GCC Plans for 2024

January is traditionally a time of reset, reflection and renewal. As our financial year runs annually, it is also the time we announce our plans for the coming year.

You can read all our plans in our business plan for 2024, but I wanted to give you the highlights – and more importantly explain why I think these priorities are important.

Delivering a new Code

Last year we reviewed the Code to see if it remained fit for purpose. Whilst robust, there are obvious areas where changes are necessary to meet the expectations of patients. Read the final report from the scoping review.

As a result Council agreed we will carry out a fundamental review of The Code in 2024 and, as should be the case, we will consult fully on those changes. We are ruling nothing out at this stage – and expect to consider an emphasis on the safety of patients including the scope of practice; embedding the link to Education Standards; tightening up where conflicts of interests between patient care and commercial considerations emerge; emphasising equality and diversity duties, and so on.

Amongst other things we will be holding events in the summer to share proposals and gather feedback. Watch out for further information on how we will take this important work forward.

Developing the Registrant Portal

The registrant portal is the place where we undertake most contact. It was introduced a few years ago and we now see opportunities for improving the interface between registrants and the GCC. Our assessment is that there are processes that don’t work as you would expect, processes that aren’t possible online (changing your name for instance) or aren’t as intuitive as they could be.

Currently we can just about work-around difficulties. This problem will become more acute as the register keeps growing – and we are unable to do this. My preference is to empower registrants with the ability to do more by way of self-service but recognise that increasing your confidence in a system you only log into two or three times a year will require some investment of time and money.

We will make a modest investment from reserves to look at the usability of the whole portal. To be clear this is not to replace it, or redo it from scratch, this is a project to ensure it benefits both registrants and us (keeping down costs) by making it as easy to use as possible.

New software to manage Fitness to Practise complaints

Our reason for being is to protect patients, and a core duty in doing so is through the Fitness to Practise process. Again, some of the ways we progress complaints through the process are more clunky than ideal. It is important that this process is as efficient as it can be, and as speedy as possible. We will invest in an IT system to manage and streamline the FtP case management process – allowing the team to spend more time investigating cases, more quickly and less time managing paperwork.

I undertake to keep you informed about our plans and progress on these important pieces of work.

Whatever your own plans for 2024, I wish you well with them.