Professional Conduct

Our team helps a wide range of professionals that face many different issues, including:

• professional performance and competency
• allegations of fraud or dishonesty
• safeguarding investigations
• harassment and malicious or vexatious complaints.

We support professionals who are facing criminal prosecution for:

• gross negligence manslaughter
• sexual assault
• dangerous driving.

We help professionals suffering from health-related issues, including:

• mental health
• drug and alcohol addictions.

We also support professionals facing allegations of:

• dishonesty 
• misleading CVs
• fraud
• misappropriation of funds
• theft 
• poor performance 
• cheating
• bullying 
• harassment 
• failing to maintain appropriate professional boundaries 
• clinical research misconduct 
• misleading advertising 
• failing to take appropriate consent 
• failing to diagnose
• gross negligence manslaughter.

Fitness to practise investigations look at allegations of misconduct.

If the professional regulator decides that the allegations amount to serious misconduct, it will convene a fitness to practise hearing, at which the Tribunal or Panel will hear evidence and decide whether any action needs to be taken against your licence to practise, professional registration or membership.

Facing a fitness to practise investigation can be stressful and time consuming. It can impact your mental health, livelihood and home life. When under pressure, you may not respond in the best way.

We will consider the complaint or allegations against you and any information obtained in support of them. After speaking with you, we will formulate a strategy about what information we should gather in support of your defence. We will consider whether any additional expert input is required and work with our colleagues across the firm and externally to seek any discrete specialist advice. This will ensure that we formulate a robust, positive response.

If, during the substantive investigation, your regulator considers there is information that suggests you might pose an immediate risk, they can convene an interim orders hearing, which will consider whether your practise should be restricted on an interim basis. The hearings can be arranged at short notice.

The Interim Orders Tribunal, Committee or Panel can impose conditions on your practise or suspend your registration. The hearings are not designed to consider the facts of the case but to consider any risk you might pose to your patients, clients or to the public.

After speaking with you, we will formulate a plan to gather information which we can submit to the Tribunal to demonstrate where there is a low risk and, where possible, seek the lowest sanction or no order at all.

If your regulator thinks that your health or performance might adversely affect your ability to practise safely or competently, it may invite you to undergo a health or performance assessment.

We can support you through these processes. We have supported professionals by making submissions on these assessments to achieve the best possible outcome.

If your regulator has concluded the investigation and decides that there is a case to answer, it will present you with the information gathered, along with its allegations. You will usually be given 28 days to respond formally to the allegations.

We will draft your written response and submit any supporting documentation. We will advise you on what information to gather or prepare.

Your response will then be considered in private by an Investigating Committee, Case Examiners or Authorised Decision Makers, who will decide what further action is required.

Your regulator may offer a set of undertakings, a warning or a fine as a way of concluding an investigation. These are usually offered in health-related investigations or cases that involve less serious performance issues.

We will work on your behalf to try to ensure that the undertakings are workable, the wording of any warning is fair or that any fine is set at the lowest amount possible. We will also work on your behalf to apply for a review to vary or revoke any undertakings when we consider they are no longer justified.

Fitness to practise investigations can often begin with investigations by your employer. We understand what concerns your professional regulator might ultimately have. We will therefore always bear this in mind when advising you in your response to your employer. We will work alongside our employment team where necessary.

We will consider the concerns that have been set out and help you to gather any supportive information. We can also draft your response for any investigation meeting or disciplinary hearing, depending on the nature of the allegations.

We help our clients to achieve the best possible outcomes and our solicitors have helped clients who are investigated by their employers to keep their jobs and receive a successful outcome following a professional regulatory investigation.

Maintaining High Professional Standards in the Modern NHS is the procedural framework for the handling of serious concerns about the conduct or capability of doctors and dentists in the NHS.

Restrictions could be placed on your practise, or you could be excluded from work while the investigation is ongoing. The outcome could result in dismissal and/or referral to the General Medical Council or General Dental Council.

We can help you to seek more information about the terms of reference of the investigation and invite your employer to consider certain information or contact particular witnesses.

It is not a good idea to start investigating or contacting witnesses yourself directly, as you could be accused of interfering with the investigation. We can also help to formulate and write your comments on the investigation report.

Universities have Fitness to Practise and Misconduct/Disciplinary procedures which allow for different outcomes. Identifying which procedure you are being investigated or disciplined under is therefore important, as there are different rules and processes for each.

Our solicitors have even seen cases in which universities have started an investigation under one procedure but adopted the sanctions available under another.

We can assist you in identifying which procedure is being adopted. We can attend case investigation meetings with you and help to prepare your response, as well as represent you at any final Panel hearing.

Inquests are investigations that seek to establish possible causes of death.

Evidence is usually called from experts, those who were responsible for or owed the deceased a duty of care and those who might have last seen the deceased.

The coroner holding the inquest will also look at whether the death could have been prevented, and will consider the practices and procedures of organisations.

If the coroner considers there to be a risk of other deaths occurring in similar circumstances, they can issue a Preventing Future Deaths report to the relevant organisation, asking for improvements to be made. 

Our solicitors have represented various organisations, including hospitals, GP practices, ambulance services and employers, as well as individuals such as doctors and nurses, at Inquests.

To avoid or reduce any criticisms by the coroner, we will help interested parties to prepare for Inquests and advise on any policies and procedures to demonstrate lessons learned, to reduce the risk of receiving a Preventing Future Deaths report. We will also represent interested parties at any final public hearings.

If you are on one of the NHS Performers’ Lists (medical, dental, ophthalmic), you could be investigated in accordance with the set rules and procedures.  

Our solicitors can help you and represent your interests when responding to the Performance Advisory Group (PAG) or appearing in front of the PLDP (Performers’ Lists Decision panels).

We can also offer advice to businesses in relation to other matters, including data protection, consent, codes of practice and third-party disclosure issues.

We have advised healthcare individuals and organisations in relation to relevant statutory frameworks concerning compliance, risk assessments, consent forms, audits and remedial action required to improve care homes and medical and dental practices (for example, following CQC inspections).

We have also offered advice to universities and student bodies in relation to their policies on consent and drugs.

Judicial review applications seek a review of the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public body in cases where you think it has not followed the correct process or has failed to apply its own guidance when reaching a decision.

Judicial reviews are only available where there is no other statutory right of appeal.

If you think that you have a case for judicial review or appeal, we can consider it and advise you on the prospects of pursuing either an appeal or applying for judicial review.

Professionals are required to adhere to professional and ethical standards set out in a code of practice by their professional regulatory body.

Any alleged breach of these standards can lead to investigations by the regulatory body, which will determine whether the person(s) under investigation should remain a member of the professional body or have sanctions imposed upon their registration, licence or membership as a result of the alleged misconduct.

The body can consider whether a person is fit to practise, study or remain in membership.

Working as a professional means that you’ll be in a position of trust. Your profession therefore demands that you maintain appropriate and respectable professional behaviours both inside and outside the workplace so that the public will feel confident in the profession. 

Each professional regulator or institution has its own set of standards and codes of practice which it expects members to comply with — for example, to maintain professional boundaries, act with honesty and integrity, protect and safeguard the interests of those who hold you in a position of trust and maintain confidentiality. 

Any departures from the expected standards and codes of practice can amount to professional misconduct.

Fitness to practise is a healthcare concept. The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) defines someone as ‘fit to practise’ if they have the skills, knowledge, character and health to practise their profession safely and effectively.

Any concern about performance, behaviour or a health-related issue can bring into question a healthcare professional’s fitness to practise — even where issues arose pre-registration. Good character, professional competency and the professional’s personal health are all considered when assessing fitness to practise.

While other regulators may not use the term fitness to practise, similar considerations apply when considering misconduct.

When you go through a fitness to practise or disciplinary investigation, your professional regulator or employer will want to know that you have gained ‘insight’ into the issues that you face and understand why you are appearing before them.

If you are unable to demonstrate genuine insight, your regulator or employer will be concerned that you risk repeating the behaviour or practice for which you are being investigated. This could result in a harsher outcome and sanction.

It's important to demonstrate that you have considered and recognise why concerns may have been raised about you — even if you don’t agree with them — as well as how you could have behaved differently and whether you have taken steps to engage in remedial work (for example, by attending relevant courses or engaging in therapy/treatment). Essentially, you need to demonstrate improved behaviours and practices.

Genuine insight cannot be demonstrated overnight. Time needs to be taken to show continued improvements over a period of time. You should then demonstrate your remediation by writing about what you have learned in a reflective statement.

Professional regulators investigate a wide range of issues relating to a professional’s performance, health, personal and professional behaviour, which can include behaviours outside of the workplace that could bring the profession into disrepute.