HCP Fitness to Practice question:

Hi All, Just postng on  here as it ties in with the discussion subject. I have got nowhere so far with HCPC. Their Fitness to Practice department are refusing to accept that my assessor may not be a qualified Paramedic as they insist that she is qualified even though I sent them her full job history taken from LinkedIn which makes no mention of her ever training or working as a Paramedic. The information I have has no period of time for her to have trained and worked as one as dates given for other unrelated employment run concurrently from her schooling to the present day. The only small gap in time was when I know she was working for ATOS but she is obviously unwilling to disclose this openly online. Regarding her fitness to practice if she is a Paramedic, this too has been turned down but I haven't as yet given them any information as I'm reluctant to do that if they're just going to reject it by saying she wasn't working in the profession at the time. They also say that ATOS and DWP have their own complaints system in place which is another reason they would use to reject a claim that a Paramedic on their register has behaved badly. To get around this I decided to think outside the box and have made a FOI request to HCPC on the Whatdotheyknow website for numbers of registrants working as ATOS assessors that have been reported to them, the number they've accepted and how many have been struck off the register. This will tell me whether or not HCPC have ever accepted and investigated complaints about ATOS health professionals. There are debates I've found online as to whether assessors should still be made accountable for their standard of workmanship by their governing bodies if they're not working in their profession. As yet I do not have the answer but hopefully the FOI request will give us a general picture of whether it's worth reporting them to their governing bodies.
     I have also been asking HCPC about my assessor's qualifications and all they're willing to tell me is that she is a legitimate registrant. They are refusing to investigate her even though I gave them the info. I have about her past employment. They say they don't have any info. about her outside her profession.
   I am now going to write to DWP complaints and see if they'll investigate someone who appears to have contravened their specifications for assessors regarding having a 2 year history of work in a health related job before becoming an assessor. Sorry this post is so long but it may help others if I can find out what we can or can't do to bring the HP's who lie and cheat people out of benefits to justice.     

@Matilda, That's very interesting. I always assumed Paramedics were on the list of Health Professionals specified by DWP that can be employed by ATOS. I'll check that out and mention it in my letter to DWP. I now have evidence that my DL score should have been higher, but will stick with what I've got for now. My OT home assessment mentions I need help with preparing food and to get in and out of the bath both of which I scored 2 for needing aids only. I was given a bath board over the bath to sit on and swing my legs across. Trouble is I can't even lift my legs high enough to get them over the side so it's no use whatsoever. I'll ask to try a step instead but will still need support from someone as in a standing position with support from MOH I can just about get them over but have to lift my left leg by hand as it's weaker than my right. Now waiting for the council to send her back again to check all the equipment they gave me and hopefully get the report changed if not for now for my review in 2 years. It really is about time we were believed when we've got medical evidence to support what we're saying. The OT thought it was ridiculous me being reviewed in only 2 years and she saw me at home...