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Standards and Guidance Standard
Our Standard requiring regulators and Accredited Registers to maintain up-to-date standards and guidance for their registrants. (We use the term “organisation” to refer to both regulators and Accredited Registers.)
Return to the full list of StandardsStandard 5: Standards and Guidance for Registrants
What do we expect?
The organisation maintains, publishes and promotes up-to-date standards and guidance that support health and care practitioners to act professionally and practise safely, prioritising public protection.
Why is it important?
Professional standards and guidance provide practitioners with essential information about the standards of practice and behaviour that are expected of them. They are the means by which this is communicated to the public and inform education and training programmes.
Standards and guidance are important because they help enable safe, ethical, and high-quality care and can help prevent problems from happening. When problems do occur they act as a benchmark for assessing a professional’s suitability to practise.
What does this mean in practice?
- Practitioners are aware of and have access to the organisation’s standards and guidance they need to support safe and effective practice.
- Standards and guidance are up to date and informed by evidence, address emerging areas of risk, and prioritise public protection.
- Standards and guidance are aligned across practitioner groups where appropriate, to support safe and effective care, and consistent regulatory outcomes.