethics, which came into effect on 1 September 2024, contain new and clear standards on maintaining professional boundaries with service users, carers and colleagues, including on social media.
We have also published new guidance for our fitness to practise panels to support their decision-making in cases that involve sexual misconduct and the crossing of professional boundaries [link to new PN on HCPTS website].
What we are doing
To improve the sexual safety of the groups above, we also need to look to our own organisation.
We have undertaken development work with our staff to:
- Improve their understanding of what a disclosure of sexual misconduct means and how to respond appropriately; and
- Improve their understanding of the immediate and long-term effects of sexual misconduct on survivors.
This winter, we’ll host two webinars as part of our Insights for Employers programme, which will provide real support and detail on these issues.
Attendees will learn how to identify the behaviours that constitute sexual misconduct, understand their impact, create safe working environments and effectively support victims and survivors. Read more and register via the links below.
- Employer Insights webinar - Boundaries matter: challenging sexual misconduct (part 1)
- Employer Insights webinar - Boundaries matter: challenging sexual misconduct (part 2)
Our Professional Liaison Service continues to work with teams across the sector to aid the development of strong workplace cultures. They provide bespoke consultancy support for employers and teams, including insight on the impact that sexual misconduct can have, information about the revised HCPC standards, and guidance on how to appropriately raise concerns.
We encourage you to get in touch if the Service could help you and your team: professional.liaison@hcpc-uk.org
