Witness to Harm

There are 13 regulators in the UK which ensure over 1.5m health and social care professionals practise safely and act appropriately. If professionals fail to meet the standards, they may face a Fitness to Practise (FtP) investigation and hearing.

Our NIHR funded research aimed to understand the experience of people being a witness in this process. We focused on those cases where the witness may themselves or their family member may have been seriously harmed or died. We examined the impact of being a witness in investigations and hearings at fitness to practise tribunals on the patient or service user, family and colleague witnesses, what support they received from the regulator and what support they would like. This is important because having to remember traumatic events can be deeply distressing, and even re-traumatising, yet their evidence is often crucial.

Project outputs

People’s stories published on the Healthtalk website.

Open Learn free course. Improving Patient, Family and Colleague Witnesses experiences of Fitness to Practise proceedings.

Social care animation for people who use social care services.

Social care animation for social care and social work registrants.

Academic papers

Hughes, G., Ribenfors, F., Ryan, S., Wallace, LM., Searle, RH., Mueller, A., Greenfield, M., Sorbie, A. (2025) “Iatrogenic injustice: an institutional ethnography of Fitness to Practise hearings, Social Science & Medicine, Volume 382

Sorbie, A. and Garippa, L. (2025) “(Re)constructing witness vulnerability in the regulation of social work and social care professionals in the UK: Catalysing change”

Sorbie, A. and Garippa, L. (2024) “(Re)constructing ‘witness vulnerability’: An analysis of the legal and policy frameworks of the statutory regulators of social work and social care professionals in the UK”, The British Journal of Social Work, 2024

Ryan-Blackwell, G. and Wallace, LM. (2024) “Witness to Harm, Holding to Account: What Is the Importance of Information for Members of the Public Who Give Evidence and May Be Witness in a Regulatory Hearing of a Health or Care Professional?” Health Expectations. E14168 

Ryan-Blackwell, G., Ribenfors, F. and Wallace, LM. (2024) “A novel content and usability analysis of UK professional regulator information about raising a concern by members of the public.” Health Expectations

Haider S and Wallace LM. (2024) “How readable is the information the United Kingdom’s statutory health and social care professional regulators provide for the public to engage with fitness to practise processes?” (Health Expectations Vol 27 (5)  e70067)

Wallace, LM and Greenfield M Employer support for health and social care registered professionals, their patients and service users involved in regulatory fitness to practise proceedings in the UK. BMC Health Services Research (Vol. 24 article no. 1268)