CHRE Performance review report 2011-12 - Professional Standards ...

7. How are the regulators performing against
the Standards of Good Regulation?
7.1 The Standards of Good Regulation, against which we assess the performance of
the regulators, are grouped under four headings reflecting the regulators’ core
functions: guidance and standards, education and training, registration, and fitness
to practise. There are 24 standards in total across the four regulatory functions. In
this section, we reflect on the regulators’ general performance in relation to each of
these core functions. The standards are set out in full at Annex two.
7.2 In summary, we have found that the regulators are generally performing well
against most of the Standards of Good Regulation and are meeting their statutory
responsibilities. However, we have also identified that:
Eight of the regulators either do not meet one or more of the standards; or
We have concerns about the consistency of their performance against one or
more of the standards
This relates to performance in education and training, registration and fitness to
practise. We note that the regulators are already taking action to address our
findings.
7.3 Failure to meet one standard in a particular area may not be significant but instead
reflect a regulator’s developing policy position - this is the case in relation to those
who do not currently have a system to ensure registrants’ continuing fitness to
practise. However, a failure to meet some other standards may have more serious
implications for public protection, for example a failure to meet the standards
relating to timeliness of case progression or the quality of decision making in the
fitness to practise function. The individual reports for each regulator expand further
on our concerns about the regulator’s performance against certain standards.
7.4 In relation to our general findings of the regulators’ performance in the four
regulatory functions which the Standards of Good Regulation cover, we have found
the following:
Guidance and standards
7.5 We are pleased that in relation to the guidance and standards function all of the
regulators are meeting all of the Standards of Good Regulation. Some regulators
are also leading the field by showing how this area of the regulators’ work can
further develop and improve. This is being achieved through the continuous
improvement of guidance provided to registrants, continuous efforts to engage an
ever wider range of stakeholders in its production, and external audit of
consultation processes. Several regulators are exploring the potential for
engagement with their registrants through social media. We welcome the work
being done by the HPC to build relationships with the social care regulators in
Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales as it prepares to assume responsibility for
the regulation of social workers in England. We also welcome initiatives to read
across from other functions which inform reviews of standards, such as the GOsC’s
adverse events research projects and the GDC’s exercise to review Investigating
9