Extending professional and occupational regulation for healthcare services

In February 2007 the Government published a White Paper entitled "Trust, Assurance and Safety - The Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21st Century."

In addition to setting out a programme of reform to the current system of statutory regulation in the healthcare sector, the White Paper contained proposals to extend regulation to a number of other healthcare professions, including, for example, applied psychologists, psychotherapists and counsellors.

The White Paper also discussed the possibility of regulation being extended to other roles within the healthcare sector, e.g. acupuncturists, herbal medicine practitioners.

Given these proposals, a Working Group was established to review the scope of professional regulation. The Working Group has recently published its findings in a report entitled "Extending Professional and Occupational Regulation - The Report of the Working Group on Extending Professional Regulation".

The report describes the work undertaken and issues considered by the group and makes recommendations in the following five key areas -

• Risk assessment.
• Cost/benefit analysis.
• Proportionate regulation.
• Routes to regulation and registration.
• Stakeholder engagement and involvement.

Read Wragge & Co's analysis for a summary of the issues considered and recommendations made.