Upholding public protection

All practice assessors are responsible for upholding public protection when assessing students. This means that the assessment does not compromise public protection. It can be done in a number of ways, including:

• ensuring that the assessments they carry out are evidenced based, objective and fair
• serving as a role model for safe and effective practice in line with their professional codes of conduct (including the relevant codes as set by the regulator(s) for each profession)
• raising concerns about any impacts to public protection from student learning. This can mean risks to public protection from the student, but also any risks to people arising from the environment in which the student is placed, including if the practice supervisor has been asked to practice beyond their competence.
• taking action to ensure any concerns raised with them are dealt with in a timely and appropriate manner
• taking responsibility for carrying out a reliable and evidenced based assessment, including all assessment decisions

As registered professionals, all practice assessors also have a responsibility to abide by the duty of candour.