2 March 2026
Alongside the update to our HCPC guidance, we have also made updates to a number of our connected guidance designed to help you ensure you have all the information you need to provide excellent services
Important updates to our guidance on meeting HCPC Standards have now been made, alongside a number of corresponding guidance on creating and delivering quality services, vital to the role of any practising SLT. Responding to recent changes to the HCPC standards, the guidance covers practical information on topics such as service planning, practicing independently and updating the wider workforce in addition to listing and applying HCPC standards to SLT role.
What has changed?
New and updated material has been created for the following pages:
- HCPC registration and professional standards
- Care pathways
- Delegation
- Independent Practice
- Quality services and quality improvement
- Service planning and responding to proposed changes in service
- Service users and carers: enabling and supporting
- Upskilling the wider workforce
- Workforce planning, staffing and resources
A number of further, small scale updates will be made to other topics in the section over the coming weeks, and we will keep our members up to date with those further changes through our communications channels. While these updates are taking place, you may find that some links are no longer working or that page names have changed and you’re unsure if you’ve found the page you were looking for. We recommend navigating directly to the Delivering Quality Services A-Z and choosing a topic from the list provided to ensure you have direct access to the most up to date information possible while these updates are being made.
What do these updates mean for me?
All professionals working under the protected title of speech and language therapist, are required to be registered with the HCPC. The RCSLT works hand in hand with the HCPC, creating and supporting a high professional standard for all SLTs throughout their careers. Together, RCSLT and HCPC ensure that all registered SLTs maintain high levels of professional competence, ethical practice, and public trust throughout their careers.
We strongly recommend that our members take the time to review these changes to help keep up to date with current standard and best practice as part of your continuing professional development, both directly with HCPC and through our updated bespoke guidance for SLTs.
Where are the updated guidance?
You can view the updated guidance alongside a full suite of guidance on a broad range of topics about meeting best practice and HCPC standards in in our A-Z list of information on delivering quality services for speech and language therapy. The guidance in this section of our website is defined specifically to support you in your role, no matter what clinical area or areas of practice which are your speciality and will help you whether you’re working as a member of a team, independently or leading a team, designed to help you at all stages of your career.
We advise our members to ensure that they are up to date with all the new HCPC standards by reviewing our webpages.
How were these updates made?
This huge undertaking would not have been possible without lead authors Paula Walker and Maria Luscombe and their supporting working group. Together, they have used their expertise to review over twenty topics and cross referenced them with the latest HCPC standards to ensure that all our guidance are the most up to date they can be. As well as thanking them for their contribution to maintaining standards across the profession, we’d also like to thank everyone who took part in the consultation during the summer of 2025 to ensure the creation of these sets of guidance were peer reviewed.
For more information about these updates, please contact Liz Brookfield, elizabeth.brookfield@rsclt.org.
