Our campaigning work has stopped the Health and Care Professions Council from imposing a massive 18% fee hike on health staff.
At the end of 2018 the Health and Care Professions Council consulted on proposals that would see its registration fee rise by an inflation-busting 18%. Despite overwhelming opposition, the HCPC decided to press ahead with its proposals.
But our massive lobbying and campaigning efforts have forced the HCPC to think again.
Thousands of you wrote to your MPs to ask them to sign the Early Day Motion that we started in Westminster urging the HCPC not to impose the fee increase.
As a result, the EDM was signed by over 130 MPs from every political party in parliament. A motion was also tabled in the Scottish Parliament mirroring our EDM.
Our members felt incredibly strongly about these proposals and our campaign reflected that strength of feeling.
Our campaigning work included extensive lobbying and briefings of all Westminster MPs and MSPs.
47 cross-party peers and MPs signed a UNISON letter that we sent to HCPC council members asking them not to approve the proposals.
Thanks to UNISON’s briefings, there was a Westminster Hall Debate on the HCPC fees increase. The debate was a huge success with every MP raising concerns about the increase and our briefings were cited numerous times.
And our briefings for all MSPs and lobbying in Scotland meant that the Scottish cabinet secretary for health and sport told the HCPC that she could not support the legislation to impose the fee increase.
The HCPC is now in the process of reconsidering the level of fee increase and radically revising their proposals due to the success of our campaign.
What’s more the HCPC have recognised the need for change regarding their processes such as fitness to practice and that there was a need to become better engaged with registrants.
The HCPC has not officially confirmed what the revised fee increase will be but it has been suggested that it will be considerably lower than the previous proposed rate.
We welcome the recent moves by the HCPC to listen to registrants now and to create a more open and engaged organisation that works with health staff rather than being seen to work against them.