Regulating pre-hospital
CQC, Disclosure & Barring Service, National Police Chiefs' Council, NHS Safeguarding, and the Independent Ambulance Association recognise the Health Practice Associates Council register in supporting the safe recruitment of non-paramedic ambulance clinicians.
The Health Practice Associates Council (HPAC) is the United Kingdom’s regulatory body for pre-hospital urgent and emergency clinical responders in non-statutory roles.
Our registration team check and verify each applicant's qualifications, identity, and background before approval. We manually check over 25 UK registers, barred lists, criminal records and tribunal records for every applicant. This comprehensive process also includes conducting a full five-point enhanced DBS check, which is subsequently registered with the update service and revalidated every 24 hours by our system. Additionally, we collect evidence of statutory and mandatory training, as well as Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Our team and system monitor and support registrants' compliance to ensure adherence to all required standards.
HPAC is signposted nationwide in all police custody suites as the non-paramedic referral pathway. This arrangement is based on common-law disclosure and helps to identify and alert providers of new risks to patients, staff, and employers. HPAC regularly shares intelligence with police forces during referrals and Fitness to Practise investigations.
HPAC officially forms part of the Disclosure & Barring Service's Safeguarding Landscape. We revalidate all DBS certificates daily, ensuring we hold the most up-to-date Enhanced DBS information on all registrants. Registrants can prove DBS validity by scanning their ID cards. HPAC also shares relevant referrals with the DBS.
Slide provided by DBS to HPAC for dissemination
Slide provided by DBS to HPAC for dissemination
There are up to 30,000 face-to-face pre-hospital patient contacts per day in the UK made by ambulance staff wearing the trusted green uniform. Did you know that only 50% of frontline ambulance staff are regulated by statute? While most clinicians are safe and patient-centred, some pose genuine risks. HPAC bridges this gap in regulation through collaborative, non-statutory oversight.
All patients and staff deserve to be safe.
Support compliance. Reduce inherited risk.
Register your staff HERE
£79.50 per year
There is a registration fee of £79.50 per year, which renews every twelve months OR £144.99 for two years, which renews every 24 months. Includes a secure ID card with NFC DBS status check (revalidated every 24 hours). If an applicant isn’t on the Update Service, HPAC will run a fresh DBS at no extra cost (subsequent DBS or replacement cards may incur a charge).
HPAC Regulated Grades
| Grade |
|---|
| First Aiders (FA) |
| Emergency First Responders (EFR) |
| Ambulance Care Assistants (ACA) |
| Emergency Care Assistants (ECA) |
| Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) – HPAC registered EMTs are IHCD BTEC L3 equivalent, FREUC 5 or higher |
| Associate Ambulance Practitioners (AAP) |
Before applying, please click here to ensure your training/qualifications map to our grades.
Prices will automatically increase each year by the UK Consumer Prices Index (CPI) published rate plus 2.5%. This reflects rising operating costs and supports reasonable, sustainable growth. Prices may also be varied for other reasons; any change will be notified in advance.
The Health Practice Associates Council is a Community Interest Company (CIC) registered in England and Wales (10830551), regulated by the Information Commissioner's Office and the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies.
* While our application process is rigorous and includes thorough checks of documentation and backgrounds — including manually cross-referencing over 25 registers, barred lists, criminal records and tribunal records for every applicant — to guarantee 100% assurance of all the data and statements provided by all applicants and registrants would be misleading to the public and stakeholders. On rare occasions, a dishonest applicant may progress through our due diligence processes. When discovered, they are immediately marked as “removed from the register”, employers are notified, and referrals made to the police and DBS.
** As HPAC has thousands of registrants and applications combined, we conduct a 5% randomised audit of statutory and CPD documents annually, inline with HCPC and other regulator standards.
*** Some registrants may forget to re-enrol on the DBS Update Service or it may lapse, creating a temporary gap while we process a new DBS. We generally operate at 96% compliance and continually work to improve that metric.