Further advice about recommendations
This page is in Section 2: Considering your recommendation about a doctor’s revalidation - part of the GMC's guide for responsible officers on making revalidation recommendations.
Before you submit a recommendation
You should feel free to contact the GMC for advice about your recommendations at any time on an informal basis.
Your recommendation is a formal submission to the GMC about a doctor’s revalidation. By sending a revalidation recommendation you are fulfilling your statutory duty to ‘make recommendations about the fitness to practise’ of licensed doctors, as described in the Responsible Officer Regulations 2010.
To finalise your recommendation you may need to discuss a doctor’s revalidation with the GMC. You can approach the GMC for advice, without making a formal recommendation. We will only take action on a doctor’s revalidation after you have made a formal recommendation.
Seeking the GMC’s advice
You can ask the GMC for advice about your recommendations at any time. You can do this by contacting your local Employer Liaison Adviser (ELA) or the Revalidation Decisions Team.
In some circumstances, you will need to ask the GMC for advice about a recommendation. Examples of these are where:
- you have insufficient information on which to base a positive recommendation
- a doctor is not engaging with local systems that support revalidation.
Informing the GMC of a doctor's non-engagement
You may wish to contact the GMC where you believe a doctor is not engaging in the local processes that underpin revalidation, before the GMC has issued notice, stating that a recommendation about a doctor’s revalidation is due.
You can inform the GMC about a doctor’s failure to engage in the local processes that support revalidation at any point.
Informing the GMC that a doctor is not engaging with the systems and processes that support revalidation confirms that:
- a doctor has so far failed to engage in the local processes that support revalidation
- consequently, you do not anticipate being able to make a positive recommendation about a doctor’s revalidation when your recommendation is due.
If a doctor continues to fail to engage in local processes after notice has been issued, you should submit a notification of non-engagement as your formal recommendation about their revalidation.
Further information about notifications of non-engagement is at Section 3 and Section 4.
The thresholds for revalidation
The thresholds for revalidation are defined in the statements and criteria for each of the recommendation categories. You can read detailed information about these in Section 3.
If you have a query relating to the thresholds you need to apply when making a judgement about the revalidation of any licensed doctor, your first point of contact will be our ELAs. Further up to date information will be available in the revalidation section of the GMC website.
Systems and processes that support revalidation
The GMC is not responsible for developing local systems and processes that support revalidation. Systems such as appraisal and clinical and corporate governance remain a local and organisational responsibility.
Processes related to revalidation
GMC fitness to practise processes
If you have a query about the thresholds for referring concerns about doctors to the GMC you can discuss this with the GMC Employer Liaison Service. You may also wish to consult our guidance on raising concerns about doctors.
Employment and remediation processes
If you have a query about remediation or employment issues that could affect a doctor’s revalidation, you should, in the first instance, contact the organisation responsible for the doctor’s remediation or employment arrangements, if that is an organisation other than your own. You do not need to involve the GMC unless the issue is not resolved and will impact on your ability to make a revalidation recommendation, when it is due.
If you have a query about carrying out your role as a responsible officer (RO) in relation to revalidation, you should contact the GMC.
If your query relates to the other aspects of the RO role, or the RO regulations, you should consider contacting:
Specialty specific advice
You may have a query about the specialty specific information that a doctor collects for revalidation, or indeed, about any aspect of their specialty work. As such you may wish to consult organisations that can advise you on specialty specific issues and who may have produced specialty advice.
Sources of information and advice include:
- the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (who have recently produced specialty guidance)
- individual medical Royal Colleges and Faculties
- specialty associations.