Regulation of Health and Social Care Professionals Consultation

PART 12
OVERLAP ISSUES
12.1 As noted throughout this consultation paper, health and social care professional
regulation does not exist in a vacuum. The functions of the regulators frequently
cross organisational and legal boundaries. Often the same function or a similar
function is undertaken by different organisations, and in recent years there has
also been growing emphasis on achieving greater integration and co-operation
between all the relevant agencies. This Part considers how our proposed statute
should facilitate joint working. It considers the following areas:
(1) interfaces with other systems;
(2) joint working; and
(3) duties to cooperate.
INTERFACES WITH OTHER SYSTEMS
12.2 Numerous reports have highlighted the need for clarity about the respective
responsibilities of the professional regulators and the other organisations and
systems responsible for health and social care regulation. 1 The complex interface
between the regulators and other bodies responsible for ensuring proper
standards of education, practice and conduct is described in detail in Part 6. The
overlapping systems that apply to business regulation are set out in Part 11.
12.3 There is also a complicated landscape governing patient and service user
complaints about health and social care professions. As well as the regulators’
fitness to practise procedures there are locally managed systems such as
employment disciplinary processes, the NHS and social care complaints
procedures, and the Performers List system. National regulators such as the
Care Quality Commission and Health Service Ombudsman handle individual
complaints, as well as publishing reports and good practice guides which draw
attention to poor performance trends across the sectors. Furthermore, conduct
and performance issues may give rise to a serious untoward incident, a
safeguarding investigation, a serious case review or a criminal prosecution. The
civil and criminal justice system can also hear allegations of medical and clinical
negligence, murder, manslaughter and assault charges. Indeed, criminal cases
are often undertaken in parallel with practise proceedings.
12.4 A 2011 report by the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence noted
widespread confusion about the different channels for complaining and the links
between them, and in particular a lack of understanding of the role and functions
of the professional regulatory bodies. 2 This complex interface is also recognised
1 For example, Department of Health, Good Doctors, Safer Patients: Proposals to
Strengthen the System to Assure and Improve the Performance of Doctors and to Protect
the Safety of Patients (2006) and Department of Health, The Regulation of Non-Medical
Healthcare Professions: A Review by the Department of Health (2006).
2 Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence, Modern and Efficient Fitness to Practise
Adjudication: CHRE’s Advice for Secretary of State (2011) paras 6.5 to 6.6.
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