Health Practice Associates Council

What Health Practice Associates Council does

Health Practice Associates Council (HPAC) is a UK non-statutory, not-for-profit regulator operating as a Community Interest Company (CIC 10830551), established in 2014 following a UK-wide consultation with NHS Ambulance Services, Voluntary Ambulance Services (St John Ambulance and British Red Cross), and independent ambulance sector providers, and formally registered as a CIC in 2017. It is the UK's only dedicated regulatory body for pre-hospital, primary, urgent, and emergency clinical responders in non-statutory roles not covered by statutory regulators such as the HCPC, NMC, or GMC. The organisation operates from Eastbourne, United Kingdom, with 11–50 employees and a volunteer Council providing governance, and is recognised by the CQC, DBS, NPCC, NHS Safeguarding, and the Independent Ambulance Association as supporting safe recruitment of non-paramedic ambulance clinicians.

HPAC's core product is the public HPAC Register, a credential-verification database for clinicians (EMTs, ECAs, EFRs, First Aiders), backed by a web-based regulatory platform developed and maintained by UbiquiCore Limited. The platform provides daily rolling 24-hour DBS revalidation via the Disclosure & Barring Service API, quarterly DVLA driver licence revalidation, daily audits of primary qualifications and statutory/mandatory certificate expirations, NFC-enabled ID cards, QR-code verifiable e-Learning for Healthcare certificates, and add-on modules including the Blue Light Driver Register, the Organisation Portal, Fitness to Practise investigation services, and Section 29 Disclosure Request handling. The 2025 integration of NHS e-Learning for Healthcare (e-LfH) lets registrants complete statutory and mandatory training from within their HPAC profile at no extra cost.

HPAC is funded entirely through subscription and transactional fees — it receives no government funding. Individual clinicians pay £84.50/year (or £149.50 every two years, or £118 in quarterly instalments of £29.50) for registration inclusive of DBS checks, ID checks, and an ID card. Organisations pay turnover-banded portal subscription fees plus licence slots, with additional transactional revenue from DBS checks (£35), ID checks (£5), ID card replacements (£30), delinquent account reactivation (£25), dispute handling (£35), fraudulent document administration (£100), fraudulent documentation referrals (£50), and a £150 flat fee for non-UK certificate cross-mapping. Go-to-market is direct-to-consumer via self-serve clinician registration through hpac-uk.org and a separate self-serve organisation sign-up flow, supported by stakeholder endorsements, email lifecycle communications, and referrals from NHS, voluntary, and independent ambulance providers.

Name

Health Practice Associates Council

Legal name

Health Practice Associates Council

Website

https://hpac-uk.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Health Practice Associates Council (HPAC) is the UK's non-statutory, not-for-profit regulator for pre-hospital urgent and emergency clinical responders in non-statutory roles, maintaining a public register and compliance platform that serves individual clinicians, NHS Ambulance Services, voluntary providers (St John Ambulance, British Red Cross), and independent ambulance operators.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Eastbourne

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Individual Clinician Registration Fees: Individual clinicians pay subscription-based registration fees for maintaining active registration on the HPAC public register. Fees are charged on annual, two-yearly, or quarterly instalment plans. The registration includes DBS checks, ID checks, and ID card fees.
2. Organisation Portal Access Subscription: Organisations pay subscription fees for access to HPAC's compliance, safeguarding, and administrative tools. Portal access fees are charged according to turnover-based banding. Additional fees apply for licence slots to sponsor applicants and registrants, DBS checks, ID checks, and ID cards.
3. DBS Check Services: HPAC processes enhanced DBS checks as part of its internal due diligence process. Additional fees apply for DBS checks suitable for paid employment, replacement checks when Update Service lapses, and new DBS checks after deregistration and re-registration within 24 months.
4. Certificate Validation and Cross-mapping Fees: Fees for cross-mapping and certificate validation for qualifications not issued within the United Kingdom carry a flat fee of £150 regardless of outcome.
5. ID Card Replacement: A flat fee of £30 applies to all replacement ID cards. The initial registration fee includes the first ID card at no extra cost.
6. Administrative and Processing Fees: Various administrative fees apply including £35 for DBS check processing, £30 for ID checks, £25 for delinquent account reactivation, £35 for dispute-handling fees, £100 for fraudulent document administration, and £50 for fraudulent documentation referrals.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Health Practice Associates Council (HPAC) is a Community Interest Company (CIC) acting as the non-statutory regulator for pre-hospital urgent and emergency clinical responders. It maintains a public register of vetted clinicians, issues identity credentials, runs an organisation compliance portal, and provides continuous safeguarding revalidation (DBS, driving licence, training certificate audits) for individual registrants and employing organisations.

Product overview

HPAC (Health Practice Associates Council) operates as a non-statutory regulator for pre-hospital, primary, urgent, and emergency care responders in non-statutory roles across the UK. The core offering is the HPAC Register, a public-facing database that verifies clinician credentials and qualifications to support public safeguarding. The platform provides a tiered suite of services: the core Register for public credential verification, supplemented by an Organisation Portal (paid subscription) for compliance management and DBS monitoring, specialist Blue Light Driver Register for DVLA-integrated license monitoring, HPAC ID Cards with NFC verification capabilities, Certificate Validation with daily audit tracking, and Fitness to Practise investigation services. The platform integrates with e-Learning for Healthcare for mandatory training and connects to the DBS Update Service and DVLA for background and license verification.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Public Register of Clinicians
• Organisation Compliance Portal

Named customers4 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and supporting.

• CQC (Care Quality Commission)coreOthersHPAC is recognised by the Care Quality Commission as supporting safe recruitment practices for non-statutory pre-hospital ambulance clinicians.
• Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS)coreTechnology or IntegrationHPAC conducts daily 24-hour revalidation of registrant criminal record status via API integration with the Disclosure & Barring Service. DBS checks are processed through Access Personal Checking Services Limited as the DBS umbrella body.
• National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC)coreOthersHPAC is recognised by the NPCC as supporting safe recruitment practices for non-statutory pre-hospital ambulance clinicians.
• NHS SafeguardingcoreOthersHPAC is recognised by NHS Safeguarding as supporting safe recruitment practices for non-statutory pre-hospital ambulance clinicians.
• Independent Ambulance AssociationcoreOthersHPAC was established following consultation with the Independent Ambulance Association. The Association recognises HPAC's register as supporting safe recruitment of non-paramedic ambulance clinicians.
• e-Learning for Healthcare (e-LfH)majorTechnology or IntegrationRegistrants can access NHS e-Learning for Healthcare modules directly from their HPAC profile at no additional cost. Certificates generated can be verified via the HPAC portal or QR code. No NHS England account required.
• UbiquiCore LimitedcoreTechnology or IntegrationUbiquiCore Limited is the software and web platform provider for HPAC. By registering or applying to register with HPAC, users enter into a parallel agreement granting UbiquiCore Limited full access to all content uploaded on the platform.
• Access Personal Checking Services Limited (APCS)coreTechnology or IntegrationAPCS is the DBS umbrella body company that independently processes all Disclosure and Barring Service checks for HPAC registrants.
• Satswana LimitedsupportingOthersSatswana Limited serves as HPAC's Data Protection Officer, located at Suite G12, Ferneberga House, Alexandra Road, Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 6DQ.
• DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency)coreTechnology or IntegrationHPAC has API access to the DVLA driver's database for automatic quarterly revalidation of registrants' drivers' licences. The blue light driver register automatically removes registrants with suspended licences or more than six points.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE): UK industry body representing NHS ambulance service chief executives. Works alongside HPAC in the same UK pre-hospital ecosystem but does not run a register; relevant as an adjacent stakeholder influencing HPAC's employer adoption.

Broad incumbents

• General Medical Council (GMC): UK statutory regulator for doctors operating a public register, revalidation framework, and employer licence-check functionality. Comparable in regulatory model and technology footprint but operates with statutory authority over physicians.
• General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC): UK statutory regulator for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Comparable as a UK health-profession register with employer-facing verification but focused on pharmacy rather than pre-hospital care.
• Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC): UK statutory regulator for nurses and midwives with an analogous register, revalidation, fitness-to-practise, and employer-facing verification infrastructure. Comparable in function but for a different, much larger profession and with statutory powers HPAC lacks.

Regional players

• CORU (Health & Social Care Professionals Council): Ireland's multi-profession statutory regulator for health and social care professionals. Operates a comparable register and protection function but in the Republic of Ireland market and with statutory powers.
• Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA): Australia's national health-practitioner regulation agency. Comparable as a multi-profession health register with employer-facing verification, but operates in Australia with statutory powers covering 16 professions.

Emerging players

• British Association for Immediate Care (BASICS): UK voluntary network for doctors and practitioners providing immediate pre-hospital care. Operates in an overlapping clinician population and supports voluntary standards/credentialing in the pre-hospital space, though without a public-facing register of equivalent scale.

Direct peers

• Registration Council for Clinical Physiologists (RCCP): UK voluntary register for clinical physiologists. Highly comparable operating model: small, voluntary, nonprofit register providing credential verification and public-facing search for a non-statutorily regulated clinical workforce.
• College of Paramedics: UK professional body and voluntary register for paramedics. Closest operating peer to HPAC in terms of voluntary registration, professional standards, and employer recognition within the pre-hospital care workforce.
• Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC): Statutory UK regulator for paramedics and 15 other allied health professions. Directly comparable to HPAC as a UK health-profession registration body, but operates with statutory authority over a broader scope including paramedics that HPAC explicitly does not cover.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Health Practice Associates Council