What is Fitness to Practise

What does Fitness to Practise mean?

Fitness to Practise essentially means that a Registrant has the requisite skill, qualification, knowledge, experience, health and good character to complete their job effectively and safely.

Fitness to Practise may involve issues outside of the professional or clinical sphere. A Registrant’s conduct outside of work may call into question his/her Fitness to Practise if they engage in conduct which is likely to undermine public confidence in the profession and/or affect protection of the public.

By quality assuring the Fitness to Practise of our Registrants, the BPC upholds the standards of the profession, maintains public confidence in the profession, and ensures public safety.

Who can raise a concern?

Anyone can raise a concern about a Registrant’s Fitness to Practise. This includes members of the public, patients, employers, other organisations, and other Healthcare professionals.

Who can a concern be raised against?

The BPC can only consider concerns raised against Registrants on our register. To ascertain if a Therapist is on our register, please click here

What concerns will the BPC consider?

The BPC will consider concerns raised in connection with a Registrant’s:

• Conduct
• Performance
• Physical or Mental health
• Character e.g. where the Registrant has received a conviction/caution or an adverse determination by another professional regulatory body within the UK.

What the BPC can not do?

The BPC cannot:

• Consider concerns raised against Therapists not on our register
• Make personal recommendations regarding a choice of Therapist
• Provide clinical advice to members of the public
• Arrange refunds or compensation
• Make a Therapist apologise
• Give legal advice.

Glossary of Fitness to Practise Outcomes

Interim Order Committee sanctions:

Interim Conditions Order: The Committee may impose interim conditions on the Registrant’s practise to guard against the risk to the public, and/or consider it is in the public interest and/or in the Registrant’s own interest.

Examples of possible conditions: Must notify the BPC promptly of any post they accept for which BPC registration is required.

• Must inform the BPC of any formal disciplinary proceedings taken against them, from the date of determination
• Must maintain regular contact with a nominated supervisor and provide a report from their supervisor as to progress ahead of any review hearing
• Must inform any organisation employing or contracting them to undertake therapeutic work of interim conditions
• Must permit BPC to disclose conditions to any person requesting information about their registration status.

Conditions would need to be met for the duration of the order imposed.

Interim Suspension Order: The Committee may impose an interim suspension order if they are not satisfied that conditions will be sufficient to protect the public. The suspension order will be imposed on the Registrant’s registration which means that they will be suspended from being a BPC Registrant whilst the order is in place and they cannot refer to themselves as a BPC Registrant. This may prohibit their work as a training analyst and/or training supervisor.

No Order: The Committee may decide no order is necessary.

Fitness to Practise sanctions:

Written reprimand: appropriate where the Committee decides that a Registrant’s conduct is unacceptable but there is no requirement to restrict the Registrant’s practice as there is no risk to the public or to patients.

Conditions to be met in a specific time: the Committee can consider putting conditions in place if they decide conditions are sufficient to protect patients and if necessary, address any concerns about public confidence or proper professional standards and conduct. Conditions are appropriate when some or all of the following factors are apparent:

• No evidence of harmful deep-seated personality or attitudinal problems
• Identifiable areas of practice in need of review and/or retraining
• No evidence of general incompetence
• Potential and willingness to respond positively to training
• Insight into any health problems and the Registrant is prepared to abide by conditions on medical condition, treatment, and supervision
• Patients will not be put in danger either directly or indirectly as a result of the
  conditions
• The conditions will protect patients during the period they are in force
• Conditions can be created that can be monitored and assessed.

Withdrawal of registration: where the Committee decides that a Registrant’s name should be removed from the BPC’s registration. This means they are not permitted to practise with endorsement from the BPC and will be prohibited from being a BPC Registrant.  They will also not be allowed to refer to themselves as a BPC Registrant. This is the most serious sanction available to the Committee and usually appropriate where a Committee has upheld all allegations of serious professional misconduct.

Screening Committee outcomes:

• Adjourn the case for further information
• Close the case with no further action
• Close the case with no further action but issue advice to the Registrant about their future conduct
• Issue a Warning to the Registrant
• Refer the case to the Fitness to Practise Committee.

Outcomes under the 2016 Complaints Process not outlined above:

• Admonishment – replaced by reprimand above.