Regulatory Essentials
Regulation is a complex activity with different moving parts, many of which can be technical in nature. To support better understanding of the regulatory process, CORU has developed a suite of resources – Regulatory Essentials – that help explain the foundations of regulatory activity. Designed for practitioners of regulated professions, education providers, students and the wider public, these resources aim to help you understand what regulation is and what CORU, as the regulator of health and social care professionals in Ireland, does.
All of CORU’s regulatory activities are built around its goal of providing assurance of public protection through the registration of health and social care practitioners. This means that there are a range of activities that CORU does before someone is added to a register and when someone is registered.
Click on each of the titles below to access resources on these foundational regulatory issues.
An overview of what statutory regulation is, the key functions of CORU as the regulator of health and social care professionals in Ireland and how statutory regulation differs from the activities of professional bodies.
There are different types of regulatory standards for entry onto a register and when a practitioner is registered. While both are referred to as standards, they have different regulatory functions. This guide breaks these different functions down and explains how they work together to ensure public protection.
The Standards of Proficiency are set by each Registration Board and articulate the threshold knowledge and skills that an applicant to a register must demonstrate in order to be eligible to progress an application.
Reflecting CORU’s responsibility as the regulator for multiple health and social care professions, the Health and Social Care Professionals Council sets what is known as Framework Standards that apply across all professions. Each Registration Board adopts these standards and then adds any profession-specific standards.
Council has approved a new Framework for Principle‑Based Standards of Proficiency, which will guide how future standards are developed across all professions. Under this approach, each Registration Board will be responsible for tailoring and adopting profession‑specific standards, aligned to this principles-based approach.
|
Please Note. This work will be progressed over a number of years, with professions transitioning on a phased basis. Existing standards of proficiency will remain in place until any new principles-based professional standards are developed, consulted on and approved. The Psychologists Registration Board is the first to implement this approach, having developed draft standards to support the establishment of a register for psychologists and the protection of the title ‘psychologist’. A public consultation will take place later this year to seek stakeholder feedback on these draft Standards of Proficiency. Further professions will transition in due course, with stakeholders, including education providers, engaged through consultation as part of the process. Updates will be provided as this programme progresses. |
To prepare for the introduction of principles-based standards, and to support understanding of how they have been developed and written, CORU has developed resources on what principles-based standards are and how they are applied by education providers when designing and mapping their programmes to the Standards of Proficiency.
In order to ensure the protection of the professional title ‘psychologist’ in Ireland, the Psychologists Registration Board has developed a bespoke regulatory model. This guide provides a summary overview of this model, the rationale underpinning it and how it will operate.