Welcome to Ethics & Ethical Standards for HCPC-Registered Professionals (Ethics HCPC)

Welcome to this course

This course covers the ethical reasoning side of the HCPC’s Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics, effective from September 2024: promoting and protecting service users’ interests, confidentiality, the duty of candour, and honesty and trustworthiness. Our companion Professionalism course covers the standing conduct standards, communication, scope of practice, delegation, risk, and raising concerns.

The HCPC regulates 15 different professions, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, paramedics, radiographers, speech and language therapists, and more. This course is written to genuinely serve that breadth, using scenarios drawn from across different HCPC professions, not defaulting to one and relabelling it for the rest.

By the end of this course you will be able to

  1. Work in genuine partnership with service users and apply consent properly across your own scope of practice
  2. Understand what confidentiality actually requires, including when disclosure is genuinely justified
  3. Apply the duty of candour correctly when something has gone wrong, including the apology itself
  4. Recognise what honesty and trustworthiness require beyond simply not lying
  5. Apply a structured method to genuine ethical dilemmas, worked through two complete cases

Who this is for

Any HCPC-registered professional, at any career stage, in any of the 15 registered professions, NHS, private practice, or independent practice.

Please read this firstThis course explains professional standards and the reasoning behind them. It is not legal advice and does not replace representation. If a concern has been raised about your registration, speak to your defence organisation or professional body before you act.

Structure How this course is organised +

Five modules, four knowledge checks, and a final 15-question assessment. Score 80% to unlock your certificate.

  • Module 1 — promoting service users’ interests, partnership, and consent
  • Module 2 — confidentiality, including shared and remote settings
  • Module 3 — the duty of candour
  • Module 4 — honesty and trustworthiness
  • Module 5 — a structured method applied to two complete worked cases

Around 2.5 hours in total, worth 2.5 CPD hours.

Pairs with Professionalism & Professional Standards for HCPC-Registered Professionals +

These two courses are designed as a pair, covering the HCPC’s Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics between them, without duplicating each other.

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