PSA concludes GMC continues to meet all Standards of Good Regulation

The General Medical Council (GMC) has continued to meet all 18 Standards of Good Regulation following an independent performance review by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).The review considered how the medical regulator has performed against standards for areas including guidance, education, registration, and fitness to practise.

The GMC met all the standards in this year’s more intensive periodic review. This included meeting the PSA’s new approach for assessing performance on equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) where the report highlights the GMC’s strong performance against all four outcomes in this area.

This year’s review covered the period 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2024. It commended the GMC for its continued progress on improving the timeliness of fitness to practise cases, and work towards targets to eliminate disproportionate fitness to practise referrals from employers by 2026 and differential attainment in medical education by 2031.

In the report, published today, the PSA also welcomed the increased focus on patient-centred care and fair workplace cultures in the regulator’s updated core guidance, Good medical practice, which came into effect at the beginning of the year.

Work in preparation for bringing physician associates (PAs) and anaesthesia associates (AAs) into regulation is highlighted in the findings, including the consultation on the proposed rules, standards and guidance, developing a new revalidation model for PAs and AAs, and publishing joint guidance for students.

Charlie Massey, Chief Executive of the GMC, said:

‘We are pleased with the PSA’s findings and their recognition of our commitment to be an effective, relevant, and compassionate regulator. Their report identifies several areas of good practice towards this, including our work to improve the timeliness of fitness to practise cases, building on the progress we made last year.

‘It is also great to see many other important areas of work across the GMC positively recognised, such as our strong performance towards all outcome measures set by the PSA for equality, diversity and inclusion and the impact of our updated core standards, Good medical practice. But we must remain vigilant, and as we become a multiprofessional regulator it is more important than ever that we uphold these high standards, supporting our registrants to deliver the best care possible for patients. We will use the findings of this report to deliver further progress to our processes for the benefit of our registrants, the public, and the wider healthcare system.’

The PSA for Health and Social Care oversees statutory bodies like the GMC who regulate health and social care professionals in the UK. It assesses performance, conducts audits, scrutinises decisions, and reports to Parliament. It also sets standards for organisations holding voluntary registers for health and social care occupations and accredits those that meet them.

Performance reviews are carried out on a three-year cycle. A more intensive ‘periodic review’ is carried out for one of those years, as it was this year.

You can read the full performance review on the PSA’s website.

Ends