Recommendation F157: Matters to be reported to the General Medical Council
From Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry, published 6 February 2013.
Recommendation
The General Medical Council should set out a clear statement of what matters; deaneries are required to report to the General Medical Council either routinely or as they arise. Reports should include a description of all relevant activity and findings and not be limited to exceptional matters of perceived non-compliance with standards. Without a compelling and recorded reason, no professional in a training organisation interviewed by a regulator in the course of an investigation should be bound by a requirement of confidentiality not to report the existence of an investigation, and the concerns raised by or to the investigation with his own organisation.
In brief (written by this site)
In September 2024 commentary published in February 2026, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England reported that deaneries routinely report to the General Medical Council through its quality reporting system, with serious concerns published on its website, while it is reviewing the best methods for sharing good practice (DHSC and NHS England, Feb 2026). Previously, in May 2024, the Thirlwall Inquiry legal team noted that the government had accepted the recommendation and recorded previous progress updates from 2014 and 2015 (The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team, May 2024).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
Accepted.
We accept this recommendation. The General Medical Council already has a structured reporting template supported by guidance setting out what Deans are required to report to the General Medical Council. It is considering, through its review of quality assurance in education, how it will improve the value of these reports so that the information required on issues such as concerns and good practice is able to be of most benefit. The General Medical Council will share its proposals in the first half of 2014.
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: This is volume two of "Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First" (Cm 8777-II), the government's response to the Inquiry's 290 recommendations, published by the Department of Health on GOV.UK on 19 November 2013 and dated to that day here. The PDF the row links to is the accessible edition, whose title page reads "January 2014". The Department of Health has been the Department of Health and Social Care since January 2018. The volume says it includes accounts from each of the national organisations the recommendations name, but it does not mark which passage each organisation wrote, so every row is filed under the Department that published it.
Blanket government agreement does not establish acceptance or delivery by each addressee. Some response passages cover groups of recommendations.
Scope of the government response
Government responded via "Hard Truths: The Journey to Putting Patients First" (2014), a single document covering all 290 recommendations with a blanket acceptance. Individual recommendation responses were not broken out.
Delivery
DHSC and NHS England say in progress (27 February 2026)
During the GMC’s review of quality assurance in education it recommended that deanery reports should give greater attention to the transparency and accessibility of information for patients and the public, students and trainees. The GMC continues to work with Deans and Local education and training boards (LETBs) to improve its reporting mechanisms and how it uses the information requested. LETBs and Deaneries routinely report to the GMC via the GMC’s quality reporting system. These reports detail progress against concerns which include patient safety and undermining issues. Sometimes these concerns are escalated to the GMC’s enhanced monitoring process. When this occurs, it publishes these reports as enhanced monitoring profiles on its website and the profiles provide information on the status of the concerns. The profiles also include conditions (where relevant) that have been put in place to address quality issues for the most serious concerns. The GMC is currently reviewing the best methods for sharing good practice.
Site note: DHSC and NHS England's own account of progress, supplied to the Thirlwall Inquiry in September 2024 and printed in the Inquiry legal team's Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version dated April 2025, published 27 February 2026). It is not a finding of the Inquiry. Their reviewed extent of implementation reads “Implemented - Ongoing”. Table row: section 18.2 No. 157, PDF page 499.
Department of Health and Social Care says in progress (11 February 2015)
The General Medical Council considered this recommendation as part of its Review of Quality Assurance of Medical Education and Training, the final report includes a recommendation that reports should give greater attention to the transparency and accessibility of information for patients and the public, students and trainees. As part of the action plan to strengthen the role of visits the General Medical Council:
• have introduced a document register section at the end of each visit report to detail which evidence documentation has been used and how it has contributed to the findings
• have developed a 5 year visits schedule.
• will pilot the General Medical Council inspection teams to observe the environment in which clinical teaching occurs.
The General Medical Council continues to work with Deans to improve reporting mechanisms and how information requested. In March 2014 the General Medical Council launched the enhanced monitoring profile which includes a status rating for serious concerns. An action plan is being implemented for sharing good practice.
Site note: This is the supporting annex published on 11 February 2015 with "Culture change in the NHS: applying the lessons of the Francis Inquiries" (Cm 9009), attached to the GOV.UK page as "Culture change in the NHS supporting annex". The annex has no title page; that title is GOV.UK's and the PDF's own. Its table has four columns (No., Recommendation, Hard Truths Government response, Progress update), and the row carries the Progress update cell. No column says which organisation wrote an update, so the row is filed under the Department of Health (now the Department of Health and Social Care), which published it.
Site note: The Inquiry addressed this recommendation to the General Medical Council, not to the Department of Health. The annex gives this update in the Department's publication and does not say who wrote it, so the row is the Department's report of the progress made on it.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
Thirlwall Inquiry legal team (15 May 2024)
This recommendation was accepted by the Government.
In the January 2014 Hard Truths report, the Government said that the General Medical Council already had a structured reporting template supported by guidance setting out what deans were required to report to the General Medical Council
In the February 2015 Culture Change report, the Government stated that the General Medical Council continued to work with deans to improve reporting mechanisms.
Site note: The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team's own notes on implementation, from its Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version of 15 May 2024). The review does not colour its Extent of Implementation cell for this recommendation green; it leaves the cell uncoloured where a recommendation was rejected, where evidence of implementation was insufficient, or where steps had been taken but implementation was not yet complete. Table row: section 16.2 No. 157, PDF page 467.
Source
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Department of Health and Social Care
Response, delivery statement - DHSC and NHS England
Delivery statement - Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding