Regulation of Health and Social Care Professionals Consultation

Programme. 14 Similarly, at the General Medical Council there is a requirement to
demonstrate certain qualifications and then a two-stage test that includes a
written exam and practical test. The Council has 14 overseas assessment
centres which include Cairo, Lagos and Islamabad. 15
13.19 An assessment is not necessarily part of the process at the Health Professions
Council where two assessors can accept an application to join the register on the
basis of documents provided. These requirements depend on the standards of
proficiency for the particular professional register that is being applied for. 16
Provisional view
13.20 Registering health and social care professionals that have qualifications from
countries beyond the EEA is a complicated task for the regulators. Currently, this
task is performed without the support of a detailed legal framework. However, we
would be concerned about imposing a framework on the regulators, not least
because the size of the task of recognising international qualifications depends
on the profession involved. Furthermore, the regulators are best placed to
determine the equivalence of qualifications and the content of any supplementary
training or assessment.
13.21 In our view, the retention of enabling powers in this area would strike the right
balance between the competing values of legal certainty and flexibility in practice.
Therefore, we provisionally propose that the statutory solution should include
broadly-worded powers for the regulators to register those from non-EEA
countries. As indicated above, this would include a power to set requirements as
to the language, practice and education that an applicant would be expected to
demonstrate as well as a power to oversee any supplementary assessment or
training regime.
Provisional Proposal 13-3: The statute should include broad powers for the
regulators to register those from non-EEA countries, including powers to set
requirements as to the language, practice and education requirements.
REGULATING OUTSIDE THE UK
13.22 As well as facing challenges in terms of potential registrants entering from
abroad, the work of the regulators also has an impact on those outside the
borders of mainland UK. Here we focus on three issues which arise in this
context: the extent of the regulators’ jurisdictions, accreditation of courses abroad
and distance service provision.
Extent of the regulators’ jurisdictions
13.23 The regulators’ legislation extends to the UK, except for the Pharmacy Order
2010, which extends only to Great Britain, and the Pharmacy (Northern Ireland)
14 Nursing and Midwifery Council, Registering as a nurse or midwife in the United Kingdom:
for applicants from countries outside the European Economic Area (2011).
15
See http://www.gmc-uk.org/doctors/plab/advice_part1.asp#1 (last visted 15 February
2012).
16 See http://www.hpc-uk.org/apply/international/assessing (last visited 15 February 2012).
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