Our Practitioner Performance Advice service has published its annual practitioner characteristics Insight paper: Demographics, professions and concerns: Analysis of Practitioner Performance Advice cases including a focus on sexual misconduct concerns.
This Insight analyses information about 4,064 practitioners for whom we received a request for advice over a five-year period from April 2020 to March 2025, as well as the concerns in these cases. This year we are providing additional analysis focusing on our casework involving concerns of sexual misconduct over the past 10 years to contribute to the work progressing across the NHS to tackle unwanted, inappropriate and/or harmful sexual behaviour in the workplace, in line with NHS England’s sexual safety charter.
Key headlines:
- Over the past 10 years there has been an increase in cases where the reported concern relates to sexual misconduct, both in the number of cases we receive and the proportion of our casework. Examples of concerns of sexual misconduct in cases included sexual comments, inappropriate touching as well as more serious allegations including rape.
- Analysis across all concern types show that behaviour/misconduct features in 76% of the cases over a five-year period, showing a small year on year increase and accounting for 81% of cases in 2024/25.
- Separate analysis of practitioners by individual demographic groups shows that ethnic minority, international medical graduates, older and male practitioner groups are overrepresented across cases discussed with us by employers and contracting bodies.
Why are we sharing this?
- We invite healthcare organisations to consider the findings and how you engage with Advice with regards to the following:
- Consider using and signposting practitioners to NHS Resolution’s Advice service to provide impartial advice.
- Consider using the Principles and Framework for Fairness and Proportionality and explore how it may be adapted for use at your organisation.
- Request your own Organisational Activity Report (OAR) to support the fair and effective resolution of individual team and performance concerns. You can discuss your report with your Link Adviser who will provide an independent view on your report, making use of their experience and expertise in performance management.
- Consider if your organisation needs more support from Advice in the management of cases where there is a concern about sexual misconduct.
Our resources
You can access other publications in our Insight series which cover a wide range of subjects, from Exclusion to Professional Support and Remediation action plans.
If you are interested in hearing more about our research and insights programme, please get in touch with us at nhsr.adviceresearchandevaluation@nhs.net or sign up to receive Insights by email.
