NRCPD to consult on new complaints process next month

The National Registers of Communication Professionals working with Deaf and DeafBlind people (NRCPD) are to launch a consultation on a new complaints procedure next month, the voluntary regulator has confirmed.

The news comes after the NRCPD revealed to The Limping Chicken last week that it would make a “substantial revision” to its process following public criticism over the handling of recent complaints.

In an open letter released on Friday, CEO Marcus Hawthorn said proposals would be made in June following “considerable input from organisations, lessons from cases and legal advice”.

“There will be a consultation period where everyone can send us their views on it and we will invite professional associations and Deaf organisations to contribute again. We will then finalise the new procedure and take the steps needed to implement it,” the letter reads.

Under the current procedure, implemented in 2015, if a professional’s practice is said to be “impaired” then a sanction is warranted, which can take the form of a warning, training, supervision or general advice.

Serious sanctions – which can only be issued by a complaints committee and must be “proportionate and the least restrictive under the law” – include restricting the individual’s practice, suspension or removal from the register.

However, in comments made about the existing process, Mr Hawthorn noted it does not include guidance on sanctions and that “it should”, and that it does not ‘explain well’ that impaired practice “rarely means someone is completely unfit to practise, but that an element of their practice is not as good as it should be”.

They also committed to the new procedure – which is part of NRCPD’s progress towards campaigning for statutory regulation – being in British Sign Language (BSL), with the organisation looking into how they can better support complainants to submit evidence.

As well as this, Mr Hawthorn goes on to explain how case examiners conduct the public interest test as part of their decisions, with the NRCPD saying it comes down to “complexity and severity”.

It follows an investigation by The Limping Chicken which found a quarter of complaints in the last decade weren’t referred to a complaints committee because it was “not in the public interest” to do so.

The letter continues: “For example, it may be in the public interest for a complex complaint to be referred to the complaints committee if case examiners are not able to pick through the legal aspects sufficiently to come to a fair conclusion.

“Another example: if case examiners decide that a sanction they can give is proportionate for the case, then it would not be in the public interest to put everyone through a full complaints committee just to come to the same conclusion.

“The 2015 procedure does not detail the public interest test to be applied and we will include a proposal for this in our revised procedure.”

The full open letter is available to read on the NRCPD’s website.

Photo: NRCPD.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is an award-winning Deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.