National approaches to regulating health and social care professions

In 2020 the Department of Health commissioned the Health Research Board to undertake research on the regulation of health and social care professions internationally to help inform future policy decisions on the regulation of health and social care professionals in the State. In June of this year the department received the Health Research Board’s report, “National approaches to regulating health and social care professions.” This report examines the approaches to regulation in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands and, to a lesser extent, approaches taken in Finland, Sweden and Denmark.

The report focuses on the rationale used by these countries when choosing to regulate a health and social care profession and highlights the changes that have occurred in their regulatory approaches over recent years.