Profession Regulation

The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (the Authority) is an independent organisation accountable to the UK Parliament, which helps to protect the public by improving regulation and registration of people who work in health and care.

The Authority:

reviews the work of the regulators that access the professionals ‘fitness to practice’ process and decisions
accredits organisations that register professionals practicing within unregulated occupations
provides policy advice and encourages research to improve regulation

The Authority oversees 10 health and social care statutory bodies across the United Kingdom and Isle of Man that register health and care professionals working in occupations that must be regulated.

There are a further 3 Social Care and Social Work regulated statutory bodies for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which do not report directly into the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care.

The regulators

Approximately 1.2 million health professionals working in the health and care sectors, must, by law, be registered with a regulator in order to practise. A professional can be removed at any time from a regulators register, to prevent them from practising when it is considered to be in the best interest of the public.

The regulators:

set the standards of behaviour, competence and education that health care professionals must meet
keep registers of health professionals ‘fitness to practise’
deal with concerns raised by a patient, member of public or another health or social care practitioner regarding a specific health and social care worker

If you want to check that your health and social care professional is registered, or wish to raise a concern, visit the appropriate statutory body website or contact the regulator directly.

Regulated health and social work professionals

Chiropractors
Dentists and the dental team
Doctors, Surgeons and Psychiatrists
Health and Care Professions including Psychologists, Paramedics, Radiologists and Occupational Therapists
Nurses, Midwives (and Nursing Associates in England only)
Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians
Osteopaths
Pharmacists
Social Workers