Why does health and care regulation need to be reformed?

The current framework for the regulation of health and care professionals in the UK is outdated and needs to modernise to ensure it can protect the public today and in the future. The Government consulted on reforming professional regulation in late 2017/early 2018). We produced a new publication Right-touch reform to help influence the debate and put forward proposals for future development and improvement. It provides context of the current regulatory landscape as well as providing in-depth analyses of what needs to change to make healthcare regulation fit for purpose. You can also read our response to the consultation.

Right-touch reform

In this publication we set out our thoughts on why regulation needs to be reformed, the current arrangements for fitness to practise and the problems with it, how it could be revised and our arguments for a single assurance body (or read summaries of our thinking on the Future of Fitness to Practise and Harm prevention:

• Right-touch reform 2017
• Right touch reform - a summary of our thinking on the future of fitness to practise
• Right touch reform - a summary of our thinking on harm prevention

Read our publications on reforming health and care professional regulation

'A once in a life-time opportunity...' government consultation on reforming regulation

The government consultation on reforming regulation was long-awaited and provided the first opportunity to look at how regulation could be improved so that it properly protects patients and supports professionals to do the right thing. The deadline for responding to the consultation Promoting professionalism, reforming regulation was 23 January 2018. Read what we had to say in our response. We timed the publication of Right-touch reform to help people understand how regulation works now and what needs to change. We wanted people to get informed and respond but this is just the start of the conversation on regulatory reform. The Government published its response in July 2019. Now it is just a question of 'watch this space' to see what happens next and how the Government will take forward its plans for regulatory reform.

At a glance - chapters

See the separate sections, covering:

• Right-touch reform 2017 - harm prevention
• Right-touch reform 2017 - fitness to practise
• Right-touch reform 2017 - education and training
• Right-touch reform 2017 - modernising registers

Watch our short explainer

This short video gives a quick overview of the principles of right-touch regulation