Health
Department
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Dear Colleague PROFESSIONS SUPPLEMENTARY TO MEDICINE: EMPLOYMENT OF PRACTITIONERS IN THE NHS Summary This guidance relates to the restriction of employment of all practitioners of the professions supplementary to medicine. It also asks you to verify registration. The Regulations and Directions applicable to the NHS in Scotland 1. The Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act 1960 was extended on 28 February 1997 to include prosthetists and orthotists, and on 26 March 1997 to include arts therapists (art, music and dramatherapists) among the professions regulated under the Act. The State Registers for prosthetists and orthotists and arts therapists are now open. This guidance draws your attention to the National Health Service (Professions Supplementary to Medicine) Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2000, and Directions. The effect of the Regulations and Directions applicable to the NHS is that the employment of staff by your organisation in the capacity of a prosthetist, orthotist, an arts therapist, a chiropodist, a dietician, a medical laboratory technician, an occupational therapist, an orthoptist, a physiotherapist and a radiographer is limited to those whose names are included in the register maintained by the relevant Board of the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine (CPSM). |
NHS MEL(2000)36 4th July
2000 Addresses For action HR Directors of NHS Trusts General Manager of the State Hospital For information Executive Director, SCPMDE Director, Clinical Standards Board for Scotland General Manager, Common Services Agency Chief Executive, the Scottish
Ambulance Service. Enquiries to: Bob McFarlane Tel: 0131-244 2521 |
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2. The Regulations and Directions will come into force on 10 July 2000. They apply to: a) staff employed in the NHS; b) staff employed in the private and voluntary sector and who provide services on your behalf to patients and clients; c) staff supplied to you by employment agencies. You are asked to ensure that your arrangements for the provision of such services are confined to the organisations complying with these requirements. The Regulations relate to Health Boards which will be applied specifically to the State Hospitals Board. The Directions will apply in respect of Trusts. CPSM Procedures for Handling Individuals without Qualifications 3. For individuals already employed in a post carrying the now protected title but not possessing the required qualifications to give automatic entry onto the Register, entry can be sought in two ways: 3.1 Grandfathering applies to employees who lack the accepted qualifications for entry onto the Register but by virtue of their education, training and experience, meet the required standard. Applications should be made to the appropriate Board of the CPSM giving details as to education, training and experience. 3.2 Acquired Rights apply to employees who do not possess the qualifications for automatic entry nor the education, training and experience for grandfathering but who are safely and competently practising as a prosthetist, orthotist, art therapist, music therapist or dramatherapist. These individuals will be entered on the Register but may not be competent across the whole range of practice. Those entering the register under acquired rights and who practice outside their limited areas of competence will be subject to the disciplinary procedures of the appropriate Board. Applications for acquired rights should be made to the Registrar of the CPSM. The stringent criteria used to establish registration under acquired rights is a matter for the CPSM. Applicants will need to provide evidence of the range of skills and the level of competence being applied to the current post and employers will be asked to confirm the nature of the duties being undertaken. It will then be for the relevant board to decide whether registration is appropriate. General Medical Practitioners 4. Primary Care Trusts and Islands Health Boards are asked to draw GPs’ attention to this guidance. Referrals of their patients should be made to state registered practitioners of the professions supplementary to medicine specified in paragraph 1. GPs will be familiar with the General Medical Council’s "Duties of a Doctor", and their requirement that referrals be made either to another registered medical practitioner or to a healthcare worker accountable to a statutory regulatory body. Health and Safety 5. The Health and Safety at Work Etc Act 1974 and its relevant statutory provisions place duties, mainly upon employers, to provide information, instruction, training and supervision. Annual registration checks by employers 6. Failure to check a practitioner’s details against the appropriate register places the public, his employer and his professional colleagues at risk, so it is important for you to verify your employees’ current registration, both before appointment and periodically thereafter. 7. Practitioners have a personal responsibility to maintain their registration. Registrants receive a Certificate of Registration each year. An individual’s registration status can be established by contacting the CPSM’s confirmation service on 0171 582 0866. Further Extension of the Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act 1960 8. Orders to extend the Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act 1960 to speech and language therapists, clinical scientists and paramedics came into force on 19 June 1999. As a result, three new professional boards have been created within the umbrella of the CPSM. Once the boards have established their registers and disciplinary and investigating Committees, Ministers may wish to consider making comparable provision in regulations and directions in respect of these professions in the future. You are therefore invited to consider the implications for staff currently employed by you or your agents in the capacity of speech and language therapists, clinical scientists and paramedics, and to notify the Department of any transitional difficulties this might cause you within 3 months of the issue of this circular. Yours sincerely
MISS ANNE JARVIE NATIONAL
HEALTH SERVICE (SCOTLAND) DIRECTION TO NHS TRUSTS Employment
of Professions: Professions Supplementary to
The Scottish Ministers in exercise of the powers conferred upon them by paragraph 6 of Schedule 7A to the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 hereby gives the following Directions: Application, commencement and interpretation 1.- (1) These Directions apply to all National Health Service trusts in Scotland and shall come into force on 10 July 2000. (2) In these Directions "agent" means any person who, or any body which, is not a health service body within the meaning of section 4 of the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990. Prohibition on employment of persons in professions governed by Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act 1960 2. No person shall be employed by an NHS trust in a capacity in respect of which the Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act 1960 applies, except in circumstances in which such employment would be permitted under the National Health Service (Professions Supplementary to Medicine) (Scotland) Regulations 1974. Qualifications of persons engaged as agents 3. An NHS Trust shall not make arrangements for the provision of health services by any agent unless the arrangements include a term to the effect that the agent shall not, in connection with the provision of those services, employ any person in a capacity referred to in article 2, except as would be permitted under article 2 if the Trust were itself to provide the service in question. Revocation of previous Directions 4. These Directions supersede all previous Directions issued to NHS trusts concerning the employment of persons in professions governed by the Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act 1960 or concerning the qualifications of agents employed in such capacities, in so far as these Directions may conflict with any previous Directions.
A member of the staff of the Scottish Ministers St Andrew's House
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