Regulation of Health and Social Care Professionals Consultation

and Midwifery Council’s standards contain requirements that if a patient has
suffered any harm, the registrant must act immediately to put matters right and
provide a full explanation promptly. 6 In England, similar statements are contained
in the NHS Constitution, the Code of Conduct for NHS Managers, guidance
provided by the National Patient Safety Agency, and regulation requirements
published and enforced by the Care Quality Commission. A similar duty of
candour is also provided for under the Compensation Act 2006. Moreover, the
Department of Health has proposed the introduction of a new duty of candour
which will be introduced in the new contract arrangements for NHS
commissioning. 7
Provisional view
6.10 The regulators’ role in ensuring proper standards of professional education,
conduct and practice is a complex one. A multitude of agencies have varying
degrees of responsibility for ensuring proper standards of professional education,
conduct and practice, and therefore decisions cannot be taken in isolation. While
the regulators are responsible for setting standards in these areas, their ability to
monitor and deliver those standards is heavily reliant on others. This is in marked
contrast to their other statutory functions. However, the available research
suggests that the legitimacy of the regulators’ involvement in education, conduct
and practice is beyond doubt and their contribution is valued in particular “for the
confidence and subject-specific insight that it can provide”. 8
6.11 Under our proposed legal framework, the regulators would continue to be
required to ensure proper standards of professional education, conduct and
practice. But it is also important that the framework does not add to the existing
complexity in these areas, and encourages a more streamlined and coordinated
approach to this regulatory task. We believe this could be achieved in two ways.
6.12 First, consistent with provisional proposal 2-2, the regulators would be given
greater freedom to adopt their own approach to regulating education, conduct
and practice, including a lighter-touch approach where appropriate. This would
enable a regulator, for example, to reduce its regulatory activity or withdraw from
a specific task, especially where the impact is marginal and other agencies are
undertaking similar tasks. Any decision to reduce or withdraw involvement in an
area would, of course, be subject to the main duty to protect the public (and
maintain confidence in the profession) by ensuring proper standards (see Part 3).
An example might include issuing guidance, which is discussed in more detail
below.
6 General Medical Council, Good Medical Practice: Being Open and Honest with Patients if
Things Go Wrong (2009) and Nursing and Midwifery Council, The Code: Standard of
Conduct, Performance and Ethics for Nurses and Midwifes (2008).
7 Department of Health, NHS Constitution for England (2010); Department of Health, Code
of Conduct for NHS Managers (2002); National Patient Safety Agency, Being Open:
Communicating Patient Safety Incidents with Patients, their Families and Carers (2009);
Care Quality Commission, Guidance about Compliance: Essential Standards of Quality
and Safety (2010); Compensation Act 2006, s 2; and Department of Health, Implementing
a Duty of Candour: A New Contractual Requirement for Providers (2011).
8 Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence, Quality Assurance of Undergraduate
Education by the Healthcare Professional Regulators (2009) para 5.7.
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