Terms and Conditions for Council Members

1.About these terms

1.1These terms apply to every member of HPAC's Council. Health Practice Associates Council (HPAC) is a community interest company registered in England and Wales, company number 10830551.

1.2You agree to these terms when you accept your invitation to join the Council. They apply whenever you act as a Council member. They also apply to your conduct in other roles and in private life where it could affect your Council role or public confidence in HPAC.

1.3Your invitation sets out your Council role and the length of your appointment. If you are also an HPAC registrant, the Terms and Conditions and the Code of Conduct that apply to registrants continue to apply to you.

2.Words used in these terms

Chair

The Chair of the Council, or the Council member appointed to act in the Chair's place.

Confidential information

Any information you receive as a Council member that is not already public, including personal data about registrants, applicants, referrers, witnesses, staff and volunteers, and unpublished papers and decisions.

Panel

Any group that decides an individual case, including the DBS Panel and any panel that considers a concern about a registrant.

Registrant

A person on HPAC's register or applying to join it.

We, us and our

HPAC.

Working day

Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays in England. A timescale in working days begins on the working day after the event that triggers it.

3.Your appointment

3.1Council membership is a voluntary role. It is unpaid unless we have agreed otherwise with you in writing. These terms are not a contract of employment.

3.2Your appointment runs for the period stated in your invitation. We may offer you a further term, but reappointment is not automatic.

3.3We repay expenses only where we have agreed them with you in writing before you incur them. Claims must include receipts and follow the arrangements we set out when we agree the expense.

3.4We will give you the papers, training and system access you need for your role. You must use the papers and system access only for your Council work.

3.5If you need a reasonable adjustment to read papers or take part in meetings, tell the Chair. We will agree with you what we can provide.

4.Standards of conduct

4.1You must act in good faith and in line with HPAC's purpose: to protect patients, the public, clinicians, employers and the wider profession from demonstrable risks.

4.2You must follow the Seven Principles of Public Life set by the Committee on Standards in Public Life:

• Selflessness: act solely in the public interest.
• Integrity: avoid any obligation to people or organisations that might try to influence your work, and never act to gain a benefit for yourself, your family or your friends.
• Objectivity: decide impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias.
• Accountability: answer for your decisions and actions, and accept the scrutiny that goes with your role.
• Openness: act openly, and withhold information only where there is a clear and lawful reason.
• Honesty: be truthful.
• Leadership: show these principles in your own behaviour, support them actively and challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs.

4.3You must treat everyone with dignity and respect. You must not discriminate against, harass or victimise anyone because of a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010.

4.4You must be open and honest when something goes wrong, including your own mistakes, and tell the Chair promptly.

4.5You must not use your Council role for personal gain, or to promote your own interests or those of your employer. You must not act in a way that could bring HPAC into disrepute or undermine public confidence in its work.

5.Collective decisions and speaking for HPAC

5.1Take a full part in discussions, give your honest view and challenge constructively.

5.2Once the Council has made a decision, you must support it in public, including where you argued against it. If you feel unable to support a decision, discuss it with the Chair.

5.3You may speak or write on our behalf only when we have authorised you to do so. Pass any request from the media to the Chief Executive Officer.

5.4When you speak or write about our area of work in any other capacity, make clear that the views are your own or those of another organisation.

5.5If anyone contacts you about an individual registration, case or concern, do not discuss it or offer any view or commitment. Refer them to us and tell the Chair.

6.Social media and public comment

6.1These terms apply online as they do in person. Anything you post can be copied, shared and kept after you delete it.

6.2You must not post or comment about any registrant, case, concern, panel or Council discussion that has not been made public. You must not identify anyone involved in a case, or give details from which they could be identified.

6.3You must not criticise our staff, volunteers or Council colleagues in public. Raise any concern through the routes in section 14.

6.4You may name your Council role on your own profiles and share material we have published.

7.Confidentiality and data protection

7.1You must keep confidential information confidential, during your appointment and after it ends. You may disclose it only for your Council work, where the law requires it, or where we have agreed in writing.

7.2HPAC is the data controller for the personal data you handle as a Council member. You must handle it in line with HPAC's data protection policy, the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

7.3Information about criminal records, DBS checks, health and safeguarding needs particular care. Use it only for the matter in front of you, and record it only where we direct.

7.4Keep our information only in the systems and accounts we provide. You must not copy, download, print or forward it to a personal e-mail account, personal cloud storage or a personal device unless we have approved this in writing.

7.5Keep papers and devices secure, lock your screen when you step away, and do not discuss cases where you can be overheard.

7.6Tell the Chief Executive Officer at once if confidential information is lost, sent to the wrong person or seen by someone who should not see it, or if you think this may have happened.

7.7Complete the data protection training we provide before you see personal data about registrants.

8.Conflicts of interest

8.1A conflict of interest arises where a fair-minded and informed observer could conclude that an interest, relationship or loyalty might influence your judgement as a Council member.

8.2You must declare any interest that could give rise to a conflict, including:

• your employment, paid or voluntary, and any directorship, consultancy or self-employment;
• any role with an organisation that employs or deploys registrants, provides ambulance, event medical or community first response services, or has portal access to the register;
• your own registration with HPAC or with any statutory regulator or other register;
• employing, managing, training or working closely with any registrant;
• a partner or close family member who is a registrant or works for an organisation described above;
• membership of any body that campaigns or lobbies on pre-hospital care, regulation or health policy, and any significant political role;
• any contract or business dealing between HPAC and you or an organisation you are connected with; and
• any other interest that a fair-minded and informed observer would consider relevant.

8.3You must complete a declaration of interests before you take part in Council work, and tell us of any change within 10 working days of it arising. We will ask you to confirm your declaration at least once a year.

8.4Declare any interest relevant to the business at the start of every meeting, or as soon as you become aware of it. The Chair decides whether you may take part. Where the interest is significant, you must leave the discussion and take no part in the decision.

8.5You must not take part in any decision about yourself, a family member or friend, someone you manage or work closely with, your employer, or an organisation in which you have a financial interest.

8.6If you employ, manage or recruit registrants, you must not use anything you learn as a Council member in recruitment, deployment or employment decisions. You must not tell an employer or colleague about a concern or case.

8.7Your Council role gives you no advantage in your own registration, your employer's portal access or any other dealing with us.

8.8We keep a register of Council members' interests.

9.Gifts, hospitality and bribery

9.1Decline any gift, hospitality, payment or favour offered because of your Council role if it could influence you, or could appear to.

9.2Never accept cash or vouchers. Never accept anything from a person or organisation while a decision about them, or a contract with them, is being considered.

9.3Tell us within 10 working days about any gift or hospitality offered to you in connection with your Council role, whether or not you accept it. We record every declaration.

9.4You must not offer, give, ask for or accept a bribe, as defined in the Bribery Act 2010. Report any approach that could be a bribe to the Chief Executive Officer at once.

10.Panel work

10.1This section applies whenever you sit on a panel.

10.2Complete the training we provide before you sit on a panel for the first time.

10.3Before each case, check whether you know the registrant, the referrer, a witness or the employer, or have any other interest in the case. If you do, tell us and step aside from the case.

10.4Decide each case only on the evidence before the panel and the standards and policies that apply. Do not research the case or the people involved yourself, and do not contact anyone involved outside the process.

10.5Keep the panel's discussions private. Do not tell anyone what views members expressed or how a decision was reached, during the case or afterwards.

10.6Give reasons for decisions in the form the process requires, and keep to the timescales it sets.

10.7If you took part in a decision, you must not take part in any review or appeal of it.

11.Safeguarding

11.1Safeguarding children and adults at risk is part of every Council member's role.

11.2If your Council work suggests that a child or adult may be at risk of harm, tell the Designated Safeguarding Lead as soon as reasonably practicable and ahead of other work. If anyone is in immediate danger, call 999 first.

11.3Do not investigate a safeguarding matter yourself or contact the people involved unless the Designated Safeguarding Lead asks you to.

11.4Complete the safeguarding training we provide.

12.Eligibility and declarations

12.1When you accept your invitation, you confirm that none of the following applies to you, or that you have told us about it in writing and we have agreed that you may serve:

• you are, or have ever been, included on a DBS barred list, or barred or prohibited from working with children or adults at risk under any law in the UK or elsewhere;
• you are subject to sex offender notification requirements;
• you have been removed or suspended by, or are subject to restrictions or an investigation by, HPAC, a statutory regulator or any other register;
• you have an unspent conviction, or a criminal charge or police investigation in progress;
• you are subject to a current restraining order;
• you are bankrupt, or subject to a bankruptcy restrictions order, a debt relief order or an arrangement with your creditors;
• you are disqualified from acting as a company director; or
• you have been removed from office as a charity trustee, or from the board of a public or regulatory body, because of your conduct.

12.2During your appointment, tell the Chair in writing within 10 working days if any of these starts to apply, or if you are arrested, charged or investigated by the police or a regulator.

12.3Where your Council role is eligible for a DBS check, you must complete the check we ask for, at the level the role allows, before you take part in that work.

12.4If you are an HPAC registrant and a concern is raised about you, you take no part, as a Council member, in how it is handled. The Chair decides whether you step back from Council work while it is considered.

13.Attendance, induction and development

13.1Read the papers and attend Council meetings and the meetings of any group or panel you agree to join.

13.2If you cannot attend, tell the Chair or the person arranging the meeting as early as you can.

13.3If you expect to be unavailable for a long period, discuss it with the Chair, who may agree a period of leave.

13.4Complete our induction before you take part in decisions, and complete any further training we ask of you during your appointment.

13.5Take part in any review the Chair arranges of your own contribution or of how the Council works.

14.Working with staff and raising concerns

14.1Treat our staff and volunteers with courtesy and respect. Do not give them instructions unless your Council role includes directing that work.

14.2Raise any concern about a member of staff or a volunteer privately with the Chief Executive Officer, never in front of others.

14.3If you have a concern about a Council colleague, speak to them first where that is appropriate, and then to the Chair.

14.4Report any suspected wrongdoing, fraud, misuse of data or risk to the public that you learn of in our work to the Chief Executive Officer or the Chair. If it concerns either of them, report it to the Board of Directors.

15.Concerns about your conduct

15.1The Chair normally resolves minor matters informally.

15.2Where a concern is serious or repeated, or someone makes a written complaint about you, the Chair will tell you in writing what the concern is and give you 10 working days to respond. The Chair may ask someone with no involvement in the matter to look into it.

15.3You may bring a person of your choice to any meeting about the concern.

15.4The Chair will decide the outcome and tell you, with reasons, in writing. The outcome may be no action, advice, a warning, a change to your Council duties, suspension or the end of your appointment. Where the matter may involve a crime or a breach of the law, we may also report it to the police or another authority.

15.5While a serious concern is considered, the Chair may suspend you from Council duties and from access to our systems. A suspension is not a finding against you.

15.6Where the concern is about the Chair, the Board of Directors takes the Chair's place in this section.

15.7You may ask the Board of Directors to review a decision to end your appointment by writing to it within 10 working days of receiving the decision.

16.Ending your appointment

16.1You may resign at any time by writing to the Chair. Give as much notice as you can, so that any panel or case work can be handed over.

16.2Your appointment ends at the end of its term unless we have reappointed you.

16.3We may end your appointment if:

• you no longer meet the requirements in section 12, or did not tell us something that section requires you to declare;
• you have seriously or repeatedly breached these terms;
• you have been absent for a long period without agreement or good reason; or
• your conduct, in any capacity, undermines public confidence in HPAC or its work.

16.4Before ending your appointment under 16.3, we follow section 15, unless the risk to the public or to HPAC requires immediate action.

17.When you leave

17.1Within 10 working days of your appointment ending, return any of our papers and property, and permanently delete any of our information held outside our systems. Confirm in writing that you have done so.

17.2Your access to our systems ends on the day your appointment ends.

17.3Your duty of confidentiality continues after you leave, without time limit.

17.4After you leave, you may describe yourself as a former Council member, with the dates you served, but not as a current member.

17.5We may ask for your help after you leave to complete or explain a panel decision you took part in.

18.Your personal information

18.1We hold your contact details, declarations, checks, training and attendance records to manage your appointment, in line with our Privacy Policy.

18.2We may publish your name, your Council role and a short biography on our website. We will show you the text before it is published.

18.3HPAC's external Data Protection Officer is Satswana Limited.

19.Review of these terms

19.1We review these terms at least every two years. We will tell you in writing of any change and ask you to confirm that you accept it.