Regulation of Health and Social Care Professionals Consultation

1.26 The regulation of social care professionals falls within the legislative competence
of each country. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have now
introduced separate arrangements for the regulation of social workers and/or
other social care staff. 27 As noted previously, the remit of our review extends only
to the regulation of social workers in England. Therefore, any potential changes
to regulatory functions or their implementation discussed in this paper, so far as
the social work profession is concerned, will only extend to the regulation of
social workers practising in England.
1.27 Health care and health services are devolved in each settlement, subject to
certain exceptions. Accordingly, the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for
Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly have legislative competence, and the
Governments/Executives in each country have executive powers and
responsibilities. The NHS is therefore now administered differently in each of the
four countries of the UK, and each has its own systems regulators. This is of
major significance to the UK regulators. Professional regulation is affected by the
context in which health services are delivered. Further, education and training are
broadly devolved, which impacts importantly on the statutory role of the
regulators to ensure proper standards of education. Current areas of significant
differences in policy in both these areas include clinical governance, prescription
drug charges, charging for personal and nursing care for older people, and tuition
fees for students. 28
1.28 The scope of our project does not extend to a review of the devolution
settlements in the UK. However, the responsibilities of each of the three devolved
administrations – legislatures and executive arms – give them a strong legitimate
interest in health care professional regulation. The regulatory system has its roots
in a time before devolution. One of the challenges of the project is to ensure that
the legitimate interests of the devolved administrations are properly recognised
and expressed in the development of regulation. Our provisional approach to
doing so is set out at the various relevant parts of the consultation paper.
Legal references
1.29 Although the case law for professional regulation is spread out over three
jurisdictions, in substantive terms the law is the same. In this consultation paper
we have therefore drawn indiscriminately from the case law in England and
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
26
Health Act 1999, s 60.
27
Care Standards Act 2000, s 54; Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001; and Health and
Personal Social Services Act (Northern Ireland) 2001.
28 See, H Cheyne and others, “United but Divided? The Need to Consider the Practical
Consequences of Devolved UK Government on Midwifery Education and Practice” (2011)
27 Midwifery 770.
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