Report type
GDC standard of care reports
Independent opinion on the standard of a registrant’s care, for fitness to practise proceedings.
Purpose and limits
What this report does, and the rules it is written under
This is the most important distinction in the Reports tier: a standard-of-care report for the General Dental Council is not a Civil Procedure Rules report.
Fitness to practise proceedings are regulatory, not civil. The Civil Procedure Rules do not apply, and a report drafted as though they do misunderstands the forum. The report addresses the facts and the standard — what the records show, and whether the treatment departed from the standard of a reasonably competent registrant in the relevant discipline — written against the GDC’s Standards for the Dental Team. The GDC regulates the dental team across the whole United Kingdom, so this report is not tied to the civil courts of any one nation.
Whether the facts amount to misconduct or deficient performance, and whether fitness to practise is impaired, are matters for the committee. An expert who opines on impairment has exceeded their role.
View GDC fitness to practise →The hard part
Where the expert’s role ends, and where it must not go.
The single most common failing in a regulatory expert report is straying into the committee’s territory.
Negligence experts are used to reports that run to breach, causation and consequences. A fitness to practise report does not. It establishes the standard and whether the care met it, and it leaves impairment and sanction alone. There is also no burden or standard of proof at the impairment stage — it is a matter of judgement for the committee, not a question the expert can answer.
An expert who understands that boundary writes a report the committee can rely on. One who does not writes a report the committee discounts.
Instruction context
When this report is used
- 01
For a registrant
Defending clinical allegations or evidencing remediation.
- 02
For a complainant
Where a patient’s solicitor supports a referral.
- 03
For the GDC
On the standard of care expected in the discipline.
- 04
Alongside a civil claim
Where the same treatment is under scrutiny in both forums — with a separate report for each, because they ask different questions.
Matching the discipline
The expert we match
A registrant of the same discipline as the practitioner whose conduct is in issue. A general dental practitioner cannot set the standard for a specialist, and a specialist should not be used to judge a general practitioner.
Discipline-matching is not a preference here; it is the basis on which the standard is set.
For instructing solicitors
Why solicitors instruct us
We know this is not a civil-rules report
An expert who drafts a regulatory report to civil rules signals unfamiliarity with the forum. Ours are written for the GDC.
We know where the expert’s role ends
The report addresses facts and standard, and leaves impairment to the committee.
A report the committee can rely on
Because it addresses facts and standard and stops where the committee’s judgement begins, it is a report the panel can use rather than discount.
A named case manager
One consistent point of contact from first enquiry through to delivery of the report, who tells you where the instruction stands before you ask.
Frequently asked questions
Before you instruct
No. Fitness to practise proceedings are regulatory. The Civil Procedure Rules do not apply, and the report is written for the regulatory forum.
No. Impairment is for the committee. The expert addresses the facts and the standard.
That of a reasonably competent registrant in the relevant discipline, against the GDC’s Standards for the Dental Team.
No. The forums ask different questions, and harm is required in one but not the other.
Discuss an instruction
Need a regulatory report?
Tell us the allegation and a case manager will send a suitable CV and a fixed quote.