Nurses can avoid the anxiety and cost of a full fitness to practise hearing through consensual panel determinations, with insight and strengthened practise being an important consideration.
NMC Consensual Panel – Overview
A consensual panel determination offer nurses and midwives an alternative means of dealing with fitness to practise allegations found proven by the NMC, thereby avoiding the need for a full fitness to practise hearing.
There are certain criteria to meet to be considered for a consensual panel determination, but most importantly, a nurse must admit the factual allegations against them and agree that their fitness to practise is impaired as a consequence.
As part of the consensual panel determination process, the NMC will also decide on the appropriate sanction, and the nurse must agree to this.
Sanctions
The NMC have the full range of sanctions available to them as part of the consensual panel determination process. The outcome of the panel can either decide to:
- accept the provisional agreement, or
- reject the provisional agreement.
Insight and Remediation
Evidence of insight and remediation can play a critical role in the outcome for nurses and midwives. The consensual panel will refer to the NMC sanctions guidance when considering whether the sanction proposed is appropriate and proportionate.
The NMC, and guidance, considers an “admission of impairment” as an indication of “a level of insight that’s essential for a sanction to be agreed and for the case to be resolved by a consensual panel determination agreement.”
The guidance goes on to say that aggravating features include “lack of insight and remediation”. Conversely, mitigating features include “evidence of insight and understanding of the problem, and their attempts to address it” and the “early admission of the facts, apologies to anyone affected, any efforts to prevent similar things happening again, or any efforts to put problems right”.
Disclaimer: This article is for guidance purposes only. Kings View Chambers accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever for any action taken, or not taken, in relation to this article. You should seek the appropriate legal advice having regard to your own particular circumstances.