Collecting equality and diversity information

We ask osteopaths and students to complete a diversity monitoring form with questions about their protected characteristics, such as age, ethnicity and disability.

For osteopaths this form is part of the annual process to renew registration, which means osteopaths are asked these questions when they come to renew their registration each year.

For students, this form is part of the application to join the Register after graduation.

Osteopaths and students have the option to choose ‘Prefer not to say’ for each question, because we know providing this kind of personal information can feel unsettling or somewhat intrusive for some people.

Why we are asking for this information

It’s our legal duty:

• Collecting this information is something that the GOsC is obliged by law to do under the Public Sector Equality Duty, in an effort to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share and do not share specific characteristics. All other healthcare regulators also collect this information from their registrants for the same reason. The Health and Care Professions Council publishes data on the diversity of their professions registered by the Health and Care Professions Council  and the General Medical Council does the same for doctors.

We want to be inclusive:

• Knowing the diversity of osteopaths will give us a better understanding of their needs and how our regulatory services, including our continuing professional development scheme, registration or fitness to practise processes can meet those needs and be inclusive for everyone.
• Knowing the diversity of the profession will also help us and our partners to demonstrate that osteopathy is welcoming and inclusive for all patients and students, or to think about how we might encourage greater diversity, because we know that more diverse professions can better meet the needs of their diverse patients.

We want to be fair:

• When we understand the diversity of osteopaths, we can identify and address how different groups in the profession are impacted by our policies, processes, and decisions. Without this information, it is difficult for us to confidently say that specific groups of osteopaths are being treated fairly.

How we will use this information

The diversity information we collect will be anonymised and used to inform our new annual Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Report to show an overall picture of diversity across the profession. This report will be made available on our website. We will also use this information to comply with our legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010.

We want to be clear that we won’t share or use this personal diversity information for any other reason except the purposes we have mentioned above.

Who can see this diversity data?

Access to this information will be restricted to staff members involved in the processing and monitoring of this data. It will be used to provide statistical information only, and personal information will not be visible to any of our colleagues involved in our concerns process or fitness to practise proceedings, or external partners. We collect diversity equality data as part of our concerns process separately and for different purposes.

Please also note that, because this information is purely for the purposes of monitoring equality and diversity across the profession, any information osteopaths provide to us about disability or a health condition using this form is considered separate to their responsibility to notify the GOsC about a health condition or change in health that affects their ability to practise safely.

We ask patients and witnesses involved in our fitness to practise investigations questions about their protected characteristics, such as age, ethnicity and disability.

Why we ask for this information

We ask these questions to help us make sure that our concerns process does not inadvertently discriminate against any particular protected characteristic or group, and that we meet our legal duty under the Public Sector Equality Duty.

For every question, the person can either choose not to answer the question or can choose to respond with ‘Prefer not to say’, because we know providing this kind of personal information can feel unsettling or somewhat intrusive for some people.

How we use this information

The diversity information we collect will be anonymised and used to produce information about the diversity of osteopathic regulation. It may be published anonymously to meet our legal requirements under the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Further information about how we handle this information is outlined in our privacy notice. We collect and hold this information on the basis that those answering the questions consent to provide this information for these purposes only.