Registered individuals

How we can help 

The Professional Services Unit (PSU) specialises in representing UNISON members who are registered individuals facing fitness to practise proceedings. We support and represent our registered members from the start of the investigation through to its conclusion, at whatever stage of the process.

Members who have been referred by their regulator should contact their branch. The case will be sent to the PSU, and on receipt it will be checked for eligibility and triaged by one of the team. They will then contact you by email to book an appointment for an initial discussion about your case to complete their triage assessment of your case. In the call they will confirm the rules of representation.

Following this, you’ll be allocated a case officer who will support you and represent you throughout the entire investigation and regulatory process until your case is closed.

You can see which regulators we provide representation for in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland in our listing below.

Have you been referred to your regulator?

Anyone can refer a registered individual to their regulatory body. The majority of referrals come from the public, others might come from employers, the police, colleagues, family or sometime registrants have to self-refer. (See below)

If you have been referred to your regulatory body, you will receive an official letter or email from your regulator with your unique reference number (either a case reference or your registration number), this might be in the subject of the email, stating that a complaint or referral has been received. 

If you have received written communication from your regulatory body, you must immediately contact your UNISON branch or regional officer – or if you do not know this information, contact UNISONdirect on 0800 0857 857 to inform them.

Please do not respond to or communicate with your regulator regarding any of the allegations prior to speaking to the Professional Services Unit – your PSU case officer will advise you accordingly.

Self-referral

In some scenarios, it is a requirement to self-refer, so it is best practice to familiarise yourself with your regulatory code of conduct. 

Knowing when to self-refer will indicate to your regulator not only that you are an honest and transparent professional, but that you are compliant with your profession’s Code of Practice. 

On the other hand, referring yourself when you did not need to, can cause unnecessary time and financial burdens, as well as the emotional burden of a preventable investigation. 

If you are unsure at any point about whether to self-refer, please speak to your local branch representatives or follow the links below for your regulator’s guide to self-referrals, including when not to self-refer.

• General Dental Council: Raise a concern if you work in dentistry
• General Medical Council: When a referral or self-referral does and doesn’t need to be made
• Health and Care Professions Council: Self-referral
• Northern Ireland Social Care Council: I’m a registrant making a self-referral
• Nursing & Midwifery Council: Making a self-referral
• Pharmaceutical Society in Northern Ireland: Raising concerns and fitness to practise guidance
• Social Care Wales: Raising a concern
• Scottish Social Services Council: Raising a concern with us
• Social Work England: Make self-referral

If you belong to a regulatory body not included in the above list, please contact your local UNISON branch, regional officer or the Professional Services Unit to inquire about whether a self-referral is required.

Informing your employer

Once you have received official notification from your regulatory body that a referral or complaint has been received, you must notify your employer. Even if the allegation or alleged incident occurred outside of the workplace or outside of your practice, any referral to your regulatory body must be disclosed. 

It is best practice to inform your employer verbally and to follow this up in writing, as this provides you with an audit trial that they have been informed. Please always keep records of anything relating to the case, as this can be used as evidence of your transparency and honesty in dealing with the allegation. If you do not do this, your employer may consider you as not being open and honest, which could result in a local investigation and potentially a further referral of dishonesty.

If you are at all unsure, please speak to your UNISON branch, and if necessary, they will seek specific advice from us.

Possible sanctions if there is a case to answer

We want to assure you, that in the overwhelming majority of cases, where UNISON represents and advocates for the member, we achieve excellent outcomes The majority are closed at an early stage with no case to answer. 

But in the event that your case goes to a full substantive hearing (final stage hearing), there would be three stages to this in this process:

1. Has the regulator proven their case, so that the allegations are found against you?
2. If the facts (allegations) are proved, a panel will then go on to consider 'impairment'. This is looking at your practise since the event (or events) occurred. We would work hard with you, ahead of the hearing, to ensure that we are able to argue to the regulator that you have learned from the events, undertaken training and reflected on your practise. So even though, they found those acts proven, they may not find your practise now, at the time of the hearing, in impaired.  
3. If the decision is that your fitness to practise is impaired, there are varying sanctions available to regulators. Some of these sanctions are as follows:

• No further action.
• Warning.
• Undertakings.
• Caution order.
• Conditions of practice order.
• Suspension order.
• Striking off.

Interim orders

All cases that are referred to regulatory bodies are assessed by their screening teams. If the screening team assesses your case and deems that there is a risk associated to you practising unrestricted, your case will be referred to an Interim Order Panel.

If your case is referred for an Interim Order Hearing, you will be notified immediately. You must notify your UNISON branch urgently.

Interim orders are conducted with very short notice. For example, the NMC holds interim order hearings with a maximum of seven days’ notice. For this reason, it is imperative that the PSU receive notification as soon as possible so we can provide representation and advise you appropriately.

The PSU will represent all current UNISON members at interim order hearings on a 'without prejudice' basis. This means that as long as you are a paying member, we will provide representation at your Interim Order Hearing. This is due to the urgent nature and the limited time your branch and others will have to gather the eligibility information.

To protect your best interest, we represent you ahead of assessing eligibility this is subsequently completed and then it will be confirmed whether you are eligible for continued representation. Unrepresented registrants are more likely than not to be subject to an Interim Suspension Order, so we cannot stress strongly enough the need for you to take urgent action if you hear from your regulator.

The officer allocated to represent you at the hearing will discuss the case with you and then prepare submissions on your behalf for the hearing. They may ask you to complete some tasks which will aid your case, such as a reflection, character testimonials and evidence of learning, as well as other things which may be useful.

At an Interim Order Hearing, the panel will be conducting a risk assessment: not determining if you did or did not do something, but considering if they can allow you to continue practising while the regulator investigates your case.

They do this by hearing all the information presented by the regulator and UNISON on your behalf. They will consider the allegation, the evidence (if any) to support the allegation and whether there are grounds to consider if something has occurred. The law only allows an order to be imposed if the panel are satisfied that it is necessary in order to protect the public, uphold trust and confidence in the register and the profession (public interest) or otherwise in your own interests.

Potential outcomes are 'no order', 'conditions of practice' and 'suspension of practice order'. For a number of the regulators, if an order is put in place, the law requires them to review them on a regular basis. On each occasion a fresh risk assessment must be completed.

Following the hearing, we will assess membership eligibility, which will include:

• Whether or not you have been a member of UNISON for four weeks prior to the alleged incident.
• If you resigned from employment without advice from a union official.

Public interest

Your regulator must consider public interest when making decisions about alleged incidents referred or reported to them. 

It is their duty to promote and maintain public confidence in the professions they regulate. They consider whether the facts of the case show that the public might be deterred from using the services of their specified registered professionals in general; and/or it needs to publicly declare to all of their registered professionals the importance of the professional standards involved. 

Public interest is a high bar to reach, but when this ground for investigation is met, it means that even if there are no current practice concerns regarding the registrant, the hearing panel may still consider it appropriate conclude the case with a finding of impairment.

Get in touch with your union as soon as possible, as a lag in time when referring yourself could raise concerns about impaired judgment, negligence or dishonesty.