Produced by Picker Institute Europe for the HCPC, this report explores public and professional views and understandings of public protection.
The project was designed to examine:
- understandings of the concept of ‘public protection’ and of fitness to practise;
- understandings and interpretations of terms used within determinations of fitness to practise;
- views on key ongoing issues and questions pertaining to public protection and fitness to practise;
- the information about individual practitioners that participants considered relevant for the regulator to determine fitness to practise, and whether and how views differ.
The project focused particular attention on the first and last of these (as requested by HCPC) throughout each of the three stages of fieldwork:
- six focus groups with members of the public, service-users and carers
- twenty interviews with stakeholders (professional bodies, registrants, employers and educators)
- an online survey with professionals and the public to quantify the views of the earlier phases.
This report integrates the findings from each of these stages.