Dental Protection welcomes PSA drive to wipe out inequality in regulation
NewsPosted by: Dental Design 12th October 2022
Dental Protection has welcomed recommendations by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) for regulators, including the GDC, to help tackle inequalities in professional regulation.
The PSA oversees the GDC and other professional regulators and produces reports to recommend improvements. In its latest report, Safer Care for All, the PSA states that tackling discrimination and inequality requires a collaborative, coordinated effort from all bodies involved in the provision and regulation of healthcare, including regulators.
The report calls on the GDC and other regulators to review and address “more directly and urgently” processes which may have a disproportionate impact on certain groups of registrants, and ensure investigators have the right tools to interrogate information included within a referral, to help avoid progressing complaints against certain groups of registrants that are not well-founded.
The PSA in its September 2022 response to the GDC’s consultation on its strategic plan for the next three years, also asks the GDC to consider how it is embedding equality, diversity and inclusion across all workstreams, and in relation to all strategic priorities.
Dr Raj Rattan, Dental Director at Dental Protection, said: “All dental professionals have the right to an inclusive environment, and regulatory processes that are fair and just.
“The GDC’s 2021-2023 vision is to be a champion of diversity, equality and inclusion and one objective is to ensure that regulatory activity is fair and transparent. This includes analysing over-representation in fitness to practise cases and what this means.
“We are pleased to see this focus and recognise there are multiple and complex factors behind this issue. However, the PSA is right to call on the GDC, alongside other regulators, to address the issue more directly and with more urgency. We stand ready to work with and assist the GDC in this area wherever possible.”
A spokesperson for the General Dental Council said: “We too welcome the PSA’s report, Safer care for all, and look forward to further discussion with the PSA and other healthcare regulators about the important issues it raises.
“We are committed to ensuring our regulatory activity is fair, transparent, and accessible to all, and appreciate Dr Rattan’s recognition of the complexity of understanding what leads to overrepresentation in fitness to practise. We reflected on this in August when, for the first time, we were able to include a breakdown of cases by EDI characteristics in our Fitness to practise annual statistical report. While we are at the early stages of understanding what the data tells us, its inclusion provides a clear signal of our commitment to this important work, and we look forward to speaking more about this as it progresses.”
