1 Vulnerability

Regulators are affected by a range of different legislation in the United Kingdom, particularly those relating to equality and diversity such as the Human Rights Act (1998) and Equality Act (2010) along with other guidance, such as the Professional Standards Authority Standards of Good Regulation (2020).

Vulnerability is a well-know term in health and social care, such as safeguarding of children and young people. It is often focused on individual traits or circumstances, such as someone with a learning disability. This means the term vulnerable can sometimes mean people are stigmatised rather than supported appropriately.

The term vulnerable is relevant to witnesses’ part of the Fitness to Practise process. The process is challenging as the person may have experienced trauma, being cross-examined is challenging and, therefore, this could mean the person is vulnerable. As such, regulators should consider this as part of the preparation of witnesses.

Activity: reflection point

Allow 15 minutes

Watch the following animation explaining some of the findings from our research about why support offered by regulators is often not enough to support those who are vulnerable. This part of the project used policy documents from social care and social work regulators to see how they identified and supported those who were seen to be vulnerable. Before you begin, reflect on what you think makes someone vulnerable.

If you’d like to, make some notes in the text box below. Your notes will only be visible to you.

Transcript

(A text entry box would appear here, but your browser does not support it.)

Discussion

You might have been surprised to hear about the different types of vulnerability and that there are a range of reasons why a witness at a Fitness to Practise hearing could be seen as vulnerable despite not having a disability, for example.

You will now explore the lived experiences of people who have given evidence in a Fitness to Practise hearing.