The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) oversees our work
About the PSA
The PSA oversees the 10 statutory bodies that regulate health professionals in the United Kingdom and social care in England:
- General Chiropractic Council
- General Dental Council
- General Medical Council
- General Optical Council
- General Osteopathic Council
- Health and Care Professions Council
- Nursing and Midwifery Council
- Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland
- General Pharmaceutical Council
- Social Work England (became operational in Dec 2019)
They help to protect the public by improving the regulation and registration of people who work in health and social care, their work includes:
- Reviewing the work of the regulators of health and care professionals
- Accrediting organisations that register practitioners in unregulated occupations
- Giving policy advice to Ministers and others and encouraging research to improve regulation
Performance reviews
The PSA gather and analyse evidence for each regulator to see if they have met their Standards of Good Regulation.
The Standards describe the outcomes they expect regulators to achieve for their four regulatory functions: guidance and standards, education and training, registration, and fitness to practise, as well as a set of general standards.
The reviews are conducted in a three-year cycle. Every three years they carry out a more intensive ‘periodic review’, and in the other two years of a cycle they continue to monitor the performance of each regulator and produce shorter reports
