The Professional Standards Authority's July 2011 good practice report identifies the most effective methods for patient and public participation (PPP), following a finding in our 2009/10 Performance Review.
Background
Before 2011, reforms to health professional regulation had increased the formal involvement of the public in the governance arrangements of individual regulatory bodies. The Councils of most regulators consist of equal numbers of public and professional members, in a clear and explicit move away from self regulation of the professions. Alongside these formal developments in governance, the need to involve, engage and encourage the participation of patients and the public in the work of the regulators has been sustained. At the Professional Standards Authority (then CHRE), as the organisation charged with promoting the interests of patients and the public in this sector, we maintain a keen interest in the regulators’ approach to this area of their work and the positive impact it can have on their role in public protection.
In our performance review of the health professional regulators for 2009/10, we said that we would identify the most effective methods and mechanisms for engaging patients and the public.
Summary
This report identifies the most effective methods for patient and public participation (PPP), following a finding in our 2009/10 Performance Review. Many regulators have incorporated PPP into their governance and constitutions, adopting a wide range of practical approaches to allow participation. We gathered the views of patients, the public and regulators, and developed a set of principles for the regulators to follow when carrying out their PPP activities.
We gained the views of patients and the public by:
- Discussing the subject with those who attended our public meetings
- Conducting a public survey through the CHRE website using a standardised set of questions
- Speaking to people in more detail about their responses to the survey.
We also spoke to the health professional regulators to:
- Explore their organisational history of patient and public participation (PPP)
- Hear about the initiatives that had worked well
- Understand what benefits they felt their PPP work had brought to their organisation
- Understand how they had evaluated its effectiveness.