Maria Corrigan (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Cathaoirleach for giving me the opportunity to raise this important matter and the Minister of State for her attendance in the Chamber.

I speak about the regulation of the health and social care worker professions, as provided for in the Health and Social Care Professionals Act. While I welcome this important legislation, I acknowledge its implementation with regard to the 12 designated professions has taken a little longer than expected. The legislation is essential to ensure the highest standards of professionalism and competence, thereby ensuring consumer protection. The professions originally identified for regulation are ones to which highly vulnerable and needy people often turn for assistance. Consequently, the legislation is essential to provide for their safety.

I ask the Minister of State to provide an update on the current position. In that context and on foot of previous queries, I am aware that there are other areas in need of similar regulation. I am delighted that the Irish Institute of Clinical Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy has made an application seeking inclusion, although I note that its application cannot be considered until the 12 designated professions have been dealt with. Perhaps the Minister of State will be in a position to indicate a timeframe for the consideration of the institute's application because, in common with other professions, it has not gone as far down the road towards ensuring competence and consumer protection as some of the designated professions. However, its keenness to seek this for its profession, its wish to put in place whatever is required to ensure regulation and its decision to go down the road of self-regulation in the interim are to be welcomed.

Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney. I thank the Senator for raising it and giving me the opportunity to update the House on the ongoing regulatory programme undertaken by the Department of Health and Children.

The Health and Social Care Professionals Act was passed by the Oireachtas in 2005. The Act provides for the establishment of a system of statutory registration for 12 health and social care professions. The 12 professions to be regulated under the Act are clinical biochemists, dieticians, medical scientists, occupational therapists, orthoptists, physiotherapists, podiatrists, psychologists, radiographers, social care workers, social workers and speech and language therapists. The structure of the system of statutory registration will comprise a registration board for each of the professions to be registered, a Health and Social Care Professionals Council with overall responsibility for the regulatory system and a committee to deal with disciplinary matters.

As a first step in implementation of the system of statutory registration, the Minister for Health and Children launched the Health and Social Care Professionals Council in March 2007. The chief executive officer of the council was appointed in 2008 and additional senior administrative staff took up duty with the council in late 2009. These appointments, as well as further progress in the establishment of a suitable organisational structure, will greatly assist the council in its ongoing work in preparing for the establishment of the individual registration boards. The council must establish a registration board for each of the 12 professions currently covered by the Act. Arrangements for the establishment of the first of these registration boards are being finalised. The council will enable health and social care professionals to practice in a regulated, controlled and safe environment and in a manner which will ensure the provision of high quality interventions, thereby meeting the challenges of increasingly complex and evolving care for service users. Health and social care professionals will be facilitated in ensuring responsible and accountable practices, while providing the highest level of patient care and service.

The focus of the council to date has been on the setting up of organisational structures, the progression of corporate and general processes and the identification of robust financial, human resources and governance systems. The council has undertaken an enormous amount of preparatory work in readiness for the establishment of the first 13-person registration board, the Social Workers Registration Board, in the coming weeks. It has carried out considerable work in developing governance arrangements, financial management systems, fitness to practice procedures, meeting ICT requirements and developing other such arrangements that will be needed to support the establishment and functioning of all registration boards. It is essential that the first registration board be established with great care as it will serve as the model for all registration boards to follow.

While the proposed system of statutory registration applies, in the first instance, to 12 health and social care professions, the legislation empowers the Minister for Health and Children to include, on the basis of specific criteria, additional health and social care professions in the regulatory system over time, as appropriate. Section 4 of the 2005 Act sets out the criteria governing the subsequent addition of further professions into the regulatory system at a later date, including the extent to which the profession has a defined scope of practice and applies a distinct body of knowledge; the extent to which the profession has established itself, including whether there is at least one professional body representing a significant proportion of the profession's practitioners; the existence of defined routes of entry into the profession and independently assessed entry qualifications; the profession's commitment to continuous professional development; the degree of risk to the health, safety or welfare of the public from incompetent, unethical or impaired practice of the profession, and any other factors that the Minister considers relevant.

The priority for the Health and Social Care Professionals Council is to establish statutory registration procedures for the 12 designated health and social care professions in the first instance. The issue of inclusion of other grades such as psychotherapists and hypnotherapists within the scope of the statutory registration system will be considered after the initial designated 12 professional grades have been fully dealt with.