Newsletter - March 2021 Edition
Highlights of 2020 Annual Meetings Between the Office of the Fairness Commissioner and its Regulators
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Each year, the Office of the Fairness Commissioner (OFC) meets with the regulators involved in the registration of professionals and skilled tradespersons. The purposes of these sessions are to collect information, engage in meaningful discussions on the regulator’s most recent Fair Registration Practices Report and to discuss accomplishments, challenges and the adoption of best practices. The annual meeting cycle also allows the OFC to assess a regulator’s compliance with its legislative obligations and to monitor emerging issues.
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Progress during the time of Covid19
Due to the public health restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s annual meetings differed from those held in previous cycles. This year’s sessions, which took place between September 2020 and January 2021, were all conducted virtually. Our general observation was that the regulatory community proved resilient and was able to maintain business continuity.
The first item on our meeting agendas involved the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the regulator’s registration processes. The challenges of the pandemic were “top-of-mind†for all regulators and reinforced the OFC’s decision to disseminate a Covid-19 survey, whose results were reported in our February Newsletter. The OFC and the regulators then moved through a structured agenda and discussed current and planned projects, as well as regulatory, policy and procedural changes related to their registration activities.
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Key Themes
The OFC has distilled the wide range of topics discussed during the 2020 annual meetings into five key themes.
1. Cancellation of Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs)
- Of the 26 health colleges, 42 percent indicated that, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, their clinical examinations, or OSCEs, had been cancelled.
- However, only 12 percent of the colleges are actively exploring technologies that will allow migration to a virtual platform.
- Where these clinical examinations constituted a non-exemptible component of the registration process, one regulator, the Ontario College of Pharmacists, took steps to proactively amend its regulation to allow applicants to be licenced provisionally. Other similarly situated regulators did not.
2. Anti-Racism and Inclusion
- Based on our discussions, 68 percent of regulators have instituted some elements of a diversity/inclusion and/or anti-racism, strategy. The approaches adopted range from mandating the completion of relevant training, establishing a dedicated committee on these topics, and/or hiring an equity/inclusion lead or consultant to develop a strategy.
- However, only eight percent of regulators indicated that they collect race-based data.
- In addition, 15 percent of regulators have introduced Indigenous-focussed initiatives. These range from providing targeted information to Indigenous associations, creating a competency-based standard pertaining to Indigenous jurisdictional issues, and implementing an Indigenous registration pathway.
3. Risk Management
- Thirty-eight percent of regulators told us that they integrate risk management principles into their registration processes and/or other aspects of their operations. It is clear that the Covid-19 pandemic has heightened an awareness of both risk and risk mitigation strategies.
4. IT/Digital Modernization
- A full 68 percent of regulators have undertaken some form of technological modernization initiatives or invested in IT/digital infrastructure, which includes the development of data management strategies.
5. Improving Outcomes for Internationally Trained Individuals (ITIs)
- Forty-eight percent of regulators shared initiatives/activities which they believe will lead to positive experiences and outcomes for ITIs.
- Generally, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, regulators took whatever measures they could to lessen administrative burdens for all applicants, whether they were domestically or internationally trained.
- The OFC has created a slide presentation which provides more detailed information on the 2020 annual meetings. To access a copy of the deck, please click here.
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Spotlight on Three Innovative/Best Practices
We have also used our meetings with regulators to collect information about innovative and/or best practices that they have employed or plan to implement to improve their registration practices and, ultimately, achieve better outcomes for all applicants.
Some examples of innovative and/or best practices harvested during these sessions fall into these categories:
1. Virtual examinations.
2. High touch service for applicants/ITIs.
3. More timely registration practices.
4. Inclusive registration practices.
5. Pandemic response and planning,
6. Accountability mechanisms for third-party service providers.
Three of these best practices are highlighted below.
1. The Virtual Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) Being Developed by the Canadian Alliance of Physiotherapy Regulators (CAPR).
The CAPR, a pan-Canadian alliance of physiotherapist colleges, plans to introduce a virtual OSCE in 2021. The exam will be virtual and touchless in nature, as candidates will interact with standardized clients via remote meeting software.
The new exam will be delivered eight times in 2021 to address the backlog created by the cancellation of 2020 testing, in addition to usual demand. Results will be recorded to safeguard fairness and validity. The first of four CAPR clinical exams is scheduled for remote delivery in June 2021. For further information please contact Melissa Collimore at mcollimore@collegept.org
2. Reviews by the College of Veterinarians of Ontario’s Registration Committee
When the College’s registrar refers an applicant for licensure to its Registration Committee, or if a candidate requests such a review, the College informs applicants that they can submit additional information for consideration. The applicants are directed to the Registration Committee webpage which helpfully provides examples of materials that may be submitted to support a request.
Applicants that have been referred to the Registration Committee based on a suitability to practise concern are directed to review the College’s Determining Applicant Suitability to Practise Policy Statement. This statement instructs applicants to submit any supporting documentation that they feel is relevant and provides examples of materials that can be provided. For further information please contact CVO at licensure@cvo.org
3. The Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario’s Triage System
The Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario has introduced an application triage system to divert straightforward applications to a dedicated individual, and more complex applications to a team of staff members. This process has yielded a reduction of both follow-up calls and email inquiries to the registration team from applicants seeking a status update. This registration team is also able to better focus on more complex applications for registration and to improve customer service. For further information please contact Andrea Foti at AFoti@rcdso.org
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What's Next
The OFC hopes that the information contained in this publication will be shared widely within the regulatory community. In future editions of the Newsletter, we will continue to highlight innovative best practices as a standard feature of our outreach activities.
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