What the PSA is doing to support legislative reform
To support the regulators make best use of the new powers they will gain when their legislation is reformed, the PSA has published guidance to encourage good practice.
The regulators will have new powers to use a less adversarial and quicker ‘accepted outcomes’ process for dealing with complaints about healthcare professionals. Our accepted outcomes guidance:
- provides pointers to help regulators decide when a case can be resolved without a public hearing
- advises on when a hearing might be needed to maintain public confidence and ensure a robust review of the evidence
- helps regulators decide who should make the final decision on a case when not referring it to a hearing
- helps regulators decide what information to include when publishing decisions.
The regulators will also have new powers to make and amend the rules governing the way they regulate. Our rulemaking guidance:
- lays out principles to guide regulators to use their powers transparently, with appropriate consultation and in a way which prioritises public protection
- encourages regulators to consider how their use of these powers aligns with the practice of other professional regulators, as appropriate.
This guidance currently applies to the processes set out in the Anaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates Order (AAPA Order). However it will be updated once the GMC order passes into law and in line with subsequent legislation passed.
This guidance is intended for healthcare professional regulators to use when developing their own guidance and processes. For most regulators, this will only be applicable once their legislation has been updated in line with the government’s programme of regulatory reform.
This guidance is not mandatory, and regulators can take a different approach to drafting their guidance. However, we will have regard to our guidance when we assess how regulators are using their new powers under our review of their performance. There is further information in the guidance about how we will use this guidance in relation to our performance review.
We consulted on this guidance and have now published the consultation outcome report summarising how we took feedback into account.
The PSA is also reviewing its operational readiness for reform to ensure that we are able to adapt our processes to provide robust oversight for reformed and unreformed regulators.