Commentary on Sections The Health and Care Professions Council Section 218 - Exercise of function of approving courses, etc
1298.This section amends the 2001 Order to reflect the Council’s new role in approving approved mental health professional courses.
1299.The section amends article 3 of the 2001 Order to acknowledge the Council’s new function and to say how the general duties set out in paragraph (5) of that article apply in relation to those approved mental health professionals who belong to a profession which is not regulated by the Council. The Council’s general duties include having regard to the interests of people using the services of registrants, considering the differing interests of different categories of registrant, and co-operating with employers, training providers and other regulatory bodies. The effect of subsection (3) is that those general duties apply to non-registrant approved mental health professionals as if they were registrants.
1300.The section also amends the 2001 Order to deal with the process for approving approved mental health professional courses. The process is modelled closely on the existing provisions in articles 15 to 18 of the 2001 Order, which deal with the approval of education and training for the Council’s registrants.
1301.The section inserts a new article 15B into the 2001 Order, requiring the Council to set and publish the criteria to be applied when endorsing approved mental health professional courses. However, it also inserts a new article 15A which provides for the Council’s Education and Training Committee, rather than the Council itself, to approve courses in accordance with those criteria. As explained above, the Education and Training Committee would be able, if it wished, to arrange for other people to approve courses on the Council’s behalf.
1302.Between them, the new articles 15A and 15B then provide that the Education and Training Committee must ensure that universities and other bodies in the UK involved in providing approved mental health professional courses are told of the approval criteria. It must also take steps to satisfy itself that the approved mental health professional courses that universities and other bodies are providing meet the criteria. In doing so, the Education and Training Committee would be able to approve (or arrange for someone else to approve) UK institutions which it believes are properly organised and equipped to run these courses. Courses run by such approved institutions are the only approved mental health professional courses outside the UK which the Education and Training Committee would be able to approve.
1303.The new article 15B(5), together with other minor amendments made by this section, means that articles 16 to 18 of the 2001 Order apply to approved mental health professional courses in largely the same way as they apply to other education and training approved by the Council. As a result, article 16 would allow visitors appointed by the Council to visit institutions running, or proposing to run, approved mental health professional courses, and to report their findings to the Education and Training Committee. Article 17 would allow the Education and Training Committee or the Council to require information from such institutions. Article 18 would allow the Education and Training Committee to refuse or withdraw approval for an approved mental health professional course.
1304.The section also amends article 21 of the 2001 Order to make clear that the Council’s standards of conduct, performance and ethics for its registrants (and would be registrants) must also cover the standards expected of them when acting as approved mental health professionals. Finally, the section extends the Secretary of State’s powers under article 45 to provide financial assistance to the Council so that it can include grants or loans in connection with the approval of approved mental health professional courses.