What is remediation?
In the context of fitness to practise, remediation refers to the process by which a professional—often in a healthcare or related regulated field—takes deliberate, demonstrable steps to address concerns that have been raised about their conduct, performance, behaviour, or health. In essence, it’s not merely an apology or a fleeting fix; it’s a structured, reflective, and corrective journey toward ensuring that any previous deficiencies are adequately rectified so that safe and effective practice can be restored.
Why remediation is crucial
Remediation is a cornerstone of the fitness to practise framework because it helps balance the need to protect public safety and maintain trust in the profession with the understanding that professionals are capable of learning from their mistakes. Rather than serving as a punitive measure on its own, it offers a pathway for improvement, ensuring that the professional can eventually return to safe, independent practice if they successfully address the issues that arose.
Recent case studies
- General Dental Council close case with no further action – The General Dental Council (GDC) has closed its investigation into A’s fitness to practise with no further action, following an extended case involving multiple allegations of competence and probity. Key to this outcome was A’s proactive approach to remediation, which involved an extensive period of reflection and corrective actions. By engaging early with legal representation and consistently demonstrating insight into the concerns raised, A was able to show meaningful remediation.
- Successful GMC restoration for our client – Our client, IB, was successful on their first attempt seeking restoration to the General Medical Council’s (GMC) register. Their application was opposed by the GMC. The reason our client’s restoration application was successful is that they made enquiries very soon after they were erased and put in place a 5-year plan of remediation. They sought our expert advice and worked across a number of years to ensure they have fully remediated their past conduct.
- NMC finds no misconduct for our client – Our client, F, faced fitness to practise proceedings before the NMC dating back to 2018. There were allegations across 3 incidents. An important factor in F’s case was that they had acted professionally and had undertaken solid steps to remediate. As a result, this matter concluded with a finding of no misconduct.
Early engagement with legal advice and representation
As these case studies demonstrate, remediation processes can often take a significant amount of time to be fully implemented and evidenced, which points to the importance of seeking legal advice and representation at the earliest possible opportunity.
Remediation takes time due to several factors, starting with the complexity and scope of the issue being addressed. Some problems require extensive research, detailed analysis, and comprehensive interventions to ensure they are fully resolved.
Additionally, remediation is a multistep process that involves self-assessment, learning from mistakes, developing improvement strategies, and successfully implementing them. A crucial aspect of remediation is demonstrating change—identifying the issue alone is not enough; there must be clear evidence that meaningful improvements have been made, and that underlying concerns have been properly addressed.
Restoration Courses
Courses suitable for any health and social care practitioner who is considering making an application for restoration back onto the register.
Insight & Remediation
Courses that are suitable for any healthcare practitioner who is facing an investigation or hearing at work or before their regulatory body.
Probity, Ethics & Professionalism
Courses designed for those facing a complaint or investigation at work or before their regulator, involving in part or in whole honesty, integrity and /or professionalism.
How to demonstrate remediation
- Rectifying Behaviour or Performance: Remediation begins with acknowledging that certain practices or behaviours have fallen short of the professional standards required. This might include clinical errors, lapses in judgement, or other issues that compromise patient safety and public trust. The process is designed to correct these issues systematically.
- Reflection and Insight: A key component of remediation is reflective practice. Professionals are encouraged (or sometimes required) to critically examine what went wrong and why. This involves gaining insight into the underlying factors that contributed to the problematic behaviour. Without genuine insight, meaningful remediation cannot occur.
- Structured Interventions: Depending on the nature and severity of the concerns, remediation can take many forms. These might include Additional Training or Education, Mentoring or Coaching, Supervised Practice. The focus is on outlining clear, measurable objectives and timelines to demonstrate that the problematic issues have been effectively addressed.
- Assessment and Demonstration: Regulatory bodies, such as the General Medical Council (GMC) or Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), evaluate whether remediation is successful by asking questions like; Is the concern remediable? Has the concern been remedied? Is it highly unlikely that the conduct will be repeated?
Unique and practical courses focusing on impairment, reflection, insight, and remediation
Insight Works Training has been developed specifically to address this. The courses are unique and practical focussing solely on taking health and care registrants through the process of impairment, reflection, insight and remediation, focussing on the area where nearly all professionals fall down – proving, evidencing, and demonstrating them.
Insight Works Training offers courses on:
- Impairment, reflection, insight, and remediation;
- Restoration for healthcare practitioners who are considering making an application for restoration back onto the register;
- Probity, Ethics and Professionalism for Health and Social Care Professionals; and
- 1:1 mentoring programme specifically designed for those facing fitness to practise or restoration hearings.
Kings View Medical Defence are specialist medical defence barristers. With over 30 years combined experience, Kings View Chambers have established itself as one of the best when it comes to fitness to practise defence. Through this we have gained the reputation as leading medical defence specialists with an excellent reputation for customer service and care.
We pride ourselves on complete transparency and all quotations are given with fixed fees for preparation and representation, agreed in advance and payable in stages. No hidden costs ever.