Curriculum guidance and CPD: a busy year ahead

The College of Paramedics has an active interest in providing strategic direction for the educational quality and standards of programmes that prepare paramedics for clinical practice. It is important to clarify that the statutory responsibility for setting and monitoring paramedics’ educational standards lies with the profession's regulator, which is the Health Professions Council (HPC). In its role as the professional body, the College of Paramedics is committed to ensure that programmes developing paramedics produce suitably equipped practitioners that meet the wide variety of contemporary practice requirements required by professionals, service users, employers and commissioners.

Whilst the College cannot force compliance with its educational standards, there is sufficient capacity to allow expansion of activities to assess, monitor and review the quality of education programmes for paramedics offered by higher education institutions (HEIs); a process known as academic approval. This allows comparison of the programme to the aspirations, curriculum and direction produced by the College of Paramedics (College of Paramedics, 2008). Formal approval allows the establishment and propagation of a partnership between the College and HEI; providing input into the course and support for students. The University of Greenwich has become the first programme to achieve approval.