Health and social care professionals registration

About the consultation

The Government is proposing a new approach to registering health and social care professionals in Jersey. The new approach aims to standardise the local professional registration process to support a safe and regulated care sector on the Island.

In summary, the new approach would involve all professional groups being registered with the Jersey Care Commission and being subject to the same registration requirements. This includes paying a nominal registration and annual renewal fee of around £59.21 each. 

This new approach would ensure

• the Commission has an up-to-date record of who is practicing on the Island and their qualifications
• the registration process is fair for all professional groups

Health and social care employers would have a duty to ensure relevant employees are actively registered with the Commission in order to practice in Jersey. 

This approach would consolidate different registration laws into a single ‘professional registration law’. If successful, the new law would likely come into force in 2026.

The main issues

Currently, there are 5 different laws covering the registration of different professional groups. As a result, there is no uniform registration process or up-to-date record of professionals practicing in Jersey.

Most professional groups must register with the Jersey Care Commission. Others, such as dentists and pharmacists, must register with the Judicial Greffe and Chief Pharmacist. Various professional groups have different registration and renewal fees or requirements and records are not up to date.

The new approach

The new approach would consolidate 5 existing registration laws into 1 professional registration law. This would make the registration process fair across all professional groups.

This proposed law would involve: 

• all professionals being registered with the Jersey Care Commission
• the Commission maintaining and publishing up-to-date registers of professional groups
• all professionals paying the same nominal registration fee and renewing their registration annually for the same nominal fee
• health and social care employers having a duty to ensure that their employees are registered with the Commission in order to practice in Jersey

Under these proposals, professionals already registered with the Commission, the Judicial Greffe or the Chief Pharmacist would not need to register again. They would be automatically transferred to a new register held by the Commission and would need to renew their registration with the Commission after 1 year.

Training standards and fitness to practice issues would continue to be managed by relevant UK regulatory bodies such as the GMC and GDC. The role of responsible officers (where applicable) would also remain the same. However, up-to-date registers of professional groups would accurately reflect any conditions placed on a professional’s registration by a UK regulator, providing further oversight to the Commission and assurance to Islanders that care professionals practicing in Jersey are fit to do so. 

In the interest of public safety, it is also proposed that the Commission would have powers to place conditions on, or if proportionate suspend, the professional's registration before the UK regulatory body has acted. This would only be in extreme cases where there is compelling evidence of risk to life OR where the professional is charged with a serious offence in Jersey.

The professional would have the opportunity to challenge any decision before it is made by making representations to the Commission. In all cases, the professional would have the right to appeal any decision made by the Commission to register, suspend or impose conditions on their registration through the Royal Court.

A nominal registration and annual renewal fee would cover the Commission’s costs of administrating and continuously maintaining the professional registers. The suggested fees are based on those most recently set for dental care professionals:

• £59.21 for initial registration
  
• £59.21 for renewal

These are proposals at this point and are subject to consultation.

You can find a list of registrable occupations in appendix 1 of the consultation document.

A new approach to the registration of health and social care professionals

Project timescales 

How to submit comments to the consultation

We would like health and social care professionals and their employers to consider the new approach and submit their comments using the online form.

Complete the new approach to professional registration survey

You can also give us your feedback by email to careregulation@gov.je.

Privacy statement

Strategic Policy, Planning and Performance is registered as a 'Controller' under the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018, as we determine the purpose and means of the processing of the personal information collected about you for this service.

Find more information on a new approach to registering health and social care professionals consultation privacy notice.