Notifications of non-engagement in revalidation
This page is in Section 3: Recommendation statements - part of the GMC's guide for responsible officers on making revalidation recommendations.
What is non-engagement in revalidation?
A doctor engages in revalidation when they are:
-
participating in the local systems and processes that support revalidation, including annual appraisal
-
participating in the formal revalidation process described in the General Medical Council (Licence to Practise and Revalidation) Regulations 2012.
A doctor is not engaging in revalidation where, in the absence of reasonable circumstances, they:
It is for you as a responsible officer (RO) to determine whether there are reasonable circumstances that explain why a doctor has not engaged in the local processes that support revalidation.
If you are unsure about whether reasonable circumstances exist, you should consult the GMC’s criteria for deferral requests.
What is a notification of non-engagement?
A notification of non-engagement in revalidation is a communication from you, an RO, to the GMC that states that a doctor has not engaged in the systems and processes that support revalidation.
You can inform the GMC about a doctor’s failure to engage with the local processes that will underpin your recommendation at any point. You may want to contact the Employer Liaison Adviser (ELA) for your region, or discuss your recommendation with the Revalidation Decisions Team.
There are several steps to notifying the GMC about a doctor’s failure to engage with the processes that support revalidation:
-
you can inform the GMC that a doctor is failing to participate in the local systems and processes that underpin revalidation at any time. You can do this by contacting the ELA for your region, or contacting the GMC directly
-
when informed of a doctor’s failure to engage, the GMC will remind the doctor that they are obliged to participate in the processes that support revalidation, in order to maintain their licence to practise
-
if a doctor does not begin to engage with the processes that support revalidation, the GMC can to bring forward the issue of notice to a doctor which will change the recommendation ‘submission date’. In practise this means that a recommendation about a doctor’s revalidation would be required sooner than the original date
-
you may decide it is appropriate to submit a notification of non-engagement as your recommendation about the doctor’s revalidation, when it is due. This is regardless of whether the doctor’s submission date has been changed.
You cannot submit a notification of non-engagement before the doctor has been issued notice stating that a recommendation about their revalidation is due.
The issue of notice is a legal requirement that kick starts the formal revalidation process. Consequently, when you inform the GMC of a doctor’s failure to engage before notice has been served, it is not a formal recommendation about a doctor’s revalidation.
What the notification statements ask you to confirm
The notification statements (pdf) focus on a doctor’s failure to engage with the local systems and processes that support revalidation.
The notification statements ask you to confirm that you have incomplete information on which to base a positive recommendation, because a doctor has failed to engage with the systems and processes that support revalidation.
Non-engagement and deferral requests
Notifications of non-engagement and deferral requests both address circumstances where you have incomplete information on which to base a positive recommendation.
The notification statements ask you to confirm that:
-
a doctor has had sufficient opportunity and support to collect the required supporting information and engage in the activities that are necessary for a positive recommendation
-
that, consequently, the criteria for a deferral request are not met.
Non-engagement and concerns about doctors’ fitness to practise
The final notification statement asks you to confirm that you have raised any outstanding concerns about a doctor’s fitness to practise with the GMC or the relevant body, as appropriate.
Notifications of non-engagement are not a mechanism through which concerns about doctors’ fitness to practise can be raised with the GMC. If you become aware of concerns about a doctor’s fitness to practise at any point in the revalidation cycle, these should be referred to the GMC through the existing processes for raising concerns.
The statements for notifications of non-engagement in revalidation
The recommendation statements (pdf) describe what you, as an RO must agree to when you submit a recommendation. There is one set of recommendation statements for each of the three recommendation categories.
When you submit a notification of non-engagement to the GMC, you must agree with all of the notification statements.