Revalidation is a new process which will require osteopaths to show, at regular intervals, that they remain up to date and fit to practise.
Osteopaths are already required to renew their registration each year and meet continuing professional development requirements before renewing their registration. The purpose of this new system of revalidation, which all healthcare regulators are required by the Government to introduce, is to provide additional assurance to patients that their healthcare professional continues to meet the profession’s standards.
Informing youEverything we do in the development of revalidation for osteopaths is available to the public. See the section Project management for information about the working groups guiding the development of the revalidation scheme and how decisions are made.
We will be keeping you up-to-date about the development of the scheme and letting you know when there are consultations, providing you with the opportunity to give us your views.
We also welcome your feedback on the scheme and its development at any time. You can do this via the Contact us form on this website or by emailing us at revalidation@osteopathy.org.uk.
We held a consultation on our draft revalidation scheme during the first half of 2009, and published a summary of the consultation findings in December 2009. Since then, we have been working on the details of the draft scheme and associated issues, taking into account the responses to our questionnaire and the points made to us in public meetings.
Our poster, Developing a revalidation model for osteopaths, outlines the background to, and the development of, the revalidation scheme. The poster was presented at the Scottish Government's third annual regulation conference in Edinburgh in October 2010.
The Council makes decisions about the revalidation scheme and is advised by three working groups. For further information see the section on Project management.
We appointed a firm of independent consultants, KPMG, to carry out a number of projects that will contribute to the final revalidation scheme.
It is important to ensure that the GOsC revalidation scheme is proportionate and not overly burdensome on the profession. These projects are designed to feed into the final evaluation of the revalidation pilot, including whether the scheme appears proportionate to the risk associated with osteopathic practice, and whether the pilots present a feasible model for rolling out revalidation at a national level. For further information about the research and to see the reports published visit the revalidation research section.
The standards of assessment for revalidation are those outlined in the new Osteopathic Practice Standards. To help osteopaths meet those standards we appointed a team of people who are experts in assessment to develop the criteria against which osteopaths will be assessed in the pilot. For further information about the assessment criteria see the Assessment criteria page.
Piloting the schemeWe are currently piloting the draft revalidation scheme. The pilot started in October 2011 and will run for a year. For further information see the section Piloting the scheme.
In November 2010 the Department of Health wrote to the chief executives of all of the non-medical healthcare regulators setting out their current expectations in relation to the development of revalidation. Health ministers in the four countries of the UK have agreed that the healthcare professions regulators should “continue to gather the evidence base to assess the feasibility and proportionality of non-medical revalidation.”
This means that we are continuing with our developmental work on revalidation. Click here to read the letter in full.
Feedback from the pilots will be collated and analysed and will feed into a further consultation on revalidation. Depending on the results of the work by KPMG and the results of the next stage of consultation, we plan to introduce revalidation in 2014. However, because this is a large and complex project, we must be very thorough to ensure that the scheme meets the needs of osteopaths and patients, which means that timescales are flexible.