Ensuring Teamwork and Collaboration for Healthcare Professionals
CPD-AccreditedCertified byThe CPD Certification Service, UK
Remediation · All UK healthcare regulators CPD Certified
Ensuring Teamwork and Collaboration for Healthcare Professionals
Facing a complaint or allegation about teamwork or collaboration? Start here.
A CPD-certified remediation course for Doctors, Dentists, Nurses, Midwives, Pharmacists
and all other Healthcare Professionals responding to a concern
raised with the GMC, GDC, NMC, GPhC, HCPC, GOC, GCC, GOsC or Social Work England. Handover, delegation, escalation,
conflict — and how to evidence a change in something as intangible as how you work with people.
Bulk buy — any 10 courses
Instant access · certificate on completion · CPD certified
Who this course is for
For healthcare professionals facing an investigation, a complaint or a fitness to practice
process where the concern involves colleagues, handover, delegation or the way a team works — or who wants to prevent one.
A colleague has raised a concern
About your manner, your communication, how you responded under pressure, or how you behaved towards
someone more junior.
Something went wrong at a handover
Information was not passed on, or was passed on but no clear request was made, and a patient was
affected by the gap.
You are under fitness to practice investigation
A case is open with the GMC, GDC, NMC, GPhC, HCPC, GOC, GCC, GOsC or Social Work England and you need
documented CPD and written reflection to put behind your response.
You are returning to a team after an investigation
Section 11 deals with residual conflict and rebuilding working relationships — the part almost
no other course addresses.
The concerns this course speaks to
Teamwork allegations have a recognisable shape, and most are about what happened around the
clinical decision rather than the decision itself.
Manner towards colleagues
Rudeness, dismissiveness, shouting under pressure, or a pattern of behaviour that made people
reluctant to approach you.
Bullying, harassment and intimidation
Alleged against you, or alleged to have been witnessed by you and not acted on.
Handover and escalation failures
Information not passed on, a concern raised without a clear request, or an escalation that stopped
one level too soon.
Delegation and supervision
A task given to someone who was not ready for it, or given appropriately but without the supervision
and support that should have gone with it.
Role clarity and continuity
Everyone assuming someone else was doing it, and the patient falling into the gap between shifts,
teams or settings.
Interprofessional conflict
Disagreement between professions about a patient’s care that became personal, or was conducted
in front of the patient.
What the course covers
Twelve sections and 25 lessons, with a reflective quiz closing most sections and a post-course
assessment at the finish.
Overview of teamwork and collaboration
Why teamwork matters in healthcare, and how it connects to patient safety and professional standards.
Identifying breaches in teamwork standards
What a breach looks like, the common causes of teamwork failure, and the consequences for patients, colleagues and you.
Communication skills for effective teamworking
Techniques for communicating within teams, and addressing the barriers that arise specifically in multidisciplinary settings.
Accountability in team working
Recognising and accepting your own role and responsibilities, and where accountability sits when work is shared.
Multidisciplinary team skills
Understanding what other professions bring, and running MDT meetings and clinical discussions that actually reach decisions.
Improving teamworking and collaboration
Practical techniques, safe transitions in care, and addressing interprofessional conflict and misunderstanding.
Ensuring continuity of care
Strategies for safe transitions between shifts, teams and settings — where continuity most often breaks down.
Professional boundaries within teams
Maintaining boundaries with colleagues, and recognising boundary-crossing behaviour before it becomes a regulatory matter.
Reflection and remediation
Four lessons: acknowledging a breach, using self-reflection and constructive feedback, identifying areas for growth, and building a personal development plan focused on teamwork.
Meeting regulatory expectations
The standards the regulators set for teamwork, how to document improvement for regulatory review, and the guidance each body publishes.
Strengthening team dynamics after an investigation
Addressing residual conflict, restoring working relationships and building resilience — the part most courses leave out entirely.
Conclusions and assessment
Summary, followed by a post-course assessment. Your certificate is issued on completion.
How this helps if a concern has been raised
Teamwork is the hardest thing to evidence, and the easiest to argue about
A clinical concern has records. A probity concern has documents. A teamwork concern usually has two
accounts of a conversation, and a natural instinct to dispute the characterisation — that you were
not rude, that you were under pressure, that the other person was difficult too. That is the
response that fails, because it asks the panel to arbitrate personalities rather than showing them
anything has changed.
What works instead is treating the effect as the subject. Not whether you meant to be dismissive, but
whether a junior colleague felt unable to raise a concern with you, and what that could have meant for a
patient. Then the evidence follows naturally: structured colleague feedback, a handover or
escalation protocol you have adopted, supervision or mentoring arranged, participation in team debriefs, a
development plan naming specific behaviours rather than good intentions. Section 10 is built around
documenting exactly that for regulatory review.
On completion you receive a certificate recording the course title, the CPD hours and the date —
which, with your own written reflection, is suitable for inclusion in a remediation
portfolio, an appraisal folder, a revalidation submission or a response to your regulator. For
courses written to your own regulator’s standards, see courses by regulator.
Read the standards yourself
GMC: colleagues, culture and safety ↗
HCPC: working with colleagues and delegation ↗
GCC: collaborative healthcare and workplace practice ↗
Ready to start?
Any UK registered healthcare professional. Instant access, 2 CPD hours, certificate on completion.
Who wrote it
Course facilitator and author, Probity & Ethics
Dr Iqbal has designed and delivered ethics, probity and professionalism training for UK healthcare
professionals since 2020, working with registrants of all nine UK healthcare regulators, online and face
to face. He combines clinical practice with formal postgraduate training in healthcare law and
ethics.
MBBS · MRCS · MRCGP · Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Law and
Ethics, University of Dundee
Written and reviewed by Dr Shehzad Iqbal. Last reviewed .
Can how you treat colleagues affect your registration?
Yes. Conduct towards colleagues used to be treated as a workplace matter for an employer to handle. It is
now squarely a regulatory one, and the standards were revised to say so. The GMC devotes an entire domain
of Good medical practice to colleagues, culture and safety, and the headline change in its 2024
revision was creating respectful, fair and compassionate workplaces. The HCPC requires registrants to treat
colleagues professionally, with respect and consideration. The GCC devotes a whole principle to
collaborative healthcare and safe, supportive workplace practice.
What regulators are protecting is not politeness for its own sake. It is a working environment in which
people feel able to speak up — because the alternative is where patient safety incidents come from.
That is why teamwork concerns are assessed against their effect on care, not against personality.
What these words mean
The terms a regulator will use about a probity concern, and what each one means means in practice.
Collaborative healthcare
Working together for a specific purpose — with the patient, those close to them, and a diverse team of health and care professionals, in a cooperative and coordinated way, so that the various needs of the patient are integrated and delivered well.
Delegation
Asking someone else to take responsibility for carrying out a task on your behalf. The responsibility for the task can be delegated; the accountability cannot.
Accountability
Being completely responsible for what you do and able to give a satisfactory reason for it. Where you have delegated a task to someone else, you may still be accountable if something goes wrong.
Escalation
Formally involving a person or organisation with more authority, expertise or decision-making power, because a concern cannot be adequately addressed at the current level or needs greater attention or resources.
Handover
The transfer of responsibility and information for a patient between individuals, shifts, teams or settings. A structured format such as SBAR exists because unstructured handovers omit things under pressure.
Remediation
The concrete steps taken so the same thing does not happen again — feedback, supervision, adopted protocols, changes to how you work — together with evidence that they happened and have been sustained.
Conduct towards colleagues is now a regulatory matter
All three of the standards below were revised within the last two years, and all three
strengthened what they say about colleagues. If your understanding of this predates that, it is out of date.
GMC — Good medical practice, 2024
Domain 3 is Colleagues, culture and safety, paragraphs 48 to 80: treating colleagues with kindness,
courtesy and respect, contributing to a positive working and training environment, demonstrating
leadership behaviours, delegating safely and contributing to continuity of care.
HCPC — revised standards, 2024
Standard 2 requires you to work in partnership with colleagues, share relevant information, and treat
them in a professional manner showing respect and consideration. Standard 7 requires you to raise
concerns where you witness bullying, harassment or intimidation.
GCC — Code of Professional Practice, 2026
Principle H in full: foster collaborative healthcare, effective professional relationships and safe,
supportive workplace practice — covering delegation, team working, leadership, treating others
fairly, escalating concerns, and contributing to teaching and training.
SBAR: the structured handover
The single most transferable thing in this course. Handover failures appear in a large share of
patient safety incidents, and the reason is nearly always the same: the concern was described but no clear
request was made.
Situation
What is happening right now. Identify yourself, the patient and the immediate problem in a sentence or two. This is the part most often skipped when the caller is anxious, and it is the part the listener needs first.
Background
The relevant context and nothing else. Diagnosis, admission, current treatment, recent changes. Selecting what is relevant is the skill here; a full history buries the point.
Assessment
What you think is going on. Say it plainly, including when you are unsure — “I am not certain what this is, but I am worried about them” is a legitimate and useful assessment.
Recommendation
What you want to happen, and by when. Ask explicitly. Handovers fail most often at this step, because the concern is described but no request is actually made and no timeframe agreed.
Delegation, accountability and speaking up
Three ideas the standards are explicit about, and which registrants most often get wrong in a
written response.
Responsibility delegates. Accountability does not.
You can ask someone else to carry out a task. You remain answerable for the decision to delegate
— whether they had the knowledge, skills and experience, and whether you supervised and supported
them.
Speaking up is a duty, not a permission
You are expected to report and escalate concerns about bullying, harassment or intimidation, and about
a colleague whose conduct or performance puts others at risk, following your workplace procedures.
And to act when someone tells you
The standards also require you to act when a concern is raised to you, keeping everyone
involved safe. Passing it on and forgetting it is a position a regulator can examine.
Frequently asked questions
Can I really be referred to my regulator over how I treat colleagues?
Yes, and that has become clearer in the last two years. Conduct towards colleagues used to be treated as a workplace matter; it is now squarely a regulatory one. The GMC devotes Domain 3 of Good medical practice to colleagues, culture and safety, and the headline change in its 2024 revision was creating respectful, fair and compassionate workplaces. The HCPC requires registrants to treat colleagues professionally, with respect and consideration. The GCC devotes a whole principle to fostering collaborative healthcare and safe, supportive workplace practice.
Which professions is this remediation course for?
All UK registered healthcare professionals. It is written for doctors regulated by the GMC, dentists and the dental team regulated by the GDC, nurses, midwives and nursing associates regulated by the NMC, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians regulated by the GPhC, HCPC-registered professionals including paramedics, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, radiographers and practitioner psychologists, optometrists and dispensing opticians regulated by the GOC, chiropractors regulated by the GCC, osteopaths regulated by the GOsC, and social workers. Teamwork expectations are common to every regulator’s standards.
What is SBAR, and why does it come up in complaints?
SBAR is a structured way of handing over: Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation. It exists because unstructured handovers omit things under pressure, and because a listener who does not know what is being asked of them cannot act. Handover failures appear in a large share of patient safety incidents, and when they do the question afterwards is usually not whether you were worried, but whether you made a clear request and to whom.
If I delegate a task, am I still responsible?
The responsibility for the task can be delegated. The accountability cannot. You remain answerable for the decision to delegate — whether the person had the knowledge, skills and experience to do it safely, and whether you provided the supervision and support they needed. That distinction is written into the standards and it is where a great many delegation concerns turn.
Someone else’s behaviour is the problem. What am I supposed to do?
The standards place a duty on you, not just a permission. You are expected to report and escalate concerns about bullying, harassment or intimidation, and about a colleague whose performance or conduct puts others at risk — following your workplace procedures and keeping everyone involved safe. You are also expected to act when someone raises such a concern with you rather than passing it on and forgetting it. Doing nothing is itself a position a regulator can examine.
The complaint says I was rude or difficult. Is that really a fitness to practice issue?
It can be. Regulators are not interested in personality, but they are interested in whether behaviour undermines safe care or a working environment in which people feel able to speak up. Where a pattern is alleged rather than a single exchange, or where junior colleagues were involved, it will usually be taken seriously. The useful response is not to argue about tone but to show that you understand the effect and have changed something.
How do I evidence a change in something as intangible as teamwork?
More concretely than most people expect. Structured feedback from colleagues, a documented handover or escalation protocol you have adopted, participation in team debriefs or MDT meetings, supervision or mentoring arranged, and a personal development plan with specific behaviours rather than good intentions. Section 10 of the course is specifically about documenting improvement for regulatory review.
Where does teamwork sit in my own regulator’s standards?
Every UK healthcare regulator covers it. The GMC has Domain 3 of Good medical practice, Colleagues, culture and safety, at paragraphs 48 to 80. The HCPC covers working with colleagues at Standard 2, delegation at Standard 4, and raising concerns about bullying and harassment at Standard 7. The GCC has Principle H, on collaborative healthcare, professional relationships and safe, supportive workplace practice. Find the clause in your own standards and quote it by number.
Will completing this course resolve my fitness to practice case?
No. No course, from us or from anyone else, determines the outcome of a fitness to practice matter. What a course can do is help you build the insight and reflection your response needs, and give you a verifiable certificate to evidence it. Your indemnity provider, professional body or a specialist regulatory adviser should advise on your own circumstances.
Does this count towards my CPD?
Yes. The course is certified by The CPD Certification Service and issues a dated certificate on completion, so it is verifiable CPD and can be kept with your CPD record. Its purpose here, though, is evidence for a teamwork or collaboration concern rather than filling a CPD return.
How long does it take, and can I buy more than one course?
It carries 2 CPD hours across twelve sections and 25 lessons, with a reflective quiz closing most sections and a post-course assessment at the end. It is self-paced. Section 11 deals specifically with rebuilding team relationships after an investigation, which is unusual and often the part people most need. Our Bulk Buy offer covers any 10 courses and works out considerably cheaper per course.
Courses that work alongside this one
Communication sits behind more complaints than any other single factor — with patients as well as colleagues.
Boundaries in both directions, including relationships where one person supervises or trains the other.
Where the concern involves how a colleague or patient says they were treated, and the bias behind it.
The element assessed in almost every case, whatever the allegation, and the one most often described as lacking.
How to write reflection that reads as understanding rather than regret, in your own words.
Turning insight into concrete, evidenced change that a panel can see actually happened.
What fitness to practice means, how the process works, and what is being assessed at each stage.
Restoring confidence after a concern — with patients, with colleagues and with the regulator.
This course. Handover, delegation, escalation, conflict and conduct towards colleagues — and how
to evidence that it has changed.
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Find courses written to your own regulator’s standards →
Start your remediation today, finish at your own pace
Instant access on purchase. Certificate on completion, CPD-certified by The CPD Certification Service.
Probity & Ethics is an independent CPD provider. We are not affiliated with, accredited by, or endorsed by any UK healthcare regulator. No course determines the outcome of a fitness to practice case. This course is not legal or regulatory advice — if a concern has been raised about you, speak to your defence organisation, professional body, insurer or a specialist regulatory adviser about your own circumstances.
