Response to the Professional Standards Authority's consultation on good practice guidance documents in support of regulatory reform

15 April 2024

We welcome the opportunity to comment on the Professional Standards Authority’s (‘the Authority’s’) draft guidance for regulators on the rulemaking process and accepted outcomes in fitness to practise, and to provide feedback which we hope will support that work.

Consultation feedback

Rulemaking guidance

We welcome consistency across regulation where appropriate and look forward to working with the Authority and the healthcare regulators to share our collective experiences of rulemaking. However, we feel it is important to acknowledge that regulation of social work is necessarily different to that of healthcare professionals. Whilst we will always look for opportunities to work with and align with our healthcare regulator counterparts, it is also crucial for us to do the same with other social work regulators, particularly in the devolved nations. As such, other healthcare regulators may also wish to consider their relationship with the equivalent regulators in the devolved nations if relevant, or other regulatory bodies internationally, to strengthen their procedures. As the Authority is aware, Social Work England already has powers to make and amend its operational rules, and we appreciate the Authority’s acknowledgement that we have specific provisions within our legislation to do so.

We note that the Authority intends for the guidance to provide good practice to regulators and hopes it will be helpful when making revisions or amendments to our own rules. We also note that the Authority states that it may choose to look at how regulators are making use of their new rulemaking powers under its performance review. We would therefore welcome more detail on how the Authority would consider usage of the guidance as part of performance reviews, or what this would require of regulators. Given our existing powers and processes to make and amend our rules, we would also welcome greater clarity on how this may apply to Social Work England. We would also welcome further information on the relationship of this guidance to the Standards of Good Regulation.

We support the Authority’s view that consultation is an important part of the policy making process. As well as the requirements around public consultation set out in our legislation, we also have well established consultation processes that adhere to the 2018 Cabinet Office consultation principles and ensure the involvement of all those impacted by our proposals.

Use of accepted outcomes guidance

We were pleased to see that the Authority often refers to our own processes and the positive outcomes accepted disposal can offer. However, we note that this guidance is based on the powers under the Anaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates Order, which as the Authority acknowledges in the guidance, are different to our own. We would therefore highlight that this could mean that some of this guidance may not apply to our processes or would work differently for us. As an example, under our rules for accepted disposal a registrant does not need to accept that their fitness to practise is impaired, a decision cannot be made by a single case examiner, nor can a decision be imposed if the registrant does not respond.

Finally, we acknowledge the positive collaborative approach to this consultation and appreciate our ability to productive input and inform this consultation. We would welcome the opportunity to work with the Authority to help provide further clarity were useful.

I hope the Authority finds this feedback helpful.

Yours sincerely

Colum Conway

Chief Executive