What are fitness to practise panel decisions?
Each of the 10 statutory regulators we oversee has a ‘fitness to practise’ process for handling complaints about health and care professionals. The purpose of these processes is to help protect the public, to maintain public trust in the health and care professions they regulate, and to declare and uphold professional standards. The most serious cases are referred to formal hearings or meetings in front of the regulators’ fitness to practise committee panels. A final fitness to practise panel decision will be produced by the panel at the conclusion of the case with their reasons for their decision.
The purpose of the fitness to practise procedures is about protecting the public rather than a general complaints resolution process. The procedures are designed to protect the public from those who are not fit to practise. If a regulator finds a registrant’s fitness to practise is ‘impaired’, it means that there are concerns about their ability to practise safely and effectively. The actions the regulators can take if it finds a registrant’s fitness to practise is impaired by reason of misconduct, poor performance or ill health are:
- Take no further action
- Advice
- Caution/Warning/Reprimand
- Conditions
- Suspension with or without a review
- Erasure/Striking off/Remove