Background

Early developments in credentialing

In 2008, the Department of Health (England) asked the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB) to explore the concept of credentialing. Prompted by this early work (and following the PMETB and the GMC merger in 2010), the GMC sought to move the debate forward by considering the benefits of credentialing and how it might fit with the wider system of medical regulation.

In 2010, the GMC supported three pilot studies looking at the feasibility of credentialing in areas of practice where there was no formal specialty recognition. These areas were breast disease management, forensic and legal medicine and musculoskeletal medicine.

More information on these pilots can be found on the Credentialing Pilot Study page.

In July 2012 the GMC’s Council agreed in principle that a regulatory framework for credentialing should be established, and further development work was taken forward by the Credentialing Working Group. The group made a number of proposals for how credentialing should be regulated in their final report.

View the final report of the Credentialing Working Group

Further developments

Professor Sir David Greenaway’s 2013 report, Shape of Training: Securing the future of excellent patient care, includes credentialing as part of the recommended future architecture of specialist and general practice (GP) training.

And, with a slightly different focus, the Government’s 2014 response to Sir Bruce Keogh’s report on the regulation of cosmetic interventions, supported credentialing as one of the ways of improving standards and regulation in cosmetic surgery.

Read the Shape of Training: Securing the future of excellent patient care