We check how well organisations regulating people working in health and social care are doing their job. Every year, we report on the 10 regulators we oversee to make sure they're protecting the public properly. We provide feedback on what they're doing well and how they can do better.
How we use performance reviews
We use our performance reviews to:
- tell the public how well regulators are meeting our Standards of Good Regulation
- help regulators improve by pointing out their strengths and areas for improvement.
Our review cycle and the resulting reports
Our performance reviews are carried out over a three-year cycle.
Every three years, we conduct an intensive ‘periodic review’ and in the other two years, we monitor performance and produce shorter reports. We can undertake a periodic review sooner if we identify new risks or concerns.
We then publish reports explaining how we judge each regulator's performance. We refer to these as our ‘performance reviews’. We publish two types of report outlining how the regulators are meeting our Standards of Good Regulation:
- longer, more detailed reports which we refer to as periodic reviews
- shorter overview reports which we refer to as monitoring reports.
How we carry out performance reviews
Every year, we look at each regulator using a thorough performance review process and we:
- review information the regulator publishes
- look at data on their registration and fitness to practise processes
- check their public register
- review their fitness to practise decisions (these are the decisions made about serious complaints or concerns against health and care professionals)
- consider feedback from people who have dealt with the regulator and shared their experience with us.
Always aiming to improve standards
Even when a regulator meets our standards, there's always room to get better. We keep an eye on areas where they can improve.
What happens if a regulator doesn’t meet a Standard?
We highlight when a regulator does not meet a Standard and provide pointers on areas for improvement. We understand that sometimes, improvements can take time. However, if a regulator does not meet the same Standard for three years, or when we have new concerns that are particularly serious, we will follow our escalation policy and may raise concerns with the Government or Parliament.
How we escalate performance review concerns
In 2020 we introduced an escalation policy that would allow us to escalate serious or intractable concerns to others, particularly in Government and Parliament. This includes where a regulator has not met the same Standard for three years, or where we had concerns so significant that we considered they needed escalating even if they were new. There are several actions we may take as part of the escalation process, including writing to the regulator’s Chair, the Secretary of State for Health and Social care, and/or the Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee. We may also introduce closer monitoring of the issue with the regulator.
In 2022 we updated the process to reflect the changes we had made to our approach to performance reviews.
