Working in partnership with other bodies - Memoranda of Understanding
The agreements we have with other organisations to support each others goals.
A memorandum of understanding is a statement agreed by two or more organisations that commits them to working closely together to support each other’s goals.
We have a number of these agreements in place with organisations across the UK and the world, and you can see our agreements listed below:
The General Chiropractic Council is a signatory to the memorandum of understanding for investigating healthcare incidents where suspected criminal activity may have contributed to death or serious life-changing harm.
This MoU was recommended by Professor Sir Norman Williams’ rapid policy review into gross negligence manslaughter in 2018. The Williams review was set up to look at the wider impact of concerns among healthcare professionals that simple errors could result in prosecution for gross negligence manslaughter, even if they happen in the context of broader organisation and system failings.
Following this recommendation, the Department of Health and Social Care consulted with regulatory, investigatory and prosecutorial bodies to develop the new MoU, Investigating healthcare incidents where suspected criminal activity may have contributed to death or serious life-changing harm.
The MoU applies in England and has been formally signed by:
- NHS England
- National Police Chiefs’ Council
- Health and Safety Executive
- Crown Prosecution Service
- Care Quality Commission
- General Medical Council
- Nursing and Midwifery Council
- General Dental Council
- Health and Care Professions Council
- General Pharmaceutical Council
- General Optical Council
- General Chiropractic Council
- General Osteopathic Council
The MoU will be used by signatories to help deliver early, co-ordinated and effective action following incidents where there is reasonable suspicion that a patient/service user’s death or serious life-changing harm occurred as a result of suspected criminal activity in the course of healthcare delivery.
Read the Memorandum of Understanding (on gov.uk website)The General Chiropractic Council is a signatory to the Emerging concerns protocol.
The protocol is for health and social care regulators and others with a role in the quality and safety of health and care. It provides a process to share information that may indicate risks to people using services, their carers, families or professionals.
Primarily it is a mechanism to triangulate information to support decision making. It aims to enable:
- safe and timely sharing of information, which individually might seem small or insignificant, but when joined together can tell us a problem is emerging
- consideration of any collaborative support, decisions or regulatory activity to address concerns in a proactive way.
This will allow signatories to fulfil our collective role better, as well as improve our ability to fulfil our individual roles. We also believe that working together more effectively can reduce unnecessary burden. For example, we can do this by encouraging our organisations to develop joint plans when we share similar concerns, or by taking assurance from each other’s actions.
The following organisations are signatories of this Protocol:
- Care Quality Commission (including the Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations programme, hosted by Care Quality Commission)
- General Dental Council
- General Medical Council
- General Osteopathic Council
- General Pharmaceutical Council
- General Chiropractic Council
- General Optical Council
- Health and Care Professions Council
- Health Services Safety Investigations Body
- Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
- Nursing and Midwifery Council
- Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
- Social Work England.
The Isle of Man’s Health Care Professionals Act 2014 has put chiropractors on the same footing as the Island’s other healthcare professionals. All chiropractors working on the Isle of Man must be registered with the General Chiropractic Council. A Memorandum of Understanding (October 2014) supports the exchange of information between the Island’s Department of Health and Social Care and us.
The General Chiropractic Council signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Gibraltar Medical Registration Board in January 2015. The Board is now responsible for registering chiropractors in Gibraltar who will also be required to be registered with us
