eGDCPSA review recognises GDC progress and challenges
The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) annual review for 2023/24 found that we met 16 out of 18 Standards of Good Regulation. While we made significant improvements to achieve the standards in registration, we did not meet the standards for EDI and fitness to practise timeliness.
We successfully met the Standards for Registration this year, reducing the backlog of overseas-qualified dentists who applied as dental care professionals (DCPs) significantly. The backlog of unworked DCP applications which stood at 5,700 in April 2023 following a change in legislation has now been eliminated, with all remaining applications scheduled to undertake a panel assessment by April 2025.
Key achievements highlighted in the review include reducing the average processing time for UK graduate registration to two weeks, enhanced support systems for those involved in fitness to practise (FtP) cases and strengthened stakeholder engagement and consultation processes.
Tom Whiting, Chief Executive of the General Dental Council (GDC), said:
"We welcome the PSA's recognition of our progress across multiple areas, particularly in registration, while acknowledging there is more work to do. We remain firmly committed to improving fitness to practise processes and implementing our EDI strategy.
“Our priority is ensuring we deliver effective regulation that protects patients and supports dental professionals. We welcome close working with partners and stakeholder organisations to build trust in effective regulation and achieve a goal that we all share, which is patient safety and public confidence in the dental professions.”
The PSA commended our work in seeking and acting on feedback from diverse stakeholder groups and our commitment to evidence-based policy development. It recognised the regulator’s efforts to improve communication with registrants during fitness to practise investigations, noting positive feedback about the more empathetic tone and improved signposting to support services.
However, the review identified ongoing challenges in the timeliness of fitness to practise cases, particularly in cases older than 156 weeks. With only nine cases older than 101 weeks, the GDC continues to reduce the number of older cases, which is more effective in FtP stages where the regulator can exert greater influence over timeliness.
We have revised our fitness to practise processes to improve timeliness when investigating single patient clinical practice concerns. The move follows the successful pilot of revised processes for handling fitness to practise concerns raised about dental professionals with no allegations of impaired fitness to practise in the previous 12 months.
We have plans in place to further enhance communication and support for those involved in fitness to practise cases as well as reviewing our decision-making guidance to ensure that it addresses allegations of discriminatory conduct.
Our EDI vision and approach will be incorporated into our corporate strategy from 2026, to ensure that EDI is embedded within our broader strategic objectives.