Finding the right touch: extending the right-touch regulation approach to the accreditation of voluntary registers

ABSTRACT

What is ‘right-touch regulation’? In this article we explain why the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (the Authority) has focussed much of its policy work in recent times on seeking an answer to this question, and why it wants to know. We explain why the Authority's predecessor body, the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence, felt there was a need to define the concept of ‘right-touch regulation’ and explore the policy environment from which it emerged, linking the idea to existing regulatory principles. We then go on to discuss how the government's policy of establishing an accreditation scheme for voluntary registers – a task which has been given to the Authority – will fit with the right-touch regulation approach.