Three things to get right for public protection - government consultation on reforming regulation

What are the three things the government needs to get right when it reforms health professional regulation?

The government is currently consulting on reforming regulation. In Three things to get right for public protection we set out the main things we believe the Government needs to change to ensure their reforms to health professional regulation protect patients and the public.

What are the three things?

Whilst we support many of the proposals, we do not support everything. Key changes that we think are needed to make the reforms a success include:

1. Apply the public protection safety net we have now to all final fitness to practise decisions, and not just those that are made by panels
2. Keep the powers regulators have now to handle health concerns about a professional if there is a risk to the public
3. Keep some independent checks and balances to make sure that the way regulation works is safe and consistent across professions where it needs to be.

These changes will not form part of the upcoming Health and Care Bill – they are part of a separate consultation and the proposed reforms will be taken forward for each regulator in turn, starting with the General Medical Council later in the year, through secondary legislation. The policy direction for these changes will therefore be determined by the outcome of this public consultation.

We encourage anyone with an interest in improving regulation to read through our concerns, review and respond to the consultation. The deadline for responding is 12:15 am on 16 June 2021.