The White Paper "Trust, Assurance and Safety - The Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21^st Century" (Feb 2007), set out the government's proposals to ensure that all of the statutorily regulated health professions have arrangements in place for the revalidation of their registrants through which they can periodically demonstrate their continued fitness to practise. Following this, the Non-Medical Revalidation Working Group (NMRWG), was established and comprises members from all of the UK healthcare regulatory bodies. Dr. Deirdre McAree has represented the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland since July 2008. The work of the group resulted in the publication of "Principles for Revalidation. Report of the working group for non-medical revalidation" in November 2008. http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_091111

One of the expected outputs from the NMRWG paper was that each healthcare regulator would bring forward its own proposals to the Department of Health (London) in early 2009. The Council of the Pharmaceutical Society of NI considered a proposal brought forward by Dr. McAree and the Society's own Revalidation working Group on Thursday 19^th February 2009, and accepted the components of the model as the "direction of travel" to be adopted in relation to revalidation of pharmacists practising in Northern Ireland. 
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The revalidation definition statement is:

"The purpose of revalidation is to ensure that health professionals remain up to date and continue to demonstrate that they continue to meet the requirements of their professional regulator. The professional standard against which each is judged is the contemporary standard* required to be on the register, and not the standard at the point at which the individual may have first registered" (NMRWG, 27.11.08)

*Contemporary standard - the standard that demonstrates that a practitioner is up to date in their specialty in order to be fit to practise within a contemporary healthcare setting. This is the fundamental standard necessary for public protection.

Please note that this work is at the early stage of development and your views on the broad themes are welcomed. The Society will of course consult extensively as the process moves forward. Should you wish to share your views on this item, please contact Dr. Deirdre McAree in the first instance at Deirdre.mcaree@psni.org.uk