Healthcare Science right-touch assurance assessment for Scotland

We will use the PSA’s right-touch assurance approach as the main framework for assessing the five healthcare science professional groupings identified by the Scottish Government in its Healthcare Science in Scotland: Redefining our Workforce report. These groupings are:

• Engineering Sciences,
• Health Informatic Sciences,
• Laboratory Sciences,
• Physical and Imaging Sciences, and
• Physiological Sciences.

We will gather and analyse evidence about the level and nature of risk across those groupings, including where current controls appear sufficient, and where there may be unmanaged risks. We will combine that analysis with targeted stakeholder engagement so that our recommendations are practical, sensitive to the context in Scotland, and able to support future workforce development.

The end result will be an evidence-based set of recommendations which the Scottish Government may use in any discussions with stakeholders and other governments around regulation, and to strengthen assurance where needed. 

There are four main phases of the healthcare science commission. These are designed to build a robust evidence base, engage stakeholders, and develop clear, proportionate recommendations.

The main phases of the work are:

1. Phase 1: Evidence collection and analysis against RTA risk criteria | July-October 2026
2. Phase 2: Development of recommendations for addressing unmanaged risks | October-November 2026
3. Phase 3: Testing and refining of recommendations with key stakeholders | December 2026-January 2027
4. Phase 4: Drafting of advice report and submission of final advice and recommendations | January-March 2027

The PSA will submit the report, and its recommendations to the Scottish Government, who will consider how to take forward possible solutions to unmanaged risks.  They have informed us that they will also invite all other countries of the UK to consider what recommendations made could mean for professional healthcare regulation within the UK. 

There are two ways you can get involved and more details about these are in the detailed answer below (or see above for an at a glance summary of where we want your involvement):

1. Call for Evidence
2. Community of Interest

We are looking for input from professionals, members of the public, and organisations to this work. The main opportunities to do this will be in Phases 1 (evidence gathering) and Phase 3 (refining recommendations) of this work, though it’s likely that additional opportunities will arise as the work progresses. 

We are currently looking for people and organisations to come forward for the following:

Call for Evidence – do you hold data or intelligence?

If you believe you hold data or intelligence that would help us evaluate the risks associated with each of the professional groupings, or of a specific healthcare science role, we encourage you to complete our data screening questionnaire. This will help you, and us, decide whether you have the kind of information that we need – if you do, we will then issue you with a full request for data, most likely early August.

We will be looking for: quantitative data; research papers; relevant lived experiences or observational evidence that could help us understand the nature of any safety gaps. We would welcome data and intelligence that relates to the wider UK and international contexts, as well as Scotland. We will then invite those organisations with significant data contributions to make to join our Evidence Working Group. This group will help us make the most of the data gathering and analysis phase of the project, and will therefore be most active during Phase 1 – though we may also want to come back to it later if further questions arise about the evidence at later stages. We ask that you complete the screening questionnaire by midnight on Sunday, 9 August.

Please note that, although we are not requesting personal and/or sensitive data, all the information we receive will be kept in accordance with our privacy policy.

We are also setting up a Community of Interest, which we would like to use as a sounding board throughout the project, and especially during Phase 3. If you would like to become part of this community, we invite you to submit an expression of interest using this form by midnight on Sunday, 2 August.

Please note that, although we are not requesting personal and/or sensitive data, all the information we receive will be kept in accordance with our privacy policy.

Yes. We expect that some organisations or people may find themselves in both groups. Not coming forward now does not mean you cannot get involved at a later stage, however it would help us greatly if you could express your interest at this early stage, by using both forms.

If you have any questions about the project, please contact the PSA at HCSCommission@professionalstandards.org.uk. You can also let us know at this email address if you would like to be kept updated on key updates with the project.   

Other ways to get in touch include:

1. Go to Contact us | PSA.
2. More information about how what you can expect when the PSA collects personal data can be found in our privacy statement here: Privacy statement | PSA. 
3. If you have any queries for the Scottish Government about this work, please contact officeofthechiefscientificofficer@gov.scot.