PSA publishes its review of the General Chiropractic Council’s performance for 2025/26

We have today published our annual performance review of the General Chiropractic Council (GCC). During 2025/26, we conducted a periodic review of the GCC’s performance against the Standards of Good Regulation (the Standards), including an audit of its fitness to practise (FTP) function.

For this period, the GCC has met 16 out of the 18 Standards. Our report explains how we made our decision.   

In 2024, we introduced a new approach to assessing regulators against our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Standard. In order to meet the Standard, regulators must assure us they are delivering the four high-level outcomes supported by our evidence matrix. The GCC met the Standard. It continues to perform well in several areas and has made progress in updating its FTP guidance to address a previously identified gap. The GCC continues to look for, and take steps to reduce, risks of bias or unfairness. We have suggested some ways it could enhance this work.

The GCC did not meet Standard 10 this year because we found that two out of three sanctions imposed against registrants at a final hearing were not showing on the register. We considered there were insufficient controls in place to ensure the accuracy of the register during the review period. The GCC corrected the errors after we identified them and is taking steps to strengthen its assurance framework to prevent a recurrence. We will monitor the effectiveness of these changes.

We concluded that the GCC did not meet Standard 15 again this year. Although there has been some improvement in timeliness at the earlier stages of the GCC’s FTP process, there has been no material improvement in the time it takes for cases to progress to a final hearing.  The data also suggest a backlog could be developing at the final hearing stage of the process. 

This was the third consecutive year that the GCC did not meet Standard 15 because of the timeliness of its FTP investigations. The GCC is taking action to address our concerns and there are some early signs of improvement so the issues do not currently appear intractable. However end-to-end timeliness has not yet significantly improved so we have written to the Chair of the GCC to ensure a continued focus on improvement in this area. We will continue to monitor the GCC’s progress in improving its timeliness. 

You can find out more about the GCC’s review in our full report. Find out more about how we review the regulators.

The judgements we make against each Standard incorporate a range of evidence to form an overall picture of performance. Meeting a Standard means a regulator has demonstrated satisfactory performance in that area. It does not mean there is no room for improvement. 

Our oversight does not stop when we publish our report. It is an ongoing, continuous process and, where we have identified areas for improvement, we pay particular attention to these as we continue to monitor the regulator’s performance.

Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care

Contact: media@professionalstandards.org.uk