FEATURE: Responding to Fitness to Practise Allegations – 10 Things to Consider

• Seek Legal Advice: It’s crucial to get expert legal advice early. Fitness to practise investigations are a trial in all but name – complex, formal and adversarial.  For this reason alone, health and care professionals should seek legal advice.  However, this is by no means the full extent of what you should consider when facing a fitness to practise investigation.  Insight and remediation often takes time to achieve and evidence, and there are opportunities to close investigations without the need for prolonged and expensive fitness to practise hearings.

When should you seek legal advice during a fitness to practise investigation?

• Cooperate with Investigations: Demonstrating transparency and cooperation is vital to better outcomes for healthcare professionals. This may include providing documents, evidence and information promptly to your regulator. It might also include cooperating fully with any interviews or meetings. Whilst your willingness to engage can positively impact the outcome, it is vital that engagement with your regulator is done with expert legal advice.

Should you engage with your regulator during a fitness to practise investigation?

• Understand the Process: Knowing what to expect can help reduce anxiety and improve a healthcare professional’s preparedness. Evidence has shown clearly that legal representation is seen as important because it supports and guides a healthcare professional through the fitness to practise process, which is complex and legalistic. Legal advice was seen as important in aiding registrants to understand regulators’ expectations, especially in terms of the need for registrants to demonstrate insight and perhaps to show evidence of remediation activities. Lack of legal representation was, therefore, seen to potentially have an impact in terms of the seriousness of the outcome for registrants who are perhaps unaware of how to present their case to best effect.

Legal representation key to fitness to practise success.

• Insight and Remediate: To address concerns about performance, behaviour or impact of a health condition, a healthcare professional must recognise there is a concern (reflection) and try to understand how it arose (insight). They must then take steps to address the concern and learn from it with the aim of mitigating against the likelihood of repetition (remediation).  Clear and robust evidence of insight and remediation will be considered as mitigating evidence however, insight and remediation is often a long process to fully achieve and early engagement with legal advice will greatly benefit healthcare professionals.

An in-depth look at Remediation in Fitness to Practise

An in-depth look at Insight in Fitness to Practise

An in-depth look at Reflection in Fitness to Practise

• Maintain Confidentiality: Keeping the details of the allegation confidential is important to protect your case and the integrity of the investigation. Avoid discussing it with colleagues or on social media. Instead, confide in trusted advisors or your legal representative.
• Stay Professional: Throughout the process, maintain a professional demeanour. This means being respectful, punctual, and courteous in all interactions. A professional attitude can positively influence how others perceive you during the investigation. If you are unsure how to engage or interact with your regulatory body, seek legal advice.
• Support Network: Lean on your support network for emotional and practical support. This might include family, friends, or professional colleagues (bearing in mind the importance of maintaining the appropriate level of confidentiality). Dealing with a fitness to practise allegation can be stressful, and having a support system can help you manage the emotional toll.
• Record Keeping: Keep thorough records of all communications, actions, and documents related to the allegation. This can be crucial in demonstrating your cooperation and understanding of the situation. Well-organized documentation can also support your defence. It is important to seek legal advice to ensure the correct documentation is retained and disclosed.
• Consider Public Safety: Always keep in mind the impact on public safety and patient wellbeing. Your actions and responses should reflect your commitment to safeguarding patients and maintaining high standards of care.
• Stay Informed: Keep up to date with developments in your case. As fitness to practise defence barristers, rated excellent by our clients, we work hard to ensure that clients are fully informed and engaged.

A Compassionate Approach to Fitness to Practise Defence

When things go wrong, we are here when you need us

Kings View Chambers has over 30 years’ combined experience representing heath and care professionals at all levels.  We are a leading fitness to practise defence chambers that have a proud record of consistently achieving excellent outcomes for our clients.

We are proud to be rated excellent by our clients. As public access barristers, you can instruct us directly without having the additional expense of hiring a solicitor.

It is a well-established fact that healthcare professionals who seek legal advice and representation at an early stage in any fitness to practise process, generally, receive better outcomes and lesser sanctions, if any.  We can advise on the right strategy to take and represent you before a fitness to practise hearing.

Speak to me today for a free, no obligation assessment of your case.

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