Approval visit agenda – one day (exemption and prescribing programmes)

At your visit, we need to make sure that your programme(s) meet our education standards and that those who successfully complete the programme meet the proficiency standards for the profession or entitlement. There are a large number of standards against which we must assess the programme(s), so we need to gather information to support the documents you provide. We do this by asking questions of various groups, viewing facilities, and listening to presentations.

This document defines the meetings we require at the visit, along with the people who we would expect to attend these meetings. It is your responsibility to make sure that the appropriate individuals are available at the visit, to appoint an independent chair, and if you wish, to have a secretary to record the events of the visit for your purposes.

As we are an independent regulator, we must come to our decisions independently of any joint panel. As a result, we hold private meetings throughout the visit to make our decisions and decide on the areas of the programme we need to further explore. If the visit is a joint event (with the professional body and / or internal validation), there must also be the opportunity for the joint panel to meet, to confirm agendas for individual meetings throughout the visit.

Please ensure you read through this document carefully when putting together the agenda for your visit.We can provide advice when you are putting the agenda together, which we will need to agree before it is finalised. There is a template draft agenda in Appendix 1 of this document.

Role of the chair

We expect you to appoint an independent and experienced chair for your approval visit. It is essential that the chair is independent of the programme being considered, as well as independent of any interests represented by the internal panel (if applicable).

An independent chair may be a senior or experienced member of a different faculty / school / department within the education provider or from a partner institution who has no involvement with the programme being visited.

We expect that your chair will have experience of chairing large meetings such as external quality assurance events (eg QAA Major Reviews, Care Quality Commission inspection) and / or joint validations and professional / statutory accreditation visits.

The specific role of the independent chair may vary. However, in general, we require the chair to:

  • manage the visit and ensure that it is conducted in accordance with the requirements of any parties represented on the panel;
  • be the spokesperson for the panel;
  • encourage an inclusive approach (with an emphasis on dialogue, as opposed to a cross questioning or adversarial approach);
  • ensure appropriate introductions;
  • guide discussion;
  • arbitrate on disagreements;
  • direct questioning in line with the requirements of all parties on the joint panel;
  • ensure that any parties represented have sufficient time to engage in discussions; and
  • keep the panel to time.

Role of the secretary

You may choose to appoint a secretary for your approval visit. If you do so, we recommended that the appointee is an experienced administrator.

Our approval process report is action based, and linked specifically to our standards. It does not provide a full record of discussions throughout the visit, and therefore education providers may wish to appoint a secretary to produce full minutes or a report of the visit for internal purposes.

Although we do not require you to appoint a secretary, if you do we would recommend that they:

  • take an accurate written record of discussions and conduct of the panel;
  • take an accurate written record of the discussions of the meetings attended by the panel;
  • take an accurate record of the decisions made;
  • distribute the draft written record for comment;
  • accurately record and incorporate any amendments; and
  • distribute the final written record.

Who we need to meet

  • Learners* – to gauge their experience of the programme. This meeting should include any learner representatives for the programme and a range of learners from different years (if applicable), along with those who have recently completed the programme, if possible. For new programmes where there are no current learners, we would like to meet learners from an existing programme in the same, or similar, subject area.
  • Senior staff** – to discuss issues with those responsible for the governance, management, and leadership, (as opposed to the design and delivery) of the programme. Along with senior staff from the education provider, we expect to meet senior staff from practice-based learning providers, and if the programme has any other significant partners, we also expect to meet senior representatives from these bodies.
  • Practice educators* – to discuss practice-based learning with those that work or will work directly with learners.
  • Service users and carers* – to discuss issues with service users and carers who are involved in, and contribute to, various aspects of the programme. It allows the service users and carers (and / or their representatives) to give their views about their involvement (eg in admissions and selection, design and delivery, assessment and evaluation) and how they are supported.
  • The programme team** – to discuss issues with those responsible for the day-to-day management and delivery of the programme. It also allows us to follow up issues or concerns raised in the other meetings.

*We ask to meet the learners, placement educators, and service users and carers independently from the programme team, to ensure they are able to openly share their experience of the programme.

**we expect minimal crossover between individuals attending the senior team and programme team meetings, so we are able to triangulate the views of different groups.

Along with meeting the groups above, you also need to tell us about or show us resources available to learners. This could be in the form of a virtual tour of facilities, or you could give us a physical tour. Particularly, we are interested in finding out about the resources used to support programme delivery, including the library, IT facilities, and subject-specific teaching rooms (such as laboratories or clinical skills suites) that learners have access to.

If appropriate, we will give informal feedback on the visitors’ recommended outcome for the approval visit, including any conditions and recommendations set. Please note, this is not a requirement of the process, and therefore the HCPC panel may elect to not give feedback at the visit.

Appendix 1 – one day approval visit agenda (template)

Afternoonprior / HCPC private meeting (HCPC to arrange venue)
Date / Please complete
Location / Please complete
Chair / Please complete
Secretary / Please complete, if applicable
9am / Joint panel (if applicable)
Please complete attendees
9.30am / Facilities and resources
Please complete attendees
10.15am / Learners
Please complete attendees
11am / Senior staff(responsible for governance, management, and leadership)
Please complete attendees
11.30am / Practice educators(not required for some prescribing programmes – please check with the lead HCPC executive)
Please complete attendees
12.15pm / Service users and carers(and / or their representatives)
Please complete attendees
1pm / Lunch
1.30pm / Programme team
Please complete attendees
2.30pm / HCPC private meeting
4pm / Joint panel (if applicable)
4.30pm / Feedback to programme team
5pm / Finish