Professional Regulation

Workforce Planning Unit provides Northern Ireland input to UK-wide professional regulatory issues and arranges for the appointment of Northern Ireland representatives to the statutory regulatory bodies.  

The Unit also has responsibility for related legislation.

In the White Paper Trust Assurance and Safety: The Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21st Century,(the UK White Paper) a working group was formed to develop criteria to determine which new professional roles and emerging professions in health and social care should be statutorily regulated.  The Report makes recommendation to Government as to how decision making on extending regulation could be taken forward.

In the White Paper Trust Assurance and Safety: The Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21st Century,(the UK White Paper) there was a commitment to take forward the regulation of some groups of healthcare scientists.

One profession within this group, Clinical Physiologists, have now received  confirmation that work, leading to statutory regulation, began in June 2009.

The MSC project seeks to 'advance the opportunities and recognition of the healthcare science workforce in the UK.’ With a range of radical and ambitious proposals, the project aims to realise benefits for patients, employers and individual members of staff.  The MSC proposals were consulted upon during 2009 and a policy document MSC:The UK Way Forward was published on 26 February 2010.

A Working Group representative of key stakeholders has been established by the Department.  It is chaired by the Chief Scientific Advisor (CSA) to the Department, Professor Bernie Hannigan.

These proposals are currently under consideration by the Department. A decision on the way ahead has yet to be taken.