Delays in the system

As someone whose practise used to focus on criminal law, I’ve watched the reports of serious delay in the criminal justice system with increasing dismay. There are hearings being listed for 2029-30 – that’s just crazy.

In my current area of professional discipline, delays are equally significant and with similar devastating effects on those involved in the processes.

One of my clients, a psychologist with a fitness to practise referral at the HCPC, has just had a ‘threshold not met’ decision – meaning they can finally get on with their personal and professional life without the shadow of fitness to practise proceedings looming over them.

Once a referral has been accepted by a regulator as passing the basic checks (is the person referred on the regulator’s register, for example), the initial segment of the fitness to practise process is the screening or threshold stage.

The hope would be that this stage would be completed in 3-6 months. In my client’s case, it has taken 18 months!

This means that for concerns that ultimately could not have impaired their fitness to practise, my client has suffered stress, inconvenience and financial loss since 2024.

Shouldering this sort of burden is extremely difficult for registrants, who must continue to practise competently and diligently, but under an increased level of scrutiny and with a large question mark over their capabilities.

I do what I can to share the weight, but I am always mindful that the burden does not really rest on my shoulders and I’m not the one living with it every day.

What is really necessary is the application of a greater level of resources with greater efficiency on the part of the regulators, and an understanding that upholding the reputation of the professions also entails demonstrating due respect for the professionals themselves.

We’ll see if this ever comes about - it would be fair to say that at best, I’m quietly pessimistic!