MPS’s response to consultation on ‘Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care - Draft Fees Regulations’

MPS welcomes the opportunity to respond to this consultation on the future funding arrangements for the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA).

We have not provided detailed responses to the questions posed in this consultation. Rather we would like to highlight a broader concern we have about the principle behind the proposals and the impact we feel they may have on the independence of the PSA as well as the cost implications for registrants.

Independence of the PSA

The PSA should continue to be funded directly by the Department of Health and the Devolved Administrations to maintain its clear independence.

Healthcare professionals already pay for the costs associated with the bodies that oversee their professions. This is appropriate and in line with how regulation in other sectors is funded. However, it is government policy that in addition to those regulators, there should be further oversight of healthcare professionals provided by a another body (the PSA) to provide scrutiny and quality assurance of their regulators.

We think that in order to provide this further oversight function effectively, there needs to be a clear separation between the PSA and the regulators it oversees. An important part of demonstrating the independence of the PSA is to ensure that its funding arrangements are distinct from those organisations it regulates. The most appropriate way to do this would be for the PSA to continue to be directly funded by the Department of Health and the Devolved Administrations as is currently the case.

Read more in the full response below.