Promoting equality, diversity and inclusion

We are committed to supporting and promoting equality, diversity and inclusion.

We have an overarching EDI action plan running in tandem with our three-year Strategic Plan 2023-26.

We have set two equality objectives to progress our continued journey to drive forward EDI.

Objective 1: Develop our EDI leadership

As an independent body overseeing regulation and registration and setting standards for organisations, we recognise we have an important role in championing EDI practice and outcomes. This is why our first equality objective is focused on developing our EDI leadership. We understand that developing our EDI leadership includes promoting EDI in our work and those we oversee. It also includes using our influence and convening powers to be timely, visible and current in responding to emerging and ‘new’ EDI issues, whist maintaining the profile of more longstanding and persistent EDI matters.

Our Strategic Plan sets out our aim to make regulation and registration better and fairer. In doing so it sets out our intention that by 2026 EDI indicators across the regulators and Accredited Registers show significant progress when compared to 2022/23.

Objective 2: Build an inclusive workplace

We recognise that creating and sustaining inclusive workplace practices requires continuous commitment and action. This is why our second equality objective focuses on driving forward EDI within the workplace and more specifically building and improving upon our existing inclusive practices.

Get in touch

Please let us know if you need our material in other formats. Email info@professionalstandards.org.uk

Read our blogs

Public protection at the heart of reform

by Alan Clamp, PSA Chief Executive | Dec 19, 2023

With legislative reform underway, what are the next steps for professional healthcare regulation?

This was the theme of the recent Westminster Health Forum Policy Conference, chaired by Lord Hunt of Kings Health (representing the All-Party Parliamentary Health Group), at which I spoke about the need to put public protection at the heart of regulatory reform.

In my presentation I focused on:

the necessity of reform;
the need to get the legislation right; and
our commitment to support implementation of the reforms.

I also discussed how we can promote safer care for all by using reform and by refocusing regulation.

Why do we need reform?

So, why do we need reform? Some might say to improve the efficiency of regulation; to provide up-to-date and more flexible legislation; to have simpler, more coherent and more consistent regulation; or to introduce more proportionate, less adversarial fitness to practise processes. All laudable aims, but secondary to the importance of improving public protection. We need reform to keep us safer – the efficiency, flexibility and proportionality of the processes are important, but not if any of them come at the expense of protecting the public.

For this reason, it is vital we get the legislation right. Along with the obvious desire for the legislation to be fit for purpose, we know that it is the intention of the government to use the forthcoming legislation – which will regulate a few thousand physician and anaesthesia associates – as the blueprint for reform of most of the other regulators. These regulators oversee more than 1.5 million professionals working in health and social care. If it turns out that the legislation isn’t as good as it needs to be to improve public protection, then we must improve it before it is rolled out across the sector.

Reform will replace prescriptive legislation with enabling legislation. We are essentially saying to the regulators, “Here are the powers; it is up to you how to use them”. This additional flexibility brings with it a need for greater accountability and implies that guidance on using the powers will be beneficial.

What is the PSA's position on reform?

The PSA’s position on reform is simple and has not changed: we welcome reform; we will work with others to design legislation that enhances public protection; and we will do everything within our remit, powers and capacity to ensure that reformed regulation is as effective as possible in protecting the public. On this point, we will soon be consulting on our initial guidance documents that will support the implementation of reform.

Driving reform, getting the legislation right, and supporting the implementation of reform will all lead to better regulation. Better regulation can make an even greater contribution to safer care for all. It can help to support effective workforce strategies, respond to new risks, and tackle inequalities – all in the interests of public protection.

This is all good stuff. It is ambitious and forward-looking. The future is bright. But here is the elephant in the room: we don’t yet have large scale reform. The process is slow and clunky, there has been little contribution from the patient voice, the legislation may well need more work before a widescale rollout, and there is a risk that it could all grind to a halt. We can’t let that happen.

If we can keep the momentum going, get the legislation right and support the reforms, then we may just get there one day. But what about the problems we face today, or next week, or next year? Reform is not going to provide the answers to these challenges.

Refocusing regulation

Regulation needs refocusing now to keep us safer. This does not require reform. We need to focus on violations and recklessness, and much less on errors and mistakes. We need to focus on positive and preventative regulation – for example, initial training, continuing fitness to practise, and information, advice and guidance to support professionals to meet high standards of competence and conduct. And we need to focus on a kinder, more compassionate model of regulation.

This does not mean compromising standards, just ensuring that regulation is not excessively draconian in its methods or sanctions. This will reduce fear, promote a just culture, support retention of professionals, and, to quote the Patient Safety Commissioner for England, encourage more “speaking up, listening up and following up”.

Refocused regulation matters – it is better, fairer, more cost-effective and keeps us safer. Refocused regulation is about doing a good job today and an even better job tomorrow. Then, when we get reform, we can use it as an opportunity for a step change in public protection and safer care for all.

Find out more

Read through our statement in response to the draft legislation laid before the UK and Scottish Parliaments on Wednesday, 13 December 2023 which will give the General Medical Council the statutory powers it needs to regulate the Anaesthesia Associate and Physician Associate professions in the UK.
Or find out more about reforming regulation here.

No more excuses - tackling inequalities in health and care professional regulation

This is the first chapter in our report - Safer care for all: solutions from professional regulation and beyond. we looked at the impact of inequalities on patients, service users and registrants, and on public confidence more widely. We also took a closer look at what professional regulation (and beyond) could do to tackle inequalities in health and care.

We have recently held two events:

On 14 December 2023 more than 90 participants joined us online to explore whether health and care professionals in the UK should have an explicit responsibility in supporting action to address these disparities as they do in other countries. And, if so, whether regulators need to reinforce such a role through their training, standards and guidance.

We then started the new year off with a joint online seminar on tackling barriers to complaints with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). The event followed on the heels of an earlier in-person event with patient and service-user organisations held in Edinburgh in September 2023.

The event brought together over 100 stakeholders from across the health and social care sector to discuss and explore the barriers that currently existing and can prevent patients and service uses from complaining. Along with our PHSO colleagues we wanted to share examples of innovative actions to widen and improve access to complaints services and to encourage and promote further joint work to tackle barriers to complaining. The event gave us much food for thought and we will look to continue this work in 2024/25.

You can find out more about both of these events here.