Learning from research into the unintentional impact of fitness to practise proceedings on witnesses
Hywel Dafydd, our Assistant Director of Regulation, was part of the regulator advisory group on the Open University-led ‘Witness to harm’ research project. Here, he reflects on that work.
Time flies, and it’s hard to believe that over three years have passed since we were invited to be part of the Open University-led Witness to harm research project.
The research team, led by Professor Louise Wallace across five universities, set out to learn more about the public’s experience as witnesses in professional health and care regulatory proceedings.
When the behaviour of a registered person falls below standard, they may be investigated. This process is known as fitness to practise – or FtP.
Witnesses to misconduct can be called to give evidence in an FtP hearing. These might be patients, people who use care and support or colleagues who have been harmed by the registered person’s behaviour. This can include sexual abuse, theft or physical harm.
The Witness to harm research project is groundbreaking as it’s the first independently funded multi-regulator research into the fitness to practise process.
The research team has collected and considered a range of evidence around whether and how FtP processes might unintentionally impact on witnesses. It evaluated the interventions regulators use to address these possible secondary harms.
The study aimed to find out what support witnesses want and what they receive. It explored best practice and potential improvements in how the public engage with fitness to practise processes, and aimed to create workable recommendations and resources for the public, professional bodies, employers and regulators.
I was humbled to represent Social Care Wales by joining the project’s regulator advisory group, essentially as a ‘critical friend’. Our role was to provide specific advice and support in relation to opportunities for potential developments related to the project, but also to advise on how the work might impact on policy and practice, or be refined.
I say I was humbled because this work is important on many levels.
Protecting the public
Firstly, one of the main aims of professional regulation is to protect the public. Anything we can learn from the public themselves, especially those who’ve gone through the process, is invaluable in making sure we try to meet our legal duty in the best way possible.
Secondly, while we aim to protect the public, we want to do it in a way that’s person-centred, as a compassionate regulator to all involved. This means treating people with respect, kindness and empathy, while also upholding our professional responsibilities.
Thirdly, to continuously improve we must live our organisational values to be always learning. This research clearly provides rich learning to help us and all regulators across the health and care system to innovate and become better at what we do.
Learning from the research
It's fair to say that this research project coincided with the busiest period in our time as a regulator, with our professional Register growing from 12,000 to 60,000 from 2018 to 2022. But that gives us even more reason to find new ways to make the process more effective, as it’s inevitable more people will go through the FtP process as witnesses.
The research found that there’s much more we can do as regulators to improve the experience of those who’ve been witness to harm.
For example, the research highlighted issues around the amount, complexity and accessibility of FtP information on regulators’ websites. We’ve taken this on board and are currently in the process of updating our FtP web pages.
The research also reflected that members of the public who’d been harmed and who raised a complaint, and then took part in investigations and hearings, mainly found the process to be onerous, protracted, distressing and disappointing.
We’ve followed the progress of the various resources that have been delivered during this project, and we’re taking that guidance on board.
This will help us make sure we’re working to reduce harm to those who’ve been affected by bad practice in social care in a compassionate, person-centred way that helps us meet our aims of protecting the public.
Find out more
You can find out more about this work in our project finder.
The project finder entry includes links to resources that have been created as a result of the research, as well as information about how to get in touch with the research team.