Health and Care Professions Council proposes to adopt RPS’s prescribing competency framework

The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) is consulting on proposals to adopt the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s (RPS) Prescribing Competency Framework as the prescribing standard for all the professions it regulates.

The HCPC is the regulator for 16 health and care professions, 4 of which offer the option for staff to train as independent prescribers and 5 allow for supplementary prescribing. The HCPC produced its own standards for prescribers in 2013, and is now proposing to adopt the RPS standards rather than update its own, with the proviso that “the HCPC will be a key stakeholder in developing any future revisions” to the framework, the next of which is due in July 2020.

In the proposal, the HCPC describe the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence-accredited framework as “an invaluable resource”, adding that it has already been adopted by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and endorsed by several other professional bodies, including those representing professions that the HCPC regulates.

Separately, the HCPC’s consultation proposes that the role of practice educator, who is responsible for a trainee prescriber’s education during their practice-based learning, be extended to include non-medical prescribers. At present, the HCPC’s standards state that only doctors may act as practice educators.

Making the case for their proposed change, the HCPC note that the General Pharmaceutical Council and the NMC have recently taken a similar decision.

The consultation closes on 4 January 2019.