Tackling sexual misconduct through our power to check and appeal fitness to practise decisions
One of our key oversight roles is reviewing final decisions made by regulators’ fitness to practise panels (our Section 29 powers). These regulator panels consider concerns or complaints about health and care professionals following an investigation and, where necessary, a hearing. Regulators send us their final panel decisions, which we review to assess whether they provide adequate public protection. Where we believe a decision falls short, we can appeal it. We have seen a rise in final decisions involving sexual misconduct and inappropriate behaviour. In response, we have taken forward appeals or shared learning points with regulators.
Fitness to practise and sexual misconduct | Section 29 Conference
We recently hosted a Section 29 conference at 39 Essex Chambers, bringing together senior leaders from the 10 health and social care professional regulators. The event focused on strengthening cross‑regulator approaches to sexual misconduct cases, with particular attention to supporting witnesses and improving consistency in decision‑making.
Across the day, speakers shared practical insights and emerging approaches from across jurisdictions, alongside reflections on how fitness to practise (FtP) processes can better recognise and respond to harm.
Read key takeaways from the conference, including presentations delivered on the dayRead through relevant reports, case studies and learning points
Research
We first published sexual boundaries guidance in 2008.
In 2018 we published research we commissioned. This was prompted by concerns we identified into fitness to practise cases where professionals, found to have subjected colleagues to sexual harassment, were receiving less serious sanctions than those who had crossed sexual boundaries with patients. We referred three of these cases to Court using our powers to appeal regulators’ fitness to practise panel decisions; however, these appeals were unsuccessful. We wanted to challenge the belief that these types of case, as they did not directly affect patients/members of the public, were less serious and did not have the same impact on public protection and patient safety than sexual misconduct involving patients.
We have also commissioned and published research, including by Professor Rosalind Searle.
Webinar series and research conference
Over the last two years, we have hosted a series of webinars on different aspects of sexual misconduct in health and social care.
The webinars brought together stakeholders from across the sector, including:
- regulators
- Accredited Registers
- patient representative organisations
- registrant representative organisations
Topics covered included:
- hearing from those working to address sexual misconduct in the sector
- reviewing the latest research evidence
- learning from approaches used in other sectors and countries to identify what more can be done
We have now collated a set of resources arising from the webinar series, including presentations and links to other work relevant to the topics and presentations during the series.
Read the resourcesResearch conferences
Tackling sexual misconduct has also been a key theme of recent research conferences. You can read the conference presentations to explore the evidence shared, the issues discussed, and the action needed to strengthen prevention and response across health and social care.