Professional Regulation and Healthcare Workforce Development

Next steps for the healthcare workforce in England | 6 July 2026, 
Westminster Health Forum

Dr Alan Clamp, Chief Executive of the Professional Standards Authority, spoke at the Next steps for the healthcare workforce in England event organised by the Westminster Health Forum and taking place on 6 July 2026, where he discussed the role of professional regulation in supporting safe workforce innovation. This statement is a summary of his presentation.

Safe care in a changing environment

Alan began his presentation by considering the risks posed by workforce shortages. He highlighted the importance of training, both to meet the requirements of registration and to keep up to date in a rapidly changing work environment. The challenges for regulators of professions are compounded by multi-disciplinary working, evolving roles, the development of new roles, and the government’s three shifts to community, digital and prevention. 

Is regulation the answer?

The presentation emphasised that regulation is just one part of a multi-layered ‘lines of defence’ approach. Safety is the job of all parts of the system, including professionals, patients, employers, professional bodies, education establishments, representative organisations, system regulators and professional regulators. Regulation is also not the simple answer as there is no one thing that is regulation – it is a menu of choices (or a continuum of assurance) based on the risk of harm, in line with the PSA’s Right-touch regulation.

A regulatory strategy

Regulation can be an enabler of safe workforce innovation and, if done well, can maintain public protection and public confidence in a changing system. Alan argued that what we need is a regulatory strategy to support an effective workforce strategy. This should not be prescriptive, but rather needs to be an agile, principles-based framework (like Right-touch regulation) to help accelerate the pace of workforce change. And we need a shift in regulatory approach, away from compliance and enforcement models towards a much greater focus on information, advice and guidance to support professionals to meet and exceed standards – a more preventative approach. This kind of regulation also supports more positive workplace cultures and greater retention of staff.

What regulators should start, stop and keep doing?

To support safe workforce development, regulators should:

• Start: becoming active partners in workforce planning; supporting flexible professional pathways; and enabling safe innovation.
• Stop: relying primarily on compliance and enforcement models; regulating professions in silos; and being excessively risk averse.
• Keep: maintaining independent standards; using data and information to promote learning and improvement; and promoting professionalism.

Conclusion

Professional regulation needs to shift from protecting the public primarily by controlling entry to professions, towards a much more dynamic approach of protecting the public by enabling a safe, skilled, adaptable and sustainable workforce.

Regulators should become strategic partners in workforce development, while remaining uncompromising on competence, conduct and patient safety.