Introduction

In December 2011, Ontario’s Office of the Fairness Commissioner assessed the way the College of Dietitians of Ontario registers people who apply for a licence to practise in Ontario, to ensure that the registration practices are fair and continue to improve.  

This summary of the assessment includes commendable practices that are under way and recommendations for improvement.

The College of Dietitians of Ontario is subject to Ontario's fair access law, which amended the law about health professions, the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 (RHPA). The law spells out the college’s obligation to have transparent, objective, impartial and fair registration methods and requirements.

The Office of the Fairness Commissioner

To encourage accountability under the fair access law, the Office of the Fairness Commissioner (OFC) works with professions’ regulatory bodies to improve the way they register people who apply for professional licences. As a result of the OFC’s work, qualified people, no matter where they were originally trained, will have faster, fairer access to their licence to practise here.

In its work with regulators so far, the OFC has found that they have succeeded in streamlining their registration processes, but they need to do more. For example, regulators need to be more transparent and hold their assessment agencies more accountable for fairness.

To encourage, and hold regulators accountable for, continuous improvement, the OFC assesses their licensing practices in a two-year cycle. This cycle includes recommending improvements where needed and monitoring the bodies’ action plans that address the OFC’s concerns. This approach benefits applicants, the professions and the province.

You can read more about the OFC’s strategy for continuous improvement and its guide for assessments elsewhere on this site.

For more information about this particular assessment, contact the OFC.

Note: The words license, register and certify all refer to authorizing a person to practise a profession.

Commendable Practices

The College of Dietitians of Ontario (CDO) is demonstrating many commendable practices, in the following areas. (These areas correspond to the sections of the assessment guide, and are derived from the fair access legislation.)

Information for Applicants

• To ensure the usability of its website, the CDO conducts regular satisfaction surveys with users and regularly updates the website, incorporating users' feedback.
• Registration information is written in plain language and is presented in an easy-to-follow format. Requirements for registration, the way that requirements must be met, and requirements that may be satisfied through acceptable alternatives are organized in tables that are specific to applicants' backgrounds. This layout enables quick and easy access to essential registration information.
• 17 individualized application checklists guide applicants with various backgrounds to the specific documents that they should provide.

Internal "Review"

• To communicate registration decisions to applicants more quickly, the CDO uses electronic signatures when drafting documents about decisions or reasons for the decisions.

Documentation of Qualifications

• The CDO enables applicants to arrange for copies of official transcripts and degrees to be sent directly from its third-party qualifications assessment agency (World Education Services) to the CDO. This policy reduces costs for applicants, as they only have to pay for one set of documents to be sent from the institutions that issued their credentials. For some applicants, this can also mean that the CDO receives required documents faster.

Recommendations

The OFC recommends improvements in the following areas. (These areas correspond to the sections of the assessment guide, and are derived from the fair access legislation. Recommendations marked "Required" correspond to the practices regulators must demonstrate in order to meet the specific duties in the legislation. Recommendations marked "Good" correspond to the practices the OFC encourages a regulatory body to adopt in order to meet the general duty to provide registration practices that are transparent, objective, impartial and fair.)

Information for Applicants	Status
The OFC recommends that the CDO:	February 2012
Provide details on its website regarding opportunities to appeal or review the results of qualifications assessments. [Required]	February 2012
Post information about accommodation of special needs on the website. [Required]	February 2012
Find a way to help applicants understand which steps in the registration process they can undertake outside Canada and estimate the total costs of the registration process. Make this information available on the website when feasible. [Good]	February 2012
Assessment of Qualifications
The OFC recommends that the CDO:
Establish and follow definite timelines for reviewing and clarifying the criteria used in assessing an applicant's portfolio for evidence that he or she has current dietetic knowledge and competence. The OFC also recommends that, when the review and clarification are completed, the CDO post details about the criteria on the website. [Required]
Develop a formal process for monitoring its adherence to its stated timelines. [Required; Good]
Transparency
The OFC recommends that the CDO:	February 2012
Include a statement on the website that applicants may contact the CDO if they have questions about how the CDO determines suitability to practise the profession. [Good]	February 2012

Blank = Implementation is in progress.
= Recommendation is implemented.
Acceptable alternative = Regulator implements acceptable alternative to this recommendation.