Senior managers working for the NHS in England will be subject to new regulatory powers, the Department for Health and Social Care has confirmed.

The government will introduce a statutory barring-system, run by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), set out in legislation at a later date. Under the system, board-level managers and their direct reports may be banned from working in the NHS again if they have been found to have committed serious misconduct.

New professional standards for managers will be used alongside the statutory-barring system, with the standards expected to be set out some time in autumn.

Responding to the announcement, Jon Restell Chief Executive of MiP said:

“We’re pleased that the government has listened to our views on management regulation. It is sensible to limit regulation to the most senior posts, at least to begin with. And we argued strongly for an independent regulator.

“There is a lot of work to do before regulation can begin. The government will need to clearly define standards, design a fair regulatory process and answer several technical questions such as what happens to managers already covered by a regulator. MiP is ready to work with the government on these issues.

“Statutory regulation is a small piece of the jigsaw, covering as it will a few cases in a narrow band of management activity. Culture change, greater accountability and more professionalism, which our members ardently want, requires a much bigger effort. It will mean trusting managers more to get on with the job, freeing them up and letting go of micro-regulation from Whitehall. And it also means having enough managers working in stable organisations. The hard truth for patients and staff is that the government’s swinging job cuts and risky system upheaval are the biggest threats to good management in the NHS.”