As some of you may know, the GSCC is currently undertaking a major programme of work to strengthen our approach to conduct, following serious problems with the management of thiswork coming to light earlier in the year.

Although there is still a lot of work to do to get the conduct function onto a sustainable footing for the future, we have made significant progress and are now confident that we are in a much stronger position to manage risks to public protection. As of last month there are no longer any unallocated cases, we have significantly strengthened our risk-assessment procedures and we have developed a management information system so that we can track the progress of case work and effectively monitor performance. We have recruited additional expertise, including a casework specialist who is leading our investigation function, and a pool of external investigators who provide additional capacity to progress cases.

Following an investigation into the problems that came to light with our conduct work, our Chief Executive Mike Wardle has been dismissed. Paul Snell is still in place leading an interim senior management team and we have recently begun recruitment for a new Chief Executive and three new Directors to take the organisation forward to the next phase of its development as a regulator. We have also identified a number of areas in which our powers and remit need to be strengthened, and we are pleased that both the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE), in its recent review of our conduct work, and the government, support. This includes requirements on employers to share information and making a wider range of sanctions available to our conduct committees so that they can impose conditions on registrations, rather than only punitive sanctions. We also support the CHRE’s recommendation for a fitness to practice model of regulation which would allow us to assess competence aswell as conduct.

The GSCC now has a clearer focus on public protection and a strong platform on which to build a comprehensive programme of reform to our conduct work.

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I am pleased to know that the GSCC is going to take the issue of poor, worrying and outright dangerous practice seriously. I would like to know more about the process this will take though. Also at a time when the profession is being asked to do more with fewer resources, I am concerned to see that this doesn't take equal priority in this article. Surely, there may well be a link between poor practice and what is expected of us! There has been a 25% increase in my team's workload with no increase in the team's workers. How can we take the time we need with each person potentially needing our services when we are being pushed to work with more people and in the hospital setting, being fined if we are considered by the HA to be taking too long with that work. It's not just the baby P's that may be missed, but the adult P's in this world, many of whom have no voice but are at equal risk of abuse and sometimes worse.

Ceri Triskel
14 Dec 2009