Recognition of Professional QualificationsAmicus response to EU Directive The European Directive on Recognition of Professional Qualifications seeks to consolidate 15 different Directives which have been adopted at a European level over the last 30 years into one new Directive. The Directive will regulate the recognition of professional qualifications across borders and therefore have an impact on any professional who wishes to work across borders within the European Union. The proposed Directive COM(2002)119 aims to simplify and ease the free movement of workers in the professions affected and this is welcomed by Amicus and its constituent professions. However Amicus does have concerns set out in the attached submission. In brief, we welcome the simplification of existing Directives on recognition of professional qualifications and look forward to greater mobility of professionals across EU member state border. We cannot under-emphasise, however, the need for adequate and effective controls over exactly how this freedom is implemented. The key amendments Amicus supports are highlighted in the submission below.
Amicus response to EU Directive
The European Directive on Recognition of Professional Qualifications seeks to consolidate 15 different Directives which have been adopted at a European level over the last 30 years into one new Directive. The Directive will regulate the recognition of professional qualifications across borders and therefore have an impact on any professional who wishes to work across borders within the European Union.
The proposed Directive COM(2002)119 aims to simplify and ease the free movement of workers in the professions affected and this is welcomed by Amicus and its constituent professions. However Amicus does have concerns set out in the attached submission.
In brief, we welcome the simplification of existing Directives on recognition of professional qualifications and look forward to greater mobility of professionals across EU member state border. We cannot under-emphasise, however, the need for adequate and effective controls over exactly how this freedom is implemented. The key amendments Amicus supports are highlighted in the submission below.
Submission
Recognition of Professional Qualifications
Amicus is a UK and Irish Trade Union representing 1.1 million skilled and professional workers across many different sectors: manufacturing; the financial services sector; the voluntary sector; higher education and the health sector. Our 100,000 members working in the health sector make up many different professional sectors within the National Health Service: pharmacists, midwives, speech language therapists, podiatrists, healthcare scientists, clinical scientists, health visitors, school and practice nurses, mental health nurses, theatre nurses, osteopaths, doctors, chaplains, pharmacists, dental technicians, nursery nurses, audiologists, physiotherapists, psychologists, chiropodists, podiatrists - many of the state-registered professions in the health service.
The Directive on Recognition of Professional Qualifications seeks to consolidate 15 different Directives which have been adopted at a European level over the last 30 years into one new Directive. The Directive will regulate the recognition of professional qualifications across borders and therefore have an impact on any professional who wishes to work across borders within the European Union.
The proposed Directive COM(2002)119 aims to simplify and ease the free movement of workers in the professions affected and this is welcomed by Amicus and its constituent professions. However Amicus does have concerns.
Because we represent health sector professionals we understand the potential impact of regulations on them. If the regulations are not adequately drafted and implemented, it is within this public service field that we will feel the full impact.
On the one hand we do not want restrictive barriers, but at the same time we are clear that we do not want a situation where professionals are able to move within the EU unregulated. This balance should be at the heart of the new Directive. Patient safety is the major priority for those working in the health sector and the implementation of the new Directive must ensure the protection of the public from poor practice.
We support the efforts to simplify the existing pieces of legislation in this area but we do have serious concerns over the aspects of the Directive which in our view ill not provide sufficient safeguards on patient safety. Patient safety must be protected as set out in Article 152 on the Treaty of Rome.
It is essential that all professionals are educated, trained and undergo work experience to the same minimum level in a particular Member State. If this is not the case the public will not know what level of service to expect and will lose confidence in the profession. Professionals of that Member State will feel unfairly treated.
Article 5
The proposal to allow individuals established in one Member State to practise in another Member State for up to 16 weeks a year without being registered in the host state will not safeguard patient safety, in addition to the problems identified in the previous paragraph. The individual professional may not be aware of the standards of practice or ethical framework for that profession in the host State. The registering body in the host State would not necessarily know that the professional was practising there. Assuming that that individual professional obtained employment in the host State, patient safety would not be protected. The professional may have been out of practice in his/her own country for a number of years and/or have a lower level of basic training and experience that professionals in the host State, or may be the subject of a disciplinary investigation. If a potential employer wished to employ the professional they would need to check registration status with the professional’s registering State. A British National Health Service (NHS) Trust, for example, must comply with the requirements of Health Services Circular 2002/008 “Pre and Post Employment Checks for all Persons Working in the NHS in England” in order to assure patient safety in terms of the personnel they employ, to ensure that the individual has, for example, no criminal record or is not under investigation for a professional serious misconduct charge. Checking with the individual’s home state registering body the status of the individual e.g. whether they were still on the register and whether they had any history of misconduct is unlikely to happen and would be time consuming. In addition, Trusts are unlikely to know the level of training and experience undergone in another Member State. Other employers, such as some employing community pharmacists, are unlikely to be in a position to carry out such checks. An employer is thus not likely to wish to employ a professional under such circumstances. This could lead to claims of unfair treatment by the professional trying to gain employment.
We therefore support the amendments which remove the pursuance of a profession for a period of 16 weeks. We believe this would allow individuals to “job” around EU member states with impunity.
Article 14
If a professional wishes to practise in another Member State but where the training is at least one year shorter than that required by the host Member State the registering body of that Member State should be able to continue to require both a period of adaptation and an aptitude test according to the circumstances of the professional. For example the professional may have been out of practice for 10 years as well as having undergone a shorter training period. The “either/or” scenario would not be sufficient to safeguard the public under such circumstances.
We support the amendments to Article 14 which ensure that an applicant going to a member state which requires a longer training, should in fact have to undergo a period of additional training in order to comply.
Article 54
It is important that a monitoring and advisory body is established at a European level into which national training bodies for the professions can feed their views and vice versa. It is important that training standards should be assessed and monitored on all EU Member States and that a databank is established.
To this end we support the amendments to Article 54 which create this structure but would recommend that the amendments should include the requirement for all Member States to have a competency based system of assessment to ensure that professionals working in that State can safely practise at this level.
Summary
In conclusion we welcome the simplification of existing Directives on recognition of professional qualifications and look forward to greater mobility of professionals across EU member state border. We cannot under-emphasise, however, the need for adequate and effective controls over exactly how this freedom is implemented.
Gail Cartmail National Secretary, Health Sector Amicus November 2003