Monitoring Report - GCC 2021/22

Our report covers the period 1 April 2021-30 June 2022.

Key findings

• The GCC has demonstrated a clear commitment to tackling issues around equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) during this review period. It has made good progress implementing its EDI Action Plan, in particular by improving the completeness of the EDI data it holds about its registrants, and has set up an EDI Working Group of registrants and a diverse online patient community. It has also embedded EDI throughout its draft Education Standards, which are due to be implemented in 2023. Because of this work, the GCC has met Standard 3 for the first time. We urge the GCC to keep up the momentum on this vital issue.
• Like all regulators, the GCC has had to deal with the ongoing and wide-ranging effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. This continues to have a major impact on the GCC’s ability to progress complaints through its fitness to practise system. The time taken to progress cases to resolution has increased significantly this year – particularly for the most serious cases that reach the Professional Conduct Committee. The GCC has therefore not met Standard 15 for this review period. We will look in more detail at the GCC’s plans to improve performance in our next review.
• We are concerned that the GCC may not have the legal powers it needs to manage high-risk fitness to practise cases effectively. Compared to other regulators, the GCC can use interim orders to restrict the practise of registrants for a relatively short period of time. This is a risk to patients and the public, and we will be investigating this further over the coming months.