The Professional Standards Authority is responsible for overseeing the UK’s nine health and care professional regulatory bodies. Our oversight and scrutiny of the regulators is important for protecting users of health and social care services and the public.
We review the performance of the regulators on an annual basis. We identify where things are being done well, and where improvements can be made. More information about our annual performance review is available.
Each regulator has a fitness to practise process for handling complaints made by service users, employers and others about health and care professionals. The most serious cases are referred to formal hearings in front of fitness to practise committees. We review all final decisions made by those fitness to practise committees. To learn more about our scrutiny of these decisions, information is available in the final fitness to practise decisions section of our website.
We carry out an audit of the initial stages of regulators’ fitness to practise processes, looking at a sample of the decisions made by each regulator to close a case without referral to a formal hearing in front of a fitness to practise committee. We do this to ensure that the regulators’ decision-making processes are effective. We also assess whether the decisions taken protect the interests of service users and the public. More information is available in the early fitness to practise decisions section of our website.
From time to time, we have been asked to conduct special reviews. These may relate to regulators in other sectors, or outside the UK. More information about our special reviews is available.
Also, information about how we respond to concerns raised with us about the regulatory bodies is available.