Fitness to Practice

What is a Fitness to Practice?

Birmingham Newman University seeks to provide a safe and comfortable learning environment where students are able to study and perform to the best of their ability and reach their full potential. The University will support students and make reasonable adjustments to help them reach the appropriate standards for success in their studies. However the University also needs to respond appropriately to the specific aspects of Professional Programmes that normally require a student to undertake placements and/or work-based practise/learning, and the University has a duty both to the student and to the public to ensure that any risk or harm is minimised. Fitness to Practise (FtP) procedures apply equally to offsite placement and to campus learning which forms part of the Professional Programme, as well as the conduct of the student beyond the Professional Programme given the potential impact on the reputation of public confidence in the profession.

These Fitness to Practise procedures are applicable to enrolled students. They recognise that an offer of a place by the University on a professional programme may be conditional upon the applicant being deemed fit to practise, which could require, for instance, satisfactory completion of a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check or a declaration of the applicant’s good health. Once enrolled, a student must disclose any changes to circumstances which could affect their continued fitness to practise, for instance a subsequent criminal conviction, a change in health status, or a complaint or disciplinary matter that arises during the course of study.

Where a student is enrolled on a programme that leads directly to, or that satisfies a necessary condition of, a professional qualification, and/or which gives the right to practise in one or more professions, they must be considered ‘fit to practise’. A professional is deemed fit to practise when they have the skills, knowledge, character and health necessary to act professionally and practise safely and effectively in accordance with standards of the relevant PSRB.

Examples of circumstances that might render a student unfit to practise are given below:

This list is not exhaustive, and the examples may not all be applicable to every programme.

Failing to act in a way to ensure the safety and wellbeing of those who are vulnerable;
Offences against the vulnerable, including children, the elderly and the mentally incapacitated;
Exploiting the vulnerability of a patient or professional client, including to establish a sexual relationship;
Drug or alcohol abuse;
Acting in a violent manner on or away from university premises;
Acting in an unprofessional or inappropriate manner on or away from University premises
Conviction of a criminal offence or has accepted a caution in relation to such an offence;
Intimidation of fellow students, patients, professional clients or staff;
Failure to rectify behaviour that has been subject to any disciplinary actions under the University’s regulations;
Repeated inappropriate behaviour towards others;
Inaccurate or falsification of patient, client or other professional records;
Failing to act in a way to ensure the safety and wellbeing of those who are vulnerable;
Failure to rectify behaviour that has been subject to any previous Action Plan and/or disciplinary actions under the University's regulations;
Academic misconduct (for example plagiarism, cheating in examinations, forging records).

Health

Significant health issues, including severe and relapsing illness;
Being a carrier of a serious communicable disease, without complying with an appropriate management plan;
Lack of insight into how their medical condition could impact upon the safety and wellbeing of themselves and others with whom they come into contact in their professional capacity.

Other

Providing false or inaccurate statements or answers on self-declaration forms.
Any other circumstance which may call into question a student's fitness to be admitted to and to practise their profession.

Useful Documents:

Student Fitness to Practice Policy

The Students’ Union Advice Co-Ordinator can provide representation at a Fitness to Practice hearing at the request of the student. The Co-Ordinator can support the student up until the hearing, with support on the paperwork, the policy and procedure. The role of the supporter is to provide moral support, act as an observer and/or notetaker and assist the student in making their case with the permission of the chair.