The level of care you receive from a registered professional should meet our standards
All the professionals on our Register must meet our standards. This means doing the following things
Treating you as an individual
- Respecting your needs, wishes and confidentiality.
- Communicating with you in a way you can understand.
- Treating you with respect and dignity, and maintaining professional boundaries.
Being honest and trustworthy
- Telling you if things go wrong in your care or treatment.
- Doing what they can to put things right.
- Keeping the relationship professional.
Putting your safety first
- Only doing what they know and understand, or referring you to another professional.
- Learning from mistakes.
- Speaking up if they are concerned about your safety.
Registered professionals have a responsibility to maintain appropriate boundaries with their service users and patients.
This means that they must not pursue a personal, sexual, emotional or financial relationship with a service user, patient, or their carer.
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Our standards of conduct, performance and ethics set this out in standard 1 relating to maintaining professional boundaries:
"You must not abuse your position as a health and care practitioner to pursue personal, sexual, emotional or financial relationships with service users, carers or colleagues."Your health professional should always treat you with dignity and respect. They should ensure that you are comfortable with the care they are providing to you, that you understand what is being done to you and why, and that you are happy for them to proceed with that care. They should explain any examination or treatment to you so that you can understand what is being proposed. They should obtain your consent (agreement) before they proceed.
You can decide whether or not you wish to continue with any examination, treatment or therapy that they offer. You can say no and you can stop an examination, treatment or therapy at any point.
You are always able to take along a relative or friend to any of your appointments or treatments. You can also ask for a chaperone to be provided. A chaperone is another health professional or member of staff who can observe your examination, treatment or therapy.
If you are asked to undress, you should always understand why it is necessary for you to undress. You should also be able to undress and dress in private either by being behind a curtain or screen or the health professional leaving the treatment room to allow you privacy. You should be provided with a gown or cover to use whilst undressed, which should be used to cover those areas of your body that are not being treated. If you do not wish to remove your clothing, please say this to your health professional.
You should never feel pressured to agree to, or go along with, any examination, treatment or therapy. -
If you are ever uncomfortable or uncertain about what is being offered to or done to you:- You can stop the examination, treatment or therapy.
- You can ask for more information and more time to think about and consider what is being done or proposed.
- You should never feel under pressure to make a decision.
- You can always say no to the examination, treatment or therapy being offered, and you can leave your appointment at any time.
- You can ask for or obtain a second opinion or speak to another heath professional about the care you have been offered or given.
- You can also seek help and advice from others.
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The relationship you have with your health and care professional should always be professional. It should not develop into a personal or close relationship, such as the type you might have with your spouse, partner or friend.
We use the term ‘professional boundary’ to describe the line that exists between a professional relationship and a personal relationship or friendship.
Maintaining professional boundaries is important and it is the health and care professional’s responsibility to ensure that your relationship remains professional.
For example, the professional boundary may be crossed by:- Giving and receiving gifts
- Extending invitations to social events or making plans to meet you socially
- Developing a friendship or personal relationship
- Borrowing or lending money
- Providing with you their person contact information
- Connecting with you on social media
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Sexual misconduct is a term used to describe uninvited or unwelcome behaviours of a sexual nature. These behaviours can make you feel offended, embarrassed, harmed, humiliated or intimidated.
This includes harassment, grooming, violence and abuse and it can be physical, verbal or visual. It includes things that are done for the purposes of sexual pleasure or to pursue a sexual relationship.Behaviours of a sexual nature can include:
- Excessive or unwanted compliments about your appearance
- Propositions and sexual advances
- Sexual or sexist comments, jokes, innuendo and banter
- A person talking or sharing information about their own sex life
- Sending, sharing or displaying sexually explicit pictures, posters or photos
- Sending sexually explicit emails, text messages or posts on social media
- Unwelcome touching, particularly of intimate areas of the body or in sexual way
- Sexual gestures
- Making promises in return for sexual favours
- Intrusive questions about your private or sex life
These behaviours are sexual in nature if delivered in person, shared online or sent via email or text message.
A person of any gender can display these behaviours or be the recipient of them.
Sexual misconduct is always unacceptable and always harmful. If you think your health professional has behaved in this way towards you, you are able to raise a concern with us, or speak to someone else for help and support. -
Grooming is when a person builds a relationship with you so that they can manipulate, coerce or encourage you to do things, or allow things to be done to you, that you might not otherwise agree to.
It is possible for adults and children of any gender to be groomed, or prepared for abuse, particularly when we are vulnerable or feeling vulnerable. Grooming can happen in person or online and develop over a period of time.
Often the person doing the grooming is in a position of power or control, for example they may be more senior than you are or be a professional with more knowledge and experience than you might have.
