Response to PSA fees regulation consultation

21 November 2021

Dear Alan,

Re: Professional Standards Authority fees regulation consultation

We welcome the opportunity to comment on the Professional Standards Authority’s proposed fees requirements for 2022/23 in respect of its regulatory oversight and standards functions, and to provide feedback which we hope will support that work.

Consultation feedback

The consultation document describes some of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary adaptations to regulatory activity. We continue to share with the Authority our own experiences of responding to the pandemic and continue to work across professional regulation and social work to maintain the effectiveness of our regulatory functions.

We support the Government’s work to reform the legal framework for regulation and we will continue to share our own experience of specialist regulation. We look forward to hearing more about the work the Authority intends to carry out with regulators to implement reform and any changes it makes to its own processes.

In the consultation document, the Authority shares an update on the increase in concerns it has received about the regulators over the past year. We would like to note that this number is higher than those shared by the Authority with regulators. We therefore encourage the Authority to work with the regulators to agree suitable arrangements to share more information about the concerns with the regulators.

We also note that some of the functions set out in the business plan and that form part of the Authority’s proposed budget, do not apply to us. In particular:

• The Authority does not have a responsibility to assist with appointments to Social Work England under Section 25C(2)(a) of the NHS Reformation and Health Care Professions Act 2002;
• The Authority does not have the power to make directions requiring Social Work Eng-land to make rules under Section 27(2) of the 2002 Act;
• The Authority does not have the power to scrutinize final order review outcomes under Section 29(2A)(a) of the 2002 Act.

Do you think that our proposals for our work in 2022/23 are reasonable?

We support the Authority’s proposals for its work in 2022/23. Following its recent audit of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), the Authority has employed a consultant to help implement for of the proposals. We support the Authority’s intentions to gain a greater understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion within the health and social care sector, which extends to ensuring that the regulators are promoting and monitoring equality, diversity and inclusion. We look forward to hearing more about the Authority’s work and vision in this area, as we look to embed our own approach to equality, diversity and inclusion following our statement of intent.

Are you aware of any legislative changes that will impact on the Authority in 2022/23?

We are not aware of any legislative changes, other than those proposed through the Government’s regulatory reform of the other regulators. The Authority is part of the steering group and is aware of the changes being proposed.

However, the Authority should be aware that it has recently come to our attention that Regulation 34 of the Social Workers Regulations 2018 (Referral of cases by the Authority to the High Court) only applies to early reviews and not to all final order reviews (as it only refers to Regulation 15(2), rather than Regulation 15(1)). We are working with the Department for Education, as our sponsor department, to discuss a statutory amendment to correct this and other minor issues with the Regulations. However, we do not yet know when the amendment regulations will be made or come into force.

Do you think that our assumptions regarding the number of Section 29 cases we will receive are reasonable? Can you provide us with estimates of the number of cases you will conclude during 2022/23?

We think the Authority are best placed to estimate this based on previous years’ activity. However, we appreciate this is more complex this year, and we were pleased to see that the Authority has considered the impact the pandemic may have on a regulator’s ability to conclude final hearings. We think 3,500 cases seems like a fair estimation.

Like other regulators, we are looking to accelerate our hearings work to manage caseloads next year. We are targeting the completion of approximately 250 final hearings in 2022/23, to recover from the impact of the pandemic.

As stated above, the Authority does not have the power to scrutinize final order review outcomes, so we have not provided a forecast for these hearings in our response.

Do you think that our assumptions regarding the recovery of costs are reasonable?

Yes, the recovery rate of 25 per cent is consistent with previous years. We would not expect success rates in appeals to differ from previous years, so the assumptions seem reasonable.

Do you agree with our proposed budget?

Yes, the assumptions and costings appear fair, and the accrued savings of £216K that the Authority intends to return to the regulators is comparable with previous years. The increase in staff cost of 2.2% seems reasonable given the expected rate of inflation over the next year and a catch up from last year’s pay freeze. We were pleased to note that any underspend in the 2021/22 budget will be used to reduce the fee for 2023/24.

Additional information

Further to the specific questions set out in the consultation, we support the Authority’s intentions to focus more of their work on monitoring the regulators in-year, as well as plans to implement its engagement strategy. We note that the Authority is currently consulting on its performance review process, to which we are also preparing a response.

We support the Authority’s plans for regulatory research, particularly around equality, diversity and inclusion. As an organisation, we are committed to learning about social work and to gathering data and intelligence about the profession and people's lived and learned experiences of social work. We want to make a unique contribution to the evolution of regulation, use the data and intelligence we gather to inform our work as the specialist regulator, and help to provide a detailed picture of social work in England.

I hope the Authority finds this feedback helpful.

Yours sincerely

Colum Conway
Chief Executive