Build your remediation pathway, step by step

When a concern is raised about your practice, the hardest part is often knowing where to start. This free tool helps you put together a remediation plan for healthcare professionals that fits your regulator, the type of concern and the stage you have reached. It works for doctors, nurses and midwives, HCPC professions, dental and pharmacy professionals, optical professionals, osteopaths, chiropractors and social workers in England.

The pathway does not write anything for you and it does not judge your case. It organises the work that panels and case examiners generally look for (insight, targeted learning, honest reflection, testimonials and evidence of safe practice) into seven steps, then collects what you have entered into an evidence portfolio you can print or save as a PDF.

Healthcare Practise UK is an independent provider, not affiliated with or endorsed by any UK regulator or the NHS. The pathway is not legal advice and does not predict any outcome. If you have a representative, use it alongside their advice, not instead of it.

Each regulator words it differently, but their published guidance comes back to the same ideas. The pathway follows them in order because each one builds on the last.

Can the concern be addressed, and has it been?

The NMC's fitness to practise library asks two separate questions: whether a concern can be addressed (FTP-16a) and whether it has been addressed (FTP-16b). Some concerns are easier to put right than others. Regulators including the NMC and Social Work England say that concerns about character, such as dishonesty, are harder to remediate. That is why step 1 asks about the type of concern before suggesting anything.

Insight comes first

The NMC treats evidence of insight as usually central to deciding whether fitness to practise is currently impaired. Social Work England's impairment and sanctions guidance says the risk of repetition is greater where a social worker does not fully understand what they did wrong, and that decision makers look for objective evidence of insight rather than assertion. The readiness check starts with insight for this reason.

Remediation needs objective evidence

Social Work England's guidance says remediation is best shown by objective evidence such as completed training, appraisals and practice feedback, and that earlier remediation carries more weight. The NMC calls this strengthened practice. Targeted courses with certificates are one kind of evidence. Audits, supervision notes and feedback from people who have seen your practice since are others.

Risk of repetition ties it together

The NMC asks whether it is highly unlikely that the conduct will be repeated. The Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service practice note on finding impairment links insight to the future risk of repetition. Your reflection, your learning and your evidence of practice since all feed that judgement, which is why the portfolio brings them together.

We sell courses, so we want to be plain about this. A certificate shows that you completed some learning. On its own, it does not show that you understood what went wrong, that the learning was relevant to the concern, or that your practice has changed. The NMC's guidance on whether a concern has been addressed looks at how relevant training is to the concern, not just whether it was done.

The strongest remediation usually combines:

• learning that targets the specific knowledge, skills or behaviour behind the concern;
• a reflective statement, in your own words, that connects that learning to what happened;
• evidence of safe practice since, such as audit results, supervision records or feedback;
• testimonials from people who know about the concerns and have seen your recent work.

The pathway is built to make each of those visible, so that you are not relying on certificates to do a job they cannot do.

Remediation that begins early has more time to show sustained change, and Social Work England's guidance says earlier remediation carries more weight. Testimonials take weeks to arrive, and courses, reflection and evidence of practice all take time to gather.

If you have a hearing or decision date, the timeline step suggests target dates working backwards from it: getting advice, completing the readiness check, starting courses, sending testimonial requests, drafting your reflection and assembling the portfolio. Treat these as a starting point to confirm with your representative, who will know the deadlines that apply to your case.

The pathway covers all nine UK regulators of healthcare and social work professionals in England: the GMC, NMC, HCPC, GDC, GPhC, GOC, GOsC, GCC and Social Work England. Reflection prompts and readiness suggestions are adapted to each. To read what each regulator expects, including standards, CPD numbers and fitness to practise guidance, start from the regulators hub.