The GCC has met 23 out of 24 of our Standards of Good Regulation and this represents a notable improvement in the GCC’s performance since last year.
Guidance and standards: stakeholders’ views/experiences are taken into account
The GCC ran a public consultation on the guidance produced to support its revised Code. There were 241 responses from chiropractors, other healthcare professionals and members of the public. Over 80 per cent of those responding said that they found the guidance to be helpful, useful and easy to understand.
Education and training: quality-assurance process is focused on ensuring students meet the regulator’s registration standards
The GCC’s Education Committee holds regular meetings with the educational institutions to discuss their annual monitoring reports and share good practice. The Education Committee has also been involved in discussions with other UK/international chiropractic accreditation agencies to develop new approval processes and policies.
Registration: only those who meet the regulator’s requirements are registered
We considered the GCC’s own review of its registration processes and concluded that the GCC was correctly following its procedures when deciding whether a practitioner can join its register. We also found that information about registrants can be easily accessed on the GCC’s register, including whether there are any restrictions to their practice.
Fitness to practise: cases are prioritised/dealt with as quickly as possible
During the 2015/16 performance review, the GCC has improved its risk assessment of complaints and has, in general, improved its timeliness when handling complaints. It has, for example, reduced the time taken from the receipt of a complaint to the final fitness to practise hearing. We will continue to monitor performance in this area.
Fitness to practise: the process is focused on public protection
This Standard was not met in the last performance review because of concerns with compliance with the GCC’s fitness to practise processes. For this performance review, the GCC told us about actions taken to address our concerns and how its procedures have improved. Through our review, we noted improvements to the GCC’s investigation processes and guidance, as well as the quality-assurance of decisions.
Fitness to practise: all parties are kept updated on progress
The GCC has not met this Standard this year. Our review of 24 fitness to practise cases found shortcomings in the way the GCC acknowledges complaints, updates parties and provides accurate information about the status of cases. Whilst we recognise that the GCC has taken steps to improve its performance in this area, we have concluded that it has fallen short of meeting the Standard.