Get ready – change is coming

Later this year, the HCPC will change the way registered physiotherapists will be expected to demonstrate the way they fulfil professional standards, with important implications should registrants be audited. 

Rather than being expected to demonstrate a passive understanding of the standards, as they do now, practitioners will be expected instead to show they are actively implementing standards relevant to their practice. 

The aim is to ensure physiotherapists are intentional in their practice: ‘doing’ the standards rather than simply ‘knowing’ them. 

The HCPC have also stated that ‘the change of emphasis ensures the standards are relevant to current practice and reflect the importance of registrants being autonomous and caring professionals’.

With this change fast approaching, in this issue we have put together a comprehensive guide for members to better understand these changes and how you can best prepare. 

Our feature gives specific guidance around the different standards and examples of how the change might affect physios in different roles and sectors and how they might consider and then change their practice in response – with our aim being to provide advice tailored to you and your professional setting. 

The HCPC will be offering webinars, too, with more information on the changes; and the CSP will provide updates until (and after) the change, especially as the audit period approaches in February next year. 

With recent research showing that members are unaware of all the benefits the CSP offers, our infographic this month provides an overview. 

Elsewhere in this issue, professional adviser Pip White looks at why physios can and should pursue more AHP leadership positions; and Rachael Wadlow provides an update on work to push for expanding prescribing for independent physio prescribers. 

Find out more here for information on the upcoming changes.  

Jackie Lidgard and Clare Aldridge are CSP professional advisers