Regulation of Health and Social Care Professionals Consultation

workers), some are largely self-employed and work in the private sector (such as
chiropractors and osteopaths), and other professional groups work in private
commercial firms (such as high street opticians and pharmacists).
2.8 These differences impact on how each regulator approaches its core functions.
For some professions (such as doctors) the costs of regulatory failure are
potentially considerable and consequently the approach of the regulator may be
less flexible than for a profession whose core tasks represent a lower negative
impact in the case of regulatory failure. Furthermore, differences in the
marketplace mean that some regulators undertake premises regulation, as well
as regulating individual practitioners (see Part 11).
2.9 There are also significant differences between the regulators in terms of their size
and resources. The size of the regulators varies from the Pharmaceutical Society
of Northern Ireland which has just over 2,000 individual registrants, to the Nursing
and Midwifery Council which is the largest regulator with 665,599 registrants. 6
Several regulators are responsible for one group of professionals, whereas the
Health Professions Council regulates 15 professions (soon to increase to 17
when they take over the regulation of herbal medicine practitioners and in
England, social workers). Some of the larger regulators may hear several
hundred fitness to practise cases a year, while smaller regulators may hold less
than ten hearings. As is clear from table 3 below, there is also variation in the
fees charged, expenditure and total number of registrants.
.
Fee Expenditure (£M) Registrants
GCC £1000 £2.9 2,918
GDC £575 £26.8 95,583
GMC £420 £87.3 248,287
GOC £270 £5.1 24,628
GOsC £750 £2.8 4,440
GPhC £262 £8.3 68,590
GSCC £30 £48.7 7 104,469
HPC £76 £16.2 215,476
NMC £76 £44.7 668,084
PSNI £345 £0.86 2,060
Table 3: Registration fees, expenditure and registrants of the regulators 8
6 Enabling Excellence: Autonomy and Accountability for Healthcare Workers, Social
Workers and Social Care Workers (2011) Cm 8008, p 27.
7 Includes the Education Support Grant.
14