New Year, New Opportunities: embracing change in health and care

As we settle into the New Year, like many others, I find myself reflecting on the past year and thinking about what lies ahead. January can feel dark, cold, and gloomy, but there's always hope that brighter days are just around the corner. The same can be said for the health and care system: despite facing significant challenges — from rising demand to issues with infrastructure, workforce, funding, culture, and quality of care — the year ahead offers potential and opportunities for positive change.

The rise of Artificial Intelligence

One of the most exciting opportunities on the horizon comes from the Government’s push to accelerate investment in artificial intelligence (AI). The health sector is already making remarkable strides in AI, and we can expect these innovations to continue. However, with these developments come the need to reassess professional regulation. To address this, we’ll soon be establishing a cross-regulator group to explore the benefits, risks, barriers, and enablers of AI, ensuring we can safely harness its potential while protecting the public.

Progress on priorities

While regulatory changes tend to happen gradually, shifts in government priorities — like those we saw following the recent general election — can spark significant change. Health and social care were key issues during the election campaign, and we shared a manifesto highlighting our priorities for the incoming government. These priorities align with our 2022 report entitled Safer care for all, and it's encouraging to see progress in several areas.

Inquiry Recommendations: turning talk into action

With our ongoing desire to see healthcare inquiries result in meaningful change, we welcomed the Health Services Safety Investigations Body’s (HSSIB) report in September 2024. One of its key recommendations was the creation of a multi-agency monitoring system to track and escalate unimplemented recommendations. This approach aligns with one of our Safer care for all recommendations, and we are actively supporting further work in this area as a member of the Impact Collaboration Group. We are excited to see how this evolves in 2025.

Regulation of NHS Managers: increasing accountability and support

Another important issue from our manifesto is the regulation of NHS managers. In November 2024, the Government launched a consultation on this topic, which closes in February 2025. This has been a long-standing debate, and we’ve contributed our thoughts on it to the Thirlwall Inquiry. We believe that a successful approach should not only increase accountability but crucially, also provide support and development opportunities to help managers safely lead the NHS into the future. We’ll be submitting a detailed response to the consultation and look forward to the Government’s next steps.

Contributing expertise 

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s commitment to addressing sector challenges has led to several significant reviews, including the Darzi Report on the state of the NHS in England and the Dash Review into the operational effectiveness of the Care Quality Commission. We’ve been able to share our expertise with some of these reviews, and we expect this collaboration to continue throughout 2025. The Government’s focus on growth and smarter regulation underscores the importance of asking, “What value does regulation bring?”. As new roles, technologies, and service models emerge, we’ll continue offering our insights on how professional regulation can adapt to enable innovation while ensuring safety.  In 2010 we published the first edition of our Right-touch regulation report which became a seminal document setting out a principles-based pragmatic approach to proportionately mitigating risk. Given all the developments over the last 15 years, we have decided that this is the right time to update Right-touch regulation so that this evidence-based approach to good regulation in any sector or jurisdiction remains as relevant today as it was when first published. The new report will be published in October 2025.

Addressing regulatory gaps

While we’ve seen progress in many areas, there are still gaps that need to be addressed. Recently, there has been an increase in media stories about harm caused by botched cosmetic procedures. We welcome the Scottish Government’s consultation on regulating non-surgical cosmetic procedures. However, the UK Government’s response to the 2023 consultation on this issue is still pending. Given the ongoing harm that patients are continuing to experience, including in the most tragic cases the loss of life or serious disfigurement, we urge swift action to improve safety in this area. We remain concerned about patient safety in the meantime and recommend that anyone undertaking such treatments uses a practitioner on an Accredited Register. 

We are also awaiting clarity on the Government’s commitment to regulatory reform. Our manifesto emphasised the need for regulators to have the flexibility to adapt to future challenges and we still advocate for comprehensive reform across all regulators.

Ongoing regulatory oversight and looking ahead

We continue to carry out our core regulatory functions. In December 2024, under its reformed powers, the General Medical Council (GMC) began regulating Anaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates. This has not been without contention and has led to the Leng Review which will consider the safety of the roles and their contribution to multidisciplinary healthcare teams.  Our oversight of the GMC’s regulation of these roles has begun and we plan to publish our first report which will include these roles by the end of this year.

Additionally, we will continue chairing the Independent Oversight Group which scrutinises the Nursing & Midwifery Council’s (NMC) change programme as it implements recommendations from the Independent Culture Review published in July 2024, and responds to the findings of the additional reviews underway. 

This year we will be reviewing our Standards of Good Regulation for the 10 statutory regulators and Standards for Accredited Registers to ensure they remain relevant to the challenges faced.  These are the standards which we use to hold the organisations we oversee to account and are key to driving improvements.

It looks as though 2025 brings change and the potential for more change — including within our own Board. In December 2024, we bade farewell to Tom Frawley and Moi Ali, our long-serving Board members for Northern Ireland and Scotland. We are excited to welcome Geraldine Campbell and Ali Jarvis into these roles, bringing their perspectives, experiences and enthusiasm to our mission of improving professional regulation and patient safety.

Together with our Board members and PSA staff, I look forward to navigating the opportunities and challenges that 2025 will bring. 

Caroline Corby | PSA Chair