Thread by @unisontweets

⏰ Tomorrow at 3pm MPs are debating @The_HCPC's eye-watering 18% fee hike for paramedics, OTs, ODPs, physios and many other health professions.
❓Will your MP be there? Tweet them now and ask them to back you.

📺 Watch live from 3pm as MPs debate @The_HCPC's inflation-busting 18% fee hike. We know plenty of MPs are in the @HouseofCommons today 😉 so we're looking forward to seeing who'll come and speak up for health and care staff 👀 parliamentlive.tv/Commons

Paramedics are among the tens of thousands of health and care staff that would be hit by @The_HCPC's 18% fee hike – we're here at Parliament ready for MPs to debate this massive rise. Who'll speak up?parliamentlive.tv/Commons

Quick recap on @The_HCPC's fee hike for health & care staff:
🗯 99% of our members opposed the fee hike
👎 79% don't think HCPC provides good value for money ANYWAY
📈 fees will have risen by an inflation-busting 40% since 2014
Let's see what MPs reckon. parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/20…

Hosting the debate, @jimforcovsouth outlines why the HCPC's fee hike is unjustifiable. Affected workers are "left frustrated and angry". Government's response has been "very disappointing" it's "just repeated the HCPC's weak defence of the fee rise". #dontdoit

.@jimforcovsouth calls the @The_HCPC's fee hike "a tax on practising". UNISON wants the HCPC to consider alternative options to increase its funding – for example using its £18 million cash reserves to offset the need for an increase 🧐

.@LizMcInnes_MP had also requested this debate on @The_HCPC fees hike. She previously worked as a clinical scientist in the NHS, so was actually a registrant herself. Calls the hike "scandalous" and recalls past protests against inflation-busting fee hikes also fell on deaf ears

.@LizMcInnes_MP also points out there's no fee difference for full- and part-time workers (it's a flat rate) so the HCPC fee increase will have a disproportionate effect on part-time workers. In the NHS, they're predominantly female... #dontdoit

Another former HCPC registrant, @RachaelMaskell says one reason given for its fee hike is the loss of fees when social workers move to a new regulatory body later this year – but they account for more than half of its fitness to practise cases so there'll be a drop in costs 🤔

Great point raised by @LizTwistMP – the kind of professions affected by the HCPC's 18% fee hike are the ones too often forgotten when we think of health staff – they're not doctors or nurses. Yet they're absolutely integral to the healthcare team 👏 #oneteamNHS

.@BrendanOHaraSNP reminds everyone that HCPC registration "isn't just an optional extra" for health and care professions. They have to be registered to do their jobs, and the 18% fee hike "is another financial blow they could do without."

.@BrendanOHaraSNP is talking about the HCPC's own consultation: "when 90% of respondents say they're opposed to this rise, it really should cause concern. And yet @The_HCPC are pressing ahead regardless." Our own survey of UNISON members found 99% were opposed

.@justinmadders says the HCPC's 18% fee hike can't be justified in the context of its excessive redundancy packages and refurbishment costs. To that, you could add its £17,000 Christmas party. emergency-services.news/?p=5109

For the government, Minister of State for Health @S_Hammond says he will write to @The_HCPC about the fact its flat rate means the fee hike would disproportionately affect part-time workers.

.@DavidEDrew reiterates his earlier question – will the minister ask the HCPC for "complete transparency and accountability so we know what the additional costs are going towards?"

.@S_Hammond agrees to ask the Professional Standards Authority which has oversight of regulatory bodies and will write to @DavidEDrew & @jimforcovsouth.

Closing the debate, @jimforcovsouth says "I come from an industrial trade union background. We were always taught just because you get a knockback doesn't mean you give in. You get up, dust yourself off and keep campaigning." 👏