FS Fitness to Practise Framework

Health professional students and staff members of the Faculty of Science (FS) at the University.

Note - The fitness to practise regime applies to health professional students whether they are on campus, on placement or elsewhere.

To put in place a FS Code of Fitness to Practise at the University to deal effectively with concerns relating to the fitness to practise of health professional students, including establishing a governance structure and providing for membership, terms of reference and operating procedures for the FTP Board and the FTP Committee.

Fitness to practise is concerned primarily with patient and public safety. It also is concerned with upholding professional standards, including the relevant professional code of conduct, and contributing to the maintenance of the reputation of the profession and public confidence in the profession. Within FS, fitness to practise also involves education, which includes supporting and promoting positive behaviour and educating students in how to be fit to practise.

Situations giving rise to fitness to practise concerns may involve behavioural issues, and therefore they may overlap with disciplinary matters, but this is not always the case. Further, other issues involving an individual’s health may also give rise to concerns about their fitness to practise.

To enable a shared, multi-disciplinary, consistent, faculty-wide approach to fitness to practise, FS has established a fitness to practise framework led by a governance board that serves all schools, programmes, departments and disciplines (units) within FS. The framework also provides for a broad, practice-based committee from which members are drawn to sit on an FTP Committee panel, on an ad hoc basis, to deal with individual cases giving rise to fitness to practise concerns.

Objectives

The structures and processes of this framework are designed to meet the need:

• for a shared process that can serve all units within the FS that are required to deal with fitness to practise issues
• for a fair and transparent process for those alleged to have been involved in an incident or to have a condition that compromises their fitness to interact with patients and with the public, at present or in the future
• for a process whereby:
  • complaints and concerns are reviewed and dealt with within the unit (where that is appropriate)
  • cases are escalated from the unit to the FTP Committee where a threshold of seriousness is met
  • cases that do not warrant this escalation can be referred back to the unit for disposal
• for functional independence - to enable the FTP Committee to insulate units and staff members from involvement in decisions that have to be made where actual or perceived conflicts of interest or of loyalty among academic staff mean that this independence is necessary, and
• to reflect the academic stage of a student’s professional development and therefore the need to have an appropriate educational and remediation focus

Fitness to practise structure

The fitness to practise structure is as follows:

• FTP Board – for direction and oversight
• FTP Committee – comprised of broad discipline-based membership based on recommendations made by the units
• FTP Committee panel - comprising no fewer than five members of the FTP Committee convened on an ad hoc basis by the chair of the FTP Committee to investigate, decide and/or make recommendations to the Dean on a fitness to practise matter

FTP BOARD

Membership

The FTP Board is constituted as follows:

• the Dean of FS, and
• the heads of FS schools/departments, or their delegate
• the head of the medical programme
  Note – The inclusion of the head of medical programme on the FTP Board enables the FS to benefit from the extensive experience and expertise of the medical programme in fitness to practise matters
  
• the FS kaiārahi

The chair of the FTP Board is the Dean of FS.

Meeting structure

The FTP Board will meet annually, or more frequently as required by the chair.

Terms of reference

The FTP Board will:

• appoint the chair of the FTP Committee, who must be either a legally qualified academic staff member in the Faculty of Law of a university, or an admitted barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand

Note 1 - The chair must have a legal qualification of some kind (whether obtained in New Zealand or overseas). It is not a requirement that the chair hold a practising certificate.

Note 2 – The chair may be from another University.

• appoint the members of the FTP Committee from time to time, as need be
• develop, as and when necessary, appropriate protocols relating to the operation of the FTP Committee
• develop, review and revise, as required, the FTP Policy, the FTP Procedures
  
• receive and consider minutes from the FTP Committee and reports relating to its operations, and
• ensure that the administrative needs of the FTP Committee are met

FTP COMMITTEE

Membership

The FTP Committee comprises the following members appointed by the FTP Board:

• the chair (ex officio)
• one or more deputy chairs who must meet the same criteria as the chair
• Deputy Head (Academic) 
  
• Programme director or major / specialisation leader or equivalent in each FS school/department
• the FS kaiārahi
  
• at least one member from each practice areas within FS
• may include one or more members from a practice area in other faculties within the University
• may include specialist members, including lay members, a psychiatrist, a substance abuse specialist, and Māori and Pacific Peoples members
  

Role of the chair

The chair of the FTP Committee will:

• monitor the operations of the FTP Committee and produce minutes of meetings and reports, as required by the FTP Board
• consider cases referred to the chair of the FTP Committee and make decisions on the appropriate procedures to be followed, after such consultation as the chair thinks fit
• appoint individual members of the FTP Committee panel, as appropriate, to sit on a case by case basis, to investigate, decide and/or make recommendations to the Dean on a fitness to practise matter
• advise the Dean of the decision and/or recommendations of the FTP Committee panel regarding an individual student whose fitness to practise has been investigated
• appoint a deputy chair to act as chair of the FTP Committee panel, where the chair, for whatever reason, is unable to discharge the responsibilities of that role in relation to a particular fitness to practise matter, and

Note – such situations include the chair simply being unavailable or where the circumstances give rise to a conflict of interest.

• take such other action as may be necessary to ensure the proper functioning of the FTP Committee and the FTP Committee panel, as convened from time to time

Meeting structure

No fewer than five members of the FTP Committee will be appointed by the chair of the FTP Committee to form the FTP Committee panel to investigate, decide and/or make recommendations to the Dean on a fitness to practise matter.

Note 1 - This permits more than five members to be appointed to the FTP Committee panel should the chair determine that this is appropriate in the circumstances.

Note 2 - A kaiārahi should usually be appointed to the FTP Committee panel when a FTP issue involves a Tuakana student

To avoid doubt, the quorum for any meeting of the FTP Committee panel convened to hear a matter is five members.

The following definitions apply to this document:

Academic staff member refers to a member of the academic staff of the University, and includes an honorary teaching staff member and a teaching staff member whose services are engaged under a contract for service.

Dean refers to the Dean of FS.

Programme director or major / specialisation leader means the staff member responsible for co-ordinating the relevant health professional programme in which the student is studying or equivalent role in an FS school or department. 

Discipline includes the disciplines of physiotherapy and clinical psychology.

FS refers to the Faculty of Science at the University.

FS Code of Fitness to Practise comprises the FS Fitness to Practise Framework, the FTP Policy, the FTP Procedures.

Note - For the purposes of the University's Policy Framework Policy, the FS Code of Fitness to Practise constitutes a standard.

FS schools/departments refers to the following:

• Department of Exercise Sciences
  
• School of Psychology
  

FTP Board refers to the FS Fitness to Practice Board established under the FS Fitness to Practise Framework.

FTP Committee refers to the FS Fitness to Practice Committee established under the FS Fitness to Practise Framework.

FTP Committee panel means the FS Fitness to Practice Committee panel convened by the chair of the FTP Committee to sit on a case by case basis, to investigate, decide and/or make recommendations to the Dean on a fitness to practise matter.

FTP Policy means the FS Fitness to Practise Policy

FTP Procedures means the FS Fitness to Practise Procedures

Health profession means the practice of a profession in respect of which an authority is appointed under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003, and includes the practice of dietetics, practice of medicine, practice of nursing, practice of optometry, practice of medical imaging, practice of pharmacy, practice of physiotherapy and practice of clinical psychology.

Health professional student refers to a student on a programme of study delivered by FS leading to a new registration status in a health profession (i.e. pre-registration student), and to a student undertaking continuing professional development or advanced studies relating to their health profession which does not lead to a new registration status.

Practice area refers to the practice of a health profession.

Provost refers to the Provost of the University of Auckland.

Staff member refers to an individual employed within FS whether on a full or part time basis, and includes an independent contractor.

Student means a health professional student.

Unit refers to any organisational grouping within FS including schools, programmes, departments and disciplines.

University means Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland and includes all subsidiaries.

Include the following:

• Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003
• FMHS Fitness to Practise Policy
• FMHS Fitness to Practise Procedures

Owner: Dean of FS
Content manager: Deputy Dean of FS
Approved by: Registrar
Date approved: 1 October 2021
Review date: 1 October 2024