October 2013 rapid review on processes used by the nine health and care professional regulatory bodies in the UK to register applicants trained and applying from outside of the European Economic Area
Background
We received a commissioning letter from the Department of Health on 1 August 2013, asking us to review the processes used by the nine regulators whom we oversee for registering international applicants, that is, those trained and applying from outside the European Economic Area. In this rapid review, we set out the range of approaches adopted by the regulators, and give examples of how they assure themselves of the applicant’s language ability, identity, academic qualifications, registration, and experience. We also review training or adaptation requirements, and identify some points of interest and notable practice.
Process
As a first stage in this work, we researched the information available on the regulators’ websites, and for each regulator compiled a document setting what we could find out about their processes and forms of assurance, and with specific questions to each regulator on any areas where we were unclear or required further information. We sent these documents to the regulators and received replies back from all of them.
We also asked the regulators to provide data on the number of applications received annually for registration from international applicants; a breakdown by country of the numbers of registrants held by each regulator; and comments on any trends in numbers of applications.