Bill Moyes' post-July Council blog

Although we are now well and truly into the summer holiday season, there is still a lot of activity across the GDC and regulation in general. This was clear as Council returned to London for our July meeting following our visit to Wales in May. I have highlighted some our key discussions in this month's blog.

The consultation on our Corporate Strategy​ closed on 30 July, following a 12-week period where we undertook significant engagement with stakeholders and registrants to share our future vision. I'm pleased to update that we have received a significant number of responses on our proposals from both individuals and organisations. The team will be reviewing these through August and will report back to Council in September and October. I'm really encouraged by the number of responses we have received and would like to thank everyone who has taken the time and effort to reply and share their views on our proposed strategic aims and plans. Once the team have had the opportunity to review all your feedback, we will issue a response to the consultation before the end of the year.

Earlier in July the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) published its response to the Regulatory Reform consultation that it launched in 2017. We have worked closely with the DHSC to exchange views over the last two years to ensure our position has been properly represented, and we welcome the publication of their response. Whilst there is no clear timetable for implementation at this stage, we will continue to work closely with DHSC and other healthcare regulators to ensure the views of the GDC continue to be heard at this important time of change within regulation.

Finally, I wanted to take a few moments to thank Matthew Hill for his work and support over the last four years, as he moves on to an exciting new role at the Legal Services Board. As the architect of  Shifting the Balance, Matthew has been the driving force of our  Moving Upstream vision, and through his team has enabled the GDC to change how we engage with our stakeholders and registrants, placing a much greater emphasis on prevention rather than enforcement.

These achievements have been as a result of a much more collaborative approach to regulation, which I welcome, and this approach has been acknowledged and supported by patient groups, professional bodies and Government departments alike. I would like to take this opportunity to wish Matthew good luck in his new challenge and thank him again for the significant contributions he made to the GDC over the last four years. We hope to confirm Matthew's successor shortly.