Consultation on standards of conduct, performance and ethics

This consultation has now closed. See the consultation outcome document.

Overview

We are seeking feedback on proposed changes to the standards of conduct, performance and ethics for each of the 15 professions we regulate. 

These standards are integral to ensuring high quality professional practice and set out how we expect our registrants to behave.

The purpose of this review is:

• To make any necessary updates to the current standards that reflect changes to practice.
• To ensure that the current standards are fit for practice, particularly taking accessibility and relevance into account.
• To gain insight into how we can better communicate the standards and promote them to ensure they are fully understood by registrants.
• To make any necessary updates to our guidance on social media to keep pace with the developments in the use of social media over the past few years.

We have also reviewed the guidance on social media that accompanies the standards. The new guidance is included as part of this consultation.

Consultation outcome

Following the close of the consultation, we produced a document detailing the outcome.

You can now view all the revisions that come into effect on 1 September 2024. View the revisions

Proposed changes

Our proposed revisions fell under five key themes:

1. equality diversity and inclusion;
2. communication with colleagues, service users and carers;
3. duty of candour;
4. upskilling and training responsibilities; and
5. managing existing health conditions and disabilities in the workplace.

An additional theme – sustainability in health and care – is also discussed in the consultation to explore future revision to the standards.

This is a consultation; we want to hear the views of our registrants and others with an interest in our work.  Your feedback will be used to further develop the standards, and the guidance on social media before their final publication in September 2023.

The questions we are asking are set out in the consultation document.

We would encourage you to read the background information set out in this document before you answer these questions.

Consultation workshops

To support the consultation period, we are hosting six workshops. These workshops will explore each key theme of the consultation and gives you an opportunity to ask questions about the revisions we have made. For more information and to sign-up please see our workshops below:

• 10 May 2023, 7.00pm
  Equality diversity and inclusion
• 12 May 2023, 5.00pm
  Communication with colleagues, service users and carers
• 16 May 2023, 7.00pm
  Duty of candour
• 17 May 2023, 12.00pm
  Upskilling and training responsibilities
• 18 May 2023, 7.00pm
  Managing existing health conditions and disabilities in the workplace
• 22 May 2023, 5.00pm
  Sustainability

You can watch recordings of the workshops on the pages above, or via our playlist:

Pre-consultation webinars

During the pre-consultation period we ran workshops with different stakeholder groups and a survey that any stakeholder could feed into. Through these, we gathered insight into how individuals use the standards, what they think of them, and what changes they may need. If you missed the workshops, you can watch a live recording below.