Professional Conduct Hearing

Stage 3 - PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT HEARING

A.    The purpose of The Professional Conduct Hearing is to examine the complaint and decide whether or not it is upheld, based upon the evidence. The Complaints Panel will decide whether any sanction should be imposed from this hearing.

B.    The Chief Adjudicator will instruct the Admin Team to appoint a panel of no less than two other people selected from members of the Complaints Team (thus making a panel of minimum three people, including the Chief Adjudicator). At least one person on the panel will be a professional person who does not work for ANLP or any other NLP organisation. 

• These persons shall now be known as the Complaints Panel. The Complaints Panel must be appointed with regard to Equalities and Diversity legislation. Members of the Complaints Panel have a duty to declare any interest which may be considered by the Chief Adjudicator to affect their impartiality, or likely to be thought to do so. 
• ANLP will also appoint a representative to attend the Hearing – their presence is as an observer and to advise on points of procedure that may arise during the hearing.

C.    The Admin Team will invite the Complainant and the Member in writing, to appear at The Professional Conduct Hearing and will liaise with all parties to establish a hearing date for The Professional Conduct Hearing. This date will be a minimum of eight weeks from the correspondence date

D.    The Admin Team will send the Complainant and the Member the Professional Conduct Hearing Preparation Email, detailing the deadlines and requirements to be met by all parties before the hearing.

These details and requirements include:

• When appearing at The Professional Conduct Hearing, the Complainant and the Complained Against may each be accompanied by a representative who may support and or/speak on behalf of the party concerned.
• Written evidence and/or submissions and witness statements must be submitted in advance by the Complainant and the Member. Such papers must be received by the Admin Team at least 28 days prior to the date fixed for The Professional Conduct Hearing. 
• These papers will then be circulated from the Admin Team to the Complaints Panel, the Complainant and the Member no less than 21 days prior to the hearing. 
• The Complaints Panel, Complainant and the Member may appoint witnesses they wish to attend the hearing. Any witnesses must have already submitted written evidence (Section 6b) Parties wishing to call witnesses must notify the Admin Team of the names and details of such witnesses no less than 28 days prior to the date fixed for the hearing. The witness list will be reviewed by the Complaints Panel and any witnesses required by the Complaints Panel will be selected at least 7 days prior to the hearing. 

The Admin Team will notify the Complainant and Member of the witnesses required and the witnesses will be contacted directly by the relevant party. Attendance will only be permitted by the Chief Adjudicator if the witness has supplied a written statement which needs clarification. The Complaints Panel has discretion to refuse attendance by a witness if it reasonably believes that such attendance is not relevant or will not add any weight to the issue(s) under consideration. During the hearing, there will be an opportunity for witnesses to be questioned by the panel and either party connected with the case.

E.    The Admin Team makes up and circulates Complaints Packs to all parties at least 21 days prior to the Hearing. 

F.    The Panel meets with ANLP to review the case and plan their approach, no less than 10 days before the hearing. The Panel advises ANLP of any witnesses they wish to question.

G.    The Admin Team contact both parties with confirmation of witnesses to be questioned during the hearing.

H.    The Professional Conduct Hearing is held - For what happens on the day during the Professional Conduct Hearing, please refer to the Professional Conduct Hearing Agenda.

I.    If either the Complainant or the Complained Against fails to attend The Professional Conduct Hearing without providing sufficient reasons as to why, the Chief Adjudicator will then decide one of the following;

• To proceed with the hearing in the absence of one of the parties.
• To adjourn the hearing to a date no less than 28 days in advance.
• To terminate the proceedings.

In these circumstances, both parties will be emailed by the Admin Team with information supplied by the Chief Adjudicator as to the outcome.

J.    Once the Professional Conduct Panel Hearing has taken place, The Complaints Panel deliberate on the evidence provided and reach a decision. They may seek guidance from ANLP at any point during this process. The Complaints Panel have 28 days from the date of the Hearing to formally document their decision and any other relevant information in a Professional Conduct Hearing Report. Once finalised, this report is sent to ANLP for review.

K.    Once reviewed The Admin team will circulate the Professional Conduct Hearing report to both the Complainant and the Member informing them of the outcome. 
The decision of the Complaints Panel at The Professional Conduct Hearing is final.

The only right of appeal is if the documented processes laid down in this policy were not correctly followed and as a result, one party was disadvantaged. If this is the case, an appeal should be made in writing to the ANLP Admin Team within 7 days of receipt of the outcomes email, evidencing where any breaches of process occurred. The Appeal will be reviewed by a member of the Complaints Panel who was not previously involved in the original process.

L.    It is the duty of the Admin Team, with support from the Complaints Panel if required, to ensure any sanctions are carried out. 

Downloads

PDF - Complaints Policy, including Complaints Process and Professional Conduct Panel Hearing 

Word Doc - Complaints Form 

PDF - Complaints Process Flow Chart

PDF - Professional Conduct Hearing Process Flow Chart