Engagement of health and social care employers in professional regulatory fitness to practise – missed regulatory and organisational opportunities?

Fitness to Practise processes create the opportunities for not only the determination of whether an individual professional is fit to practise and the supportive measures that might need to be taken if they continue to practice, but also for health and social care organisations to prevent occurrence and re-occurrence of misconduct, thereby improving their services. Regulators' communication patterns resulted in these employers' organisational opportunities being missed. It may also lead to over-referral thereby leading to burden on employers, registrants and regulators. Improvements in communication by regulators such as via dedicated employer liaison functions could help organisations access these opportunities as well as promote the objectives of regulators to uphold trust in regulation.