ISSN 1753-9439 Paper 13 Vol 1 No 2 Pages 330 – 349
Joined Up Regulators and Risk Based Audit
This paper examines the issues faced by regulators in the health sector in England who have been forced to follow current policy concerning the conduct of regulators as they are required to seek to develop more joined up approaches to regulation and scrutiny with regard to the delivery of health and social care.
Healthcare regulators in England and Scotland are seeking greater collaboration with the aim of reducing the current burden of regulation. In England, the Department of Health initiated a concordat, designed to improve regulatory processes by increasing the collaboration between regulators to reduce duplication and overlap between their activities.
But to get the best out of the system, effective and targeted regulation is vital. The regulatory regime must be uncomplicated. It must be transparent and independent. But independence does not mean that there is no dialogue between organisations. We have to make sure that the inspection regime for healthcare is joined up, to remove duplication and overlap. …The Government believes that the potential gains from stripping away unnecessary regulation and duplication of activity are enormous.(Concordat 2006) (Jane Kennedy Introduction)
The paper emphasises that there has been an “audit explosion” to meet increasing demands for accountability in public services. (Power 1997) and there has also been a move towards risk based regulation, to encourage inspectors and auditors to focus on areas of greatest risk.
Keywords: quality assurance, higher education, quality accreditation, Bologna Declaration