Online hearings

The majority of GOsC’s online hearings are held via GoToMeeting. You will be sent relevant links to GoToMeeting at least a week before the hearing.

Case parties (ie the registrant, the representative) as well as the panel will also be sent hearing papers via ‘CaseLines’. CaseLines is a document sharing platform that we use for our hearings. It is a secure, purpose-built, online software package for managing documentary evidence reviewed in virtual hearings (specific information on how to use CaseLines is provided below).

The documents are uploaded to CaseLines by the case manager at least 7 days before the hearing.

Hard copies of the papers are not usually provided. However, if hard copies are required for accessibility reasons, please inform the hearing clerk.

Make sure you can attend the hearing in a quiet, private space. If possible you are encouraged to wear headphones.

The Case Manager will identify if there is any need for CaseLines training and this, alongside a test call, will be carried out before the hearing. Registrants and witnesses in a remote or a blended hearing will be asked to participate in a test call with the hearing clerk.

The choice of platform used by the GOsC for remote hearings is GoToMeeting . We may occasionally use Microsoft Teams if necessary as the GoToMeeting platform does not allow two hearings to be run at the same time. In this instance a hearing will be conducted on MS Teams.

The purpose of the test call is to check that all participants can connect to the video conference and that the overall connection, microphone and camera are compatible with the online platform and any document sharing platform that may be used.

Make sure you can access both GoToMeeting and CaseLines and that you have read through the papers.

The test call will give participants an opportunity to consider their visual/physical background for the call. We recommend that participants set their cameras up somewhere with a neutral background, if possible.

Participants should also consider where they are going to situate themselves for the hearing. Participants should ensure that they are in a quiet room by themselves (unless the participant is the registrant and is accompanied by their representative) where they will not be disturbed for the duration of their participation in the hearing.

The Chair may confirm with a witness whether they are alone in the room and to confirm that they are not being assisted. Where the witness is being supported by a friend or family member, this individual should be positioned so that they appear on screen sitting behind the witness giving evidence with clear visibility of their face on screen.

Participants should inform the Case Manager if they will have a supporter with them prior to the hearing commencing. The Chair may ask them to introduce themselves, however if the Case Manager is aware of a supporter attending, they will let the hearing clerk know, who will then inform the Chair.

The lighting of the room should be checked at the time of the test call. It is important that the lighting is sufficient so that participants can be seen clearly without obstructions on the screen.

Participants are reminded that remote hearings are just as formal as in-person hearings and their clothing should therefore be appropriate to reflect this.

Before the hearing begins, participants should ensure that they have the hearing papers open. Participants may wish to have these open on a separate device to the one they are using to join the hearing, if this option is available to them.

All participants (except witnesses) are instructed to join the hearing at least 15 minutes before the start time to ensure their overall connection is running smoothly and avoid delaying the start of the hearing.

The first day of any online GOsC hearings will start at 9:30am, so participants should aim to be signed in by 9:15am.

The start times for any subsequent hearing days will be confirmed by the Chair at the end of each day.

Participants can join the hearing by clicking on the link that has been provided to them by the hearing clerk with the joining instructions.

Once participants have successfully connected, please turn off microphones and cameras until the hearing start time.

In advance of the hearing the GOsC will set up three virtual meeting rooms for the hearing:

• The first will be the ‘hearing room’, in which the hearing will take place.
• The second will be the ‘panel room’, where the panel will retire to deliberate and make their decision.
• The third will be the ‘advocates’ meeting room’, where the case presenters and/or an unrepresented osteopath can meet with the legal assessor during hearing breaks if required.

All participants will receive a link to the hearing room. Panel members and the Legal Assessor will also receive a link to the panel room. Case presenters, case parties and the legal assessor will receive a link to the advocates’ meeting room.

When joining a hearing, all parties are required to leave their camera on but have their microphone on mute. This ensures that any background noise and feedback is kept to a minimum.

• Fitness to practise committee members
• Case parties
• Legal representatives
• The legal assessor
• Witnesses
• GOsC hearing staff

The Chair will remind parties and witnesses in clear terms that a remote hearing is a formal tribunal hearing and they are expected to behave accordingly. The parties shall agree to conduct the remote hearing in a manner that is consistent with the principles of fairness, co-operation and good faith.

The Chair will introduce everyone and establish a speaking protocol at the outset. Participants, when introduced, will acknowledge the introduction by confirming their attendance for the purposes of the recording.

The Professional Conduct Committee (PCC), the legal assessor and the parties will be proactive in relation to remote hearings. If an issue arises (for example, a critical participant drops offline, or someone’s connection fails) the Committee should pause until the issue is sorted out.

Once parties have successfully joined the hearing, they are required to leave their camera on but put their microphone on mute. This ensures that any background noise and feedback is kept to a minimum.

Please note: Recording of proceedings including the taking of a screenshot of the participants is not permitted by any participant. Only the GOsC have a statutory right to make a formal recording for the purposes of a transcript. If an attendee is unable to comply, they will be removed from the hearing link without notice and/or at the discretion of the panel Chair.

The Chair will ensure they can see everyone on their screen and be alert throughout the hearing to any indication that a participant wishes to speak.

Participants will take turns to speak as they are invited to do so by the Chair. This ensures that the proceedings are easy for all participants to follow. All participants should be made aware of and guard against the risk of ‘talking over’ each other. There can be a delay when online participants are speaking and participants engaged in a dialogue such as questions and answers should take account of this.

When invited to speak, participants should unmute their microphone and place their microphone on mute again once they have finished speaking. This is particularly important where participants are attending the remote hearing from the same physical room, for example, an osteopath and representatives. This is to avoid audio feedback (echo, static) during the hearing.

Hearings are usually held in public unless the hearing is before the Health Committee, or the PCC makes an order for all or part of the hearing to be heard in private. Remote hearings before the PCC should, so far as possible, still be public hearings. Where a member of the public is attending the virtual hearing, the Chair should invite them to introduce themselves before the hearing is formally opened.

The Chair and PCC members will take into account that concentrating for long hours in front of a screen can be draining and may have an impact on the ability for all participants to communicate effectively. The Chair should therefore allow for frequent comfort breaks at convenient moments throughout the hearing day.

Where telephone instructions are necessary, the Chair should allow short breaks for case presenters to receive instructions if required.

Where either telephone, text or email communication are or may be necessary during a hearing, the Chair should ensure that all phones are on silent mode and are not a distraction.

Case presenter discussions

It is sometimes necessary during a hearing for the case presenters to speak to one another, in the presence of the legal advisor, to discuss preliminary applications, points of process, etc. For remote hearings, these discussions can take place in the advocates’ meeting room.

The advocates’ meeting room is another virtual meeting room, which can be accessed using the second link provided by the hearings clerk to case parties, case presenters and the legal assessor.

If either party wishes to discuss any matters with the other party, they should inform the hearing clerk. The hearing clerk will inform both case parties and the legal assessor and ask them to join the advocates’ meeting room.

The hearing will begin with the chair of the Professional Conduct Committee introducing themselves and everyone else who is present.

The registrant will be asked to confirm their name.

The case presenter will be asked to read out the allegation against the registrant.

The Chair of the Committee will then ask the registrant to confirm whether they admit to any of the facts alleged. If they do admit to any of the facts alleged, those facts will be found proved.

If the registrant admits to all of the facts alleged, the Chair will formally announce that all the facts have been admitted and are proved. The Committee will then move on to the next stage of deciding whether the facts proved amount to unacceptable professional conduct.

If the registrant disputes some or all of the facts alleged, the case presenter will formally open the case.

The case presenter will present the evidence to support the GOsC’s case first. They may call any witnesses in the case and ask them questions once the witnesses have taken an oath or an affirmation. This is called examination-in-chief.

The registrant or their legal representative will then have an opportunity to ask the witnesses any questions. This is called cross-examination.

Once the registrant and their legal representative have asked all of their questions, the case presenter may ask any witnesses further questions.

The Committee may then ask the witnesses some questions.

Once the witnesses have given evidence, the Chair will formally release them as witnesses.

Some witnesses may choose to stay for the rest of the hearing. If they do, they will be asked to stay muted for the rest of the hearing.

After all of the witnesses have given their evidence, the chair will ask the registrant or their legal representative to open their case.

At this point, the registrant or their legal representative may call their witnesses to give evidence under oath according to their religious belief, or an affirmation (a solemn declaration) if the witness does not want to take an oath.

The registrant or their legal representative will need to ask their witnesses questions first. Our case presenter will then be given the opportunity to ask their witnesses questions.

The committee may also have questions for the registrants’ witnesses.

The registrant may also give evidence under oath (or affirmation). If they give evidence, the case presenter and the committee can ask them questions.

Closing Statements

Once the registrant and, if it applies, their witnesses, have given evidence and are released, both parties will be invited to make closing statements about the case. The case presenter will make their closing statement first, followed by the registrant or their legal representative.

The committee will receive legal advice from the legal assessor before it retires to make a decision on the facts of the case.

Unlike the other hearing participants, witnesses do not join the hearing at the outset. They attend only to give their evidence. The caseworker will inform the witness in advance of the likely time when they will be called. The witness should ensure that they are available during the time period given by the caseworker and that they are contactable by phone or email.

When the panel is ready to hear the witness’s evidence, the hearing clerk will contact them and ask them to join the hearing room.

The witness will have confirmed to the Hearings Clerk their preferred oath or affirmation in advance of the hearing and will be asked to read this out before giving their evidence.

Panel members should refer to the Interim Practice Note on Witness Questioning for guidance on managing witness evidence.

The witness will have a copy of their witness statement. Where the witness is required to access documents within the bundle during questioning by the parties, the witness will be given online, restricted and redacted access. The witnesses, Committee and parties will be able to view the particular document or page number at the same time via the online platform.

However, members of the public or press attending the hearing will not be given access.

Witnesses should be afforded the opportunity for regular breaks to enable them to give their best evidence.

If any member of the public wishes to attend a hearing, they will be provided with the meeting link.

If part of the hearing is to be held in private, members of the public will be required to sign out of the hearing room for that part of the hearing. The hearings clerk will ‘lock’ the room once any members of the public have left, which will prevent any person from joining the hearing until the lock is removed. The hearing clerk will inform the members of the public once the public hearing has resumed and will unlock the room to enable them to re-join the hearing.

If any member of the public attends the hearing, their microphone must remain muted with their camera switched off for the duration of the hearing. They should also ensure that they do not cause a distraction to any of the hearing participants in any other way.

Please note: Recording of proceedings including the taking of a screenshot of the participants is not permitted by any participant. Only the GOsC have a statutory right to make a formal recording for the purposes of a transcript. If an attendee is unable to comply, they will be removed from the hearing link without notice and/or at the discretion of the panel Chair.

It is not permitted for any participant to make a recording of the hearing (other than the official GOsC recording) or take a screenshot of the participants.

If you would like to attend a public hearing as an observer, please email regulation@osteopathy.org.uk

Please make sure you email by 12pm on the last working day before the hearing. For example, if the hearing is on a Monday, please email us by 12pm on the Friday before.

When emailing us, please include your name, your association with the osteopath (if any), and the hearing day(s) you wish to observe. You must also confirm in your email that you have read this section of our website. Our Hearings Coordinator will then contact you to make the necessary arrangements for you to attend.

If you would like support from a friend or family member during the hearing, you should inform the Case Manager before the hearing. When attending the hearing this individual should be positioned so that they appear on screen sitting behind the witness giving evidence with clear visibility of their face on screen.

The Independent Support Service helps support patients, witnesses and osteopaths going through the fitness to practise process. The support that Independent Support Service can provide is available throughout the fitness to practise process and for three months after the case you are involved with concludes.

All GOsC hearings are recorded. At the beginning of the hearing, the hearing clerk will inform participants that the recording is going to be started. Participants will then hear an automatic announcement confirming that the meeting is being recorded. The recording will be of both sound and video.

When the panel retires to make its decision, the recording will be switched off. Participants will again hear an automatic announcement confirming this.

Participants are not permitted to make their own recordings or take a ‘screenshot’ of the hearing.

While online meetings are now common practice, they can still be unfamiliar to many people. The Panel and the GOsC also recognise that some people will be less skilled at using technology. It is an important principal that technological glitches should not cause stress or adversely affect a witness or registrant’s ability to participate fully in proceedings.

If participants experience any technical problems during the hearing eg if they are unable to connect, the hearings clerk will usually call or email the participant to walk them through the issues they are encountering and to check they are able to reconnect on the link. It is important that the clerk has all contact details prior to the hearing to help facilitate this should this be needed.

If participants are disconnected from the hearing and cannot reconnect, they should call the GOsC’s hearing clerk on their direct number or call 020 7357 6655 x236.

If any party is experiencing technical difficulties that prevents them from participating in the hearing, the hearing must be paused to allow the issues to be resolved.

Once the hearing has already been scheduled, and where a registrant takes issue with a hearing taking place remotely or in-person, they should make an application, supported by written submissions, for consideration by the Chair of the Professional Conduct Committee in advance of the hearing. These submissions will be taken into account by the Chair when determining the appropriate format. The Chair will provide written reasons for their decision.

For cases identified as suitable for remote or blended hearings, we will liaise with all parties to ensure they have the appropriate IT equipment to participate fully. Where any access issues arise, the case may be considered for a blended or in person hearing instead. If a witness or registrant is vulnerable or requires additional support to give their evidence, arrangements may be made for them to attend a suitable location. A registrant may also wish to give evidence from their legal representative’s office or counsel’s chambers if that can be facilitated.

At each stage of the hearing, having heard any submissions and evidence, the Committee will make its decision in private. The panel will withdraw to the panel room when this part of the hearing is reached.

Before the parties leave the hearing room, the Chair should provide them with a time estimate for when they will be required to rejoin the hearing.

The Chair should provide the hearing clerk with updated time estimates as the discussions progress. The hearing clerk will then update the parties as necessary.

It is the responsibility of the legal assessor to produce the first draft of the written reasons of the panel’s decision for the consideration of the panel. The legal assessor will also make revisions to the draft as necessary. The legal assessor can share this draft decision with the panel by sharing their screen. This can be done by clicking the screen icon in the bar of buttons at the bottom centre of the screen. Alternatively, drafts can be emailed to the hearing clerk to upload to the Committee. Please note that drafts must be emailed in a password protected format. The hearing clerk will provide a password for this purpose.

After the panels in camera discussions are complete, and the written reasons for the decision have been finalised and agreed by the panel, the Chair will notify the hearing clerk. The hearing clerk will contact all participants and invite them to re-join the hearing. All participants should remain contactable by phone or email during the in-camera session to ensure that they are able to return promptly to the hearing room when contacted. Once all participants have re-joined the hearing, the recording will be turned on again.

After the hearing has finished, panel members must delete all downloaded papers from their device(s). This includes deleting any items in the recycling bin so that no confidential information remains on their computers or other devices.

The decision will be sent to all parties via email and uploaded to the GOsC website in line with our Fitness to Practise Publication Policy.

All parties are encouraged to share feedback about the hearing process on our feedback form which will be shared by the Case Worker.

Our Fitness to Practise Publication Policy sets out how, and for how long, we publish information relating to the decisions of our fitness-to-practise committees.

We will publish a finding of unacceptable professional conduct made by the Professional Conduct Committee (at a hearing or under the Rule 8 Procedure) on our website and in the annual Fitness to Practise Report.

We will publish findings made by the Health Committee, but we will not publish information relating to your health or condition.

You can find out how to appeal on the Appeals page.

1. Log into the system  
2. Select ‘View Case’ Listfromthe tabs at the top.
3. Scroll down the page to find the list of case bundles that have been shared with you.
4. For the bundle you want to view, click ‘Review Evidence’. The bundle will open in a separate window.

1. The index is on the left side of the screen. 
2. The bundle is divided into sections (section headings are in bold). 
3. Click on each heading to reveal the documents in that section. 
4. Click on any document heading to navigate to that document.
5. The selected document will appear in the middle section of the screen.
6. Use the scroll bar to the right of the middle section to scroll through  the document.

Note that you can also collapse the section by re-clicking on the bold section heading.

1. The Find tab is in the top left corner of the screen, next to Home. 
2. Click on the tab and the options menu will appear.
3. Use the ‘Next document’ and ‘Previous document’ arrows to jump to the documents before or after the one you are currently viewing.
4. Use the ‘Viewing history’ icon to view your recently viewed documents.
5. Use the ‘Search case’ icon to find a specific search term in the bundle.
6. Use the ‘Find page’ icon to go to a specific page number.

1. Navigate to the page you want to direct others in the hearing to.
2. Click on the ‘Find’ tab in the list of the tabs at the top left of the screen.
3. Click ‘Direct Others to Page’.
4. A pop-up box will ask you to confirm that you would like to direct everyone to the page you have chosen. Click ‘Yes’.
5. All other hearing parties will get a direction to that page.

1. If another hearing party wishes to direct you to a page, they will follow the process above.
2. A pop-up box will appear on your screen notifying you that you have been issued with a page direction. It will ask if you wish to go to the page you have been directed to. 
3. If you click ‘Yes’ your bundle will turn to that page. 
4. Alternatively, you can opt to be automatically directed to another page whenever a page direction is issued. The Auto Direction button appears under the Find tab. If you turn this on, your bundle will automatically turn to the page you have been directed to when a page direction is issued.

a. The dual panes button is in the top right corner of the central section.
b. Click on this button to open a second pane.
c. You can choose which pane is active by clicking the button next to the X in the top right corner of the index pane.
d. Click it once to switch from the left pane to the right pane. Click it again to switch back to the left pane.
e. Once you have selected which pane you want to be active, you can navigate it using the index or find tabs (see instructions above).
f. You can enlarge or decrease the size of the required pane.
g. To close a pane click the X in the top right corner of the pane you want to close.

1. A page note is a note attached to a specific page of the bundle.
2. To make a page note, first go to the page you want to annotate.
3. Click on the Notes tab in the list of tabs at the top left of the screen.
4. Then click ‘Add a page’ note. 
5. This will reveal further options eg ‘Draw a Box’ and ‘Highlight’, etc
6. Select which type of annotation you want to make from the options.
7. Click and hold your mouse button down to draw over the area of the page you want to add the note to.
8. A blank note box will appear so that you can type in your note. You can choose whether this is a widely shared note or a private note. Private notes can only be seen by you and we recommend that you only make private notes. Widely shared notes can be seen by ALL hearing parties.
9. Click ‘save’ once you have finished making your note. The note will now appear in the column on the right of your screen.

1. A case note is a general note made about the whole case.
2. To make a case note, click on the Notes tab in the list of tabs at the top left of the screen.
3. A blank note box will appear so that you can type in your note. You can choose whether this is a widely shared note or a private note. Private notes can only be seen by you and we recommend that you only make private notes. Widely shared notes can be seen by ALL hearing parties.
4. Click ‘save’ once you have finished making your note. The note will now appear in the column on the right of your screen.
5. Case notes are identified by the file and bullet point symbol in the coloured strip at the top of the note. 

1. Within the Notes tab, click on the copy text icon which looks like two sheets of paper.
2. Drag the cursor over the required text.
3. A green box will appear at the top right of the screen confirming ‘Text has been copied to your clipboard!’
4. You are now able to paste the text into another application (Microsoft Word  for example).