How would a professional register work?
A professional register is a list of individuals who have demonstrated the relevant skills and competencies to practise a certain profession. These could be demonstrated through completing certain training and/or qualifications as well as through relevant experience. The register would be independently quality assured by a regulatory or professional body and would be publicly available.
NHS managers would be required to meet a set of agreed professional standards in order to join the register.
Voluntary schemes
With a voluntary scheme, managers would not be legally required to join the register to practise their profession. However, a voluntary scheme can become mandatory in practice if employers generally prefer to appoint people who are on the register.
A voluntary register would likely require some form of revalidation – a periodic re-assessment of registrants to make sure they still to meet the requirements for registration. Individuals could be struck off the register if they fail to meet the professional standards.
The initial set up of a voluntary register would probably be taxpayer funded, with registrants then required to pay annual fees to maintain their registrations.
Full statutory regulation
Full statutory regulation operates in a similar way to a voluntary register, but joining the register is a legal obligation for anyone practising the profession.
NHS managers would have to register with a regulatory body and hold an approved set of qualifications to show they are fit to practise their profession. This would put managers within a similar regulatory system as doctors and nurses.
Formal entry qualifications for NHS management and courses to deliver them would have to be devised. Statutory regulation would also require periodic revalidation. Managers on the statutory register could be struck off if they fail to meet the professional standards, meaning they would be unable to hold a management job in the NHS until they have rejoined.
As with the voluntary scheme, the taxpayer would fund the setting of a statutory register, but individual registrants would be required to pay an annual fee to keep their registration.
Related Stories
-
We get knocked down. We get up again.
With its brutal NHS cuts and chaotic reform plans, the government is moving fast and breaking things (again). It will be up to managers to fix them (again), writes Geoff Underwood.
-
Method to the madness? Six questions the ten year plan must answer
The NHS system in England has been blown up and thousands of managers are set to lose their jobs without knowing why, writes Craig Ryan. The upcoming ten year plan has a lot of questions to answer. Here are six of the biggest.
-
Turn and face the strange
SPECIAL REPORT: With its upcoming ten year plan, the government is promising to unleash the power of innovation in an English NHS which has often seemed slow to adapt to new realities and adopt new technologies. Craig Ryan talks to innovators and experts about what needs to change about the way we change.
-
Sarah Carter: “As a care home manager, you can see the difference you make to people’s lives”
MiP National Committee member Sarah Carter tells Craig Ryan about her ‘incredibly rewarding’ switch from the NHS to social care and the ‘unique and very special role’ of managing a care home.
-
Regulating the managers: more questions than answers
The Labour government’s plans for regulating NHS managers are still shrouded in mystery, and the three options on the table each have their pros and cons. Rhys McKenzie weighs up the choices and gauges the views of MiP members on the best way forward.
-
New MiP survey shows growing support for principle of regulating managers, but warns it won’t improve patient safety
MiP’s member survey on regulating NHS managers shows managers are still not convinced regulation will improve patient safety or raise standards, despite growing support for it in principle.