The General Dental Council (GDC) has opened its new 12 week consultation into revalidation. The aim of the revalidation is to provide a way of checking that dentists continue to meet GDC. The issue that the GDC’s Fitness to Practise proceedings has had in the past is that it is assumed dental professionals are continuing to meet its standards, unless the regulator receives information which suggests otherwise. The GDC have admitted that this is not good enough. The GDC plans to introduce revalidation for dentists in 2014: they have stated that the revalidation will simply build on the current requirements for continuing professional development and will provide an opportunity for those in difficulty to identify and tackle any problems before they become serious. A standards and evidence framework will set out the standards dentists must meet under the four domains of clinical, management and leadership, communication and professionalism. The framework will also set out the evidence which will be acceptable to demonstrate compliance with each standard. Dentists will gather this evidence over five years, and revalidate at the end of each cycle. The GDC are proposing a three-stage process at the end of each cycle: • Stage 1 – compliance check, which will apply to all dentists; • Stage 2 – remediation phase, which will provide an opportunity to dentists who do not pass Stage 1 to remedy deficiencies; • Stage 3 – in-depth assessment, which will apply to dentists who fail to demonstrate compliance at the end of the remediation phase. The proposals aim to avoid over-regulation by making as much use of existing and developing quality systems. The consultation takes into account the findings of an earlier consultation, research and pilots carried out in 2009. Chair of the GDC’s Revalidation Working Group and Council Member, Denis Toppin said: “We are keen to get feedback from a range of stakeholders including registrants, patients, organisations representing the interests of patients and providers of quality initiatives. We want to make sure we get it right for the dentists we regulate. As a practising GDP I want the GDC to keep the extra regulatory burden to a minimum whilst maximising patient protection. We need you to get involved and have your say on our proposals so that you can help us to get them right and have the confidence of the public and professionals alike.” Sourced by Dental Tribune