Regulation.

Overview of Healthcare Regulation.

Healthcare regulation in the UK is complex with many different regulators - some of which regulate individuals, and some systems and organisations. Below is a brief overview of the regulatory landscape in the UK and how it applies to Sport Rehabilitation.

Professional Standards Authority.

The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) is the UK’s top medical and healthcare oversight body. They PSA oversees the regulators of the various professions working in health and social care.

The primary goal of professional regulation is to ensure public safety with the original health and care professions being statutory regulated (required by law). The UK statutory regulators must meet standards set by the Professional Standards Authority in Health and Social Care (PSA).

The PSA also oversees newer professions under the accredited register scheme; providing professional registration and a commitment to high standards and public protection. Holders of Accredited registers also have to meet the PSA standards, undergoing both continuous and yearly assessments, providing the same level of confidence when choosing health and care practitioners.

These regulators can be split into two groups:

Statutory Regulators

• General Medical Council (Doctors)

• Nursing and Midwifery Council (Nurses and Midwifes)

• Health and Care Professions Council (Physiotherapists and other Allied Healthcare Professions).

• General Chiropractic Council (Chiropractors)

• General Osteopathic Council (Osteopaths)

See the list of statutory regulators here.

Accredited Registers

• BASRaT (Sport Rehabilitation)

• BACP and UKCP (Counselling and Psychotherapy)

• UK Public Health Register (Public Health Consultants and Practitioners)

• Academy for Healthcare Sciences (Healthcare Scientists)

• Joint Council for Cosmetic Practitioners (Cosmetics)

See the list of Accredited Registers here.

The role of the PSA in both cases is to set the standards that those regulators must meet, and to hold them accountable to those standards.

The standards for Accredited Registers are published here. The latest assessment of BASRaT against these standards can be found on the PSA website here.

Statutory vs Accredited Registers.

Though there are different legal frameworks for each, in a practical sense, statutory registers and accredited registers work in the same way, in that:

1. Both set standards for education and training in their profession

2. Both set and publish the requirements for entry to the register

3. Both investigate complaints and have a fitness to practice process

4. Both have requirements for ongoing education

5. Both have a publicly searchable register which includes disciplinary outcomes

6. Both are assessed against the PSA’s standards.

The type of oversight (statutory vs accredited register) does not reflect the quality or competency of the professional being regulated - this should be based on the published standards for each profession individually.

Comparing Sport Rehabilitation to other professions in MSK healthcare.

BASRaT is the only organisation holding a PSA Accredited Register for a graduate musculoskeletal profession.

Physios, Osteopaths and Chiropractors belong to the HCPC, GOsC and GCC respectively. All three are statutory registers.

Sports Therapists belong to various membership bodies, none of which have independent oversight from the PSA and self-regulate. Sports Therapists have varying educational standards from vocational courses through to postgraduate degrees. Due to this difference it is important to make the distinction between Sport Rehabilitation and Sports Therapy.

Protection of title.

Sport Rehabilitators do not have legal protection of title in the same way that other statutory regulated healthcare professions do.

Sport Rehabilitators on the BASRaT register are allowed to use the suffix BASRaT-reg and make use of the combined BASRaT / PSA quality mark which is trademarked. Somebody cannot claim to be on the BASRaT register if they are not.

People often claim the lack of a legally protected title is an issue for Sport Rehabilitation. It isn’t. In exactly the same way an employer would check the HCPC register when employing a Physiotherapist, they can check the BASRaT register when employing a Sport Rehabilitator. In a practical sense there is no difference. It can also be an offence under other pieces of legislation to misrepresent professional registration - this means there is still recourse for action if somebody is falsely claiming to be registered.

Future statutory regulation.

It is unlikely that any future musculoskeletal professions will be brought into statutory regulation, with the HCPC, or any other regulator.

The purpose of the PSA’s Accredited Register programme is to provide a regulatory framework for newer professions that are not subject to statutory regulation. This is seen as the contemporary form of regulation in healthcare and is supported by Government policy.

The most up-to-date statement of government policy on professional regulation is 2011's 'Enabling excellence – Autonomy and accountability for health care workers, social workers and social care workers' (view). This says that, in future, the government will only consider regulating further groups ‘in exceptional circumstances’; where there is a ‘compelling case’ and where accredited registers are considered insufficient to manage the risk involved.