Regulation of Health and Social Care Professionals Consultation

conditional on a professional providing assurance to the regulator on a regular
basis that he or she is up to date and fit to practise.
5.5 The public may see the purpose of registration as giving a stamp of approval to
an individual as a professional. This may be particularly significant where the
profession is largely self-employed, registration is voluntary, a significant number
of practitioners are unregulated or the professional works from home or some
other non-official environment. For members of the public seeking professional
support, registers can play a useful role in providing additional information to
inform their choice. However, the information on registers alone would not be
sufficient to help them choose one professional over another as it does not
indicate who would offer the best service. Notwithstanding the limits of registers
in this respect, most regulators maintain lists of specialist practitioners or include
in each individual entry educational qualifications above the standard required for
qualification. These lists and entries may help guide public choice and interprofessional
referrals, although they may be less relevant where registrants are
employed predominantly in the public sector.
5.6 Research indicates that the public are reassured by the existence of registers,
although expectations of registers vary; some people only want basic information
about a health professional and any current fitness to practise determinations,
while others expect to see information relating to the quality and performance of
the professional. 1 However, there is also generally low awareness of the health
and social care professional registers, and of the regulatory bodies themselves.
5.7 However, a function of a register (although not a deliberate aim) is to define a
profession for the purpose of regulation and thereby enhance the status of that
profession. Registration achieves this in some cases by protecting the use of a
professional title. 2 Thus only registrants are entitled to use certain titles, and it is a
criminal offence for a person to use a protected title if they are not registered with
the relevant regulator. In some cases the legislation also specifies certain
protected functions, whereby only registered professionals can undertake certain
activities. Protected titles and functions are discussed later in this Part.
5.8 Indeed, registration is sometimes seen as an essential trait of a profession which
refers to an occupation with “autonomy, status and a degree of occupational
closure”. 3 This is linked to what is often seen as the economic purpose of
registration. The establishment of a register is a way in which a professional
group can defend itself against other occupational groups who may want to claim
a share of its market, as well as against “would-be members who do not conform
to the occupational ideal or would make occupational resource less scarce and
thereby less costly”. 4 Indeed, the purpose of specialist registers can be seen as
conferring certain advantages, for example by providing that only registrants who
are included in the specialist register can take up certain high status and
comparatively well remunerated appointments (such as a hospital consultant).
1 Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence, Health Professional Regulators’ Registers:
Maximising their Contribution to Public Protection and Patient Safety (2010).
2 The protected titles used in the governing legislation are listed in Appendix D.
3 K Van Heugten, “Registration and Social Work education: A Golden Opportunity or a
Trojan Horse?” (2011) 11 Journal of Social Work 174, 180.
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