Stephen Chance-Hyett
Introduction
Stephen Chance-Hyett is an English paramedic who was registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and worked for South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWAST). He joined the NHS ambulance service in 2004 and had been an operations officer since 2014. In November 2025, a panel of the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) found that he had sexually breached professional boundaries with a junior colleague, anonymised in the determination as Colleague A, through sexualised comments and non-consensual touching. The panel concluded that the conduct amounted to serious professional misconduct, found his fitness to practise currently impaired in the public interest, and suspended him from practice for four months.
Background Information
Chance-Hyett spent roughly two decades in ambulance service work. At the time of the events he was an operations officer with SWAST, based at Staverton Ambulance Station. Colleague A was a lead paramedic employed by the same trust and working at the same station; the panel described her as a younger, junior, female colleague, in contrast to Chance-Hyett, who was older, had more paramedic experience and held a senior position. The panel noted that he had an otherwise long and unblemished career, with no previous regulatory matters raised against him. A concern raised by Colleague A on or around 5 August 2022 set off a SWAST internal investigation and, later, an HCPC referral.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Suspended for crossing sexual boundaries with a junior colleague.
The HCPC alleged that in or around August 2022 Chance-Hyett failed to maintain appropriate professional boundaries with Colleague A: that he asked her “have you got your nipples pierced?”, touched her nipple, kept his finger close to her nipple through her clothes, and said “I’ll never forget the time you said you can’t understand why women love anal sex” — in each case “or words to that effect”. A further set of particulars, occurring on an unknown date, alleged that he touched her hips one or more times and attempted to pull her by her hips to sit on his lap. The conduct was said to be sexual in nature and sexually motivated.
The case proceeded in stages: the panel heard evidence in January 2025, closing submissions in June 2025, and delivered its determination on 6 November 2025 after a final hearing on 3–6 November. Chance-Hyett, who was unrepresented, admitted crossing professional boundaries from the outset but disputed that his conduct was sexual; the panel rejected that position, finding the conduct was done for sexual gratification, though not in pursuit of a future sexual relationship. It found every particular proved, sexual in nature and sexually motivated, and concluded the conduct amounted to serious professional misconduct. The panel identified as aggravating factors the imbalance of power with a younger, junior, female colleague, and actions that were sexual in nature, sexually motivated and involved non-consensual touching — an abuse of his professional position. Colleague A told the panel the conduct made her feel “very uncomfortable, and embarrassed and awkward”, and the panel found he caused her emotional harm. It found his conduct breached HCPC standards on reducing risk of harm to colleagues and on conduct justifying the public’s trust in the profession.
The panel also weighed substantial mitigation: insight developed and reflected on over three years, genuine remorse shown from an early stage, early admissions, no previous regulatory matters during his long career, no further concerns since the incidents in summer 2022, and remediation that included further relevant training and actively championing the sexual safety charter. It found he was not currently personally impaired, because he had remediated his conduct and posed a low risk of repetition, but concluded that impairment was made out on the public component to uphold standards and maintain confidence. On sanction, it ruled out no further action, a caution order and a conditions of practice order; striking off would be unduly punitive because the misconduct, though sexual and an abuse of position, sat at the “lower end of seriousness”. The panel imposed a four-month suspension order, to be reviewed before it expires.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The sources document the official response rather than any wider public campaign. Colleague A’s concern of 5 August 2022 led to a SWAST investigation by an operations manager, a disciplinary hearing on 23 November 2022 and a disciplinary outcome that December, before the HCPC received a referral on 29 July 2023. At the regulatory stage, the panel stressed that public confidence in the profession and its regulation would be undermined if no finding of impairment were made, citing the emotional harm to Colleague A, the disrepute brought on the profession and the breach of its fundamental tenets. The full determination was published on the HCPTS hearings site, and MedicWatch recorded the case in its index of suspended practitioners, summarising it as a four-month suspension for sexual boundary breaches with a junior colleague.
Current Status
On 6 November 2025 the panel directed the registrar to suspend Chance-Hyett’s registration for four months from the date the order came into effect. It declined to impose an interim suspension to cover the 28-day appeal period, concluding one was not required, so the order would not take effect until that window expired. The suspension is subject to review by a panel before it expires, with no specific actions expected of him beforehand. MedicWatch, whose data on the case was last checked on 23 September 2026, lists him as suspended from practice for four months and directs readers to the official register for his current status. He was not struck off.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The case carried professional consequences well before the tribunal outcome: after the SWAST disciplinary he was demoted with a reduction in pay and moved to a station much further from his home, increasing his travel time and costs. He nonetheless remained employed as a paramedic with SWAST and mentored two student paramedics in 2023 and 2024, one of whom provided a reference describing his approach as “consistently kind, calm, and highly professional”. He told the panel he had lost a friend in Colleague A. The four-month suspension removes him from practice for its term, interrupting a career that began in 2004.