Acting on behalf of the Committee for Health & Social Care, the Guernsey Ethics Committee (the Committee) has roles in two separate areas:
Research Ethics - The objectives are to maintain high ethical standards in the conduct of all research studies undertaken in Guernsey and Alderney on participants who consent to take part (i.e. patients, service users, carers, relatives of the deceased, professional staff, healthy volunteers etc), thereby protecting their dignity, rights, safety and wellbeing.
The Committee will provide an ethical opinion on research studies using therapeutic, non-therapeutic or diagnostic methodologies and research studies using social science methodologies (such as qualitative or quantitative).
All research carried out:
should seek to provide evidence that could lead to improved health and social care services;
must be ethical and conducted with optimum technical skill and precautions for safety.
Clinical Ethics - The objectives are:
to provide ethics input into policy and guidelines for providers of primary health, secondary health and social care in Guernsey and Alderney;
to provide support to clinical teams and the commissioning team in individual cases;
to facilitate training and education in ethics for health and social care professionals and other staff.
Members of the Ethics Committee will comprise of ‘Role Specific’ members and ‘Appointed’ expert and lay members.
Role Specific Members
Role specific members comprise the following:
Chief Nurse, HSC;
Medical Director, HSC
Chief Pharmacist, HSC;
Head of Institute, ESC
Appointed Members (Expert and Lay)
Expert members will comprise the following:
3 doctors who are registered / authorised to practise in Guernsey and/or Alderney;
3 other health or social care professionals who are registered / authorised to practise in Guernsey and/or Alderney (e.g. nurse, midwife, dentist, Pharmacist or other professionals regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council).
Lay members will comprise the following:
4 individuals of which at least 2 should not have a background / qualification in health or social care.
All expert and lay members are unpaid volunteers. However, it is recognised that some expert or lay members may attend meetings during working hours and with the support of their employing organisation.
Expert Members
Vacancies for ‘expert’ members will be publicised by email circular across local health and social care providers (e.g. HSC, MSG, GTG, primary care practices, allied health professionals etc) requesting expressions of interest from individuals. If necessary, 2 or 3 individuals will be shortlisted and asked to attend an informal interview / meeting.
Lay Members
Vacancies for ‘lay’ members will be advertised publically through a media release seeking expressions of interest from members of the public who are independent of care services (either as an employee or in a non-executive role). If necessary, interested individuals will be shortlisted and the successful candidates will be asked to attend an informal interview / meeting
NB. At least half of lay members should comprise of people who are not, and have never been, care professionals, researchers in a care field, or chairs, members or directors of care service bodies or organisations providing care.
THE LOCAL ETHICS COMMITTEE IS A MEMBER OF THE UK clinical ethics network. The network has a strong membership spanning across the UK. Their website can be accessed through the link below. It contains some useful sources to facilitate ethical decision making in your practice.
The ethics committee are there to provide you with help and support in your clinical decision making. A panel of representative committee members can be convened on an adhoc basis to consider any issues or cases that are presenting an ethical challenge to the professionals involved in their care. The panel will use the ETHOX approach to consider the situation and make recommendations which can be used to inform the decision-making process. If you wish to have input from the committee, please contact the chair or vice chair and they will co-ordinate the convening of the panel.
1) Submitting research proposal for ethical opinion:
Please ensure you meet the deadline for submission of proposals which is normally 2 weeks before the committee meet (see dates below)
Refer to the flowchart for submission which is available here
Complete proforma for submission which is available here
2) You may be asked to attend an ethics committee meeting to discuss your proposal
3) You will receive correspondence from the committee outlining any concerns or issues to be addressed
4) Once the committee is satisfied that you have addressed the above you will receive a letter confirming a favourable opinion.
5) An outline of your research and contact details will appear on the current research projects page in line with good governance.
6) You will be expected to report back to the committee once the study is complete or annually if it extends beyond one year.
DATES OF MEETINGS AND DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS