A typology of dishonesty - illustrations using the fitness to practise database

Why we were commissioned to do this research

The drive for consistency across healthcare regulators is critical to ensuring fairness and justice for professionals, for patients, and for maintaining public trust and confidence. Concerns have been raised about inconsistency in the fitness to practise (FtP) proceedings of the health and social care regulators. In 2018 a rapid policy review into gross negligence manslaughter in healthcare chaired by Professor Sir Norman Williams recommended an investigation of “the extent and reasons for different fitness to practise outcomes in similar cases and, if appropriate, recommend changes to ensure greater consistency”.

The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) has been commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care to address these recommendations together with an academic partner. As the first step towards a full investigation, this scoping review has examined the ways by which consistency could be researched and what sources of data are available to examine these issues. This report of the scoping review presents its findings and concludes with a proposed comparative methodological approach (evaluation framework) to assess consistency in FtP procedures and outcomes across the nine health and social care regulators in the UK.