Why we need regulatory reform

During the pandemic, we were able to respond with agility because the government prioritised those changes. But those were unique circumstances and won’t be repeated. To be able to act quickly and respond to changes in the health and care sectors, we need legislative change.

With regulatory reform…

We’ll decide how best to run our own functions by writing our own underpinning rules in collaboration with our stakeholders.

Our independence means we’ll consistently and quickly act on the best available evidence – including what we learn by collaborating with our partners – in the interests of the public we serve and professions we regulate.

Regulated post-registration qualifications should be a kitemark of what a professional is currently able to do, over and above their initial registration.

Meaningful regulation of these qualifications will mean we can better protect the public and inspire confidence in the professions.

With regulatory reform…

The structure of our register will be simpler and easier for people to use and understand.

It’ll enable us to more meaningfully regulate qualifications gained over and above a person’s registration as a nurse, midwife or nursing associate.

That means we expect we will:

• ask people to keep up to date with the standards we set for post registration qualifications through revalidation
• be able to remove people’s qualifications from the register if their skills and knowledge aren’t up to date.

Nurses are rightly one of the most trusted professionals in the UK. So it’s important that the people who call themselves a nurse have earned that right: that they live up to the same shared professional standards.

To call yourself a midwife, or to call yourself a nursing associate in England, you have to be on our register: those titles are already protected in law.

So we want to see change that will bring ‘nurse’ into line with ‘midwife’ and in England, ‘nursing associate’.

With regulatory reform…

We’ll review which protected titles and qualifications we regulate, and make sure we have the right powers to act quickly and effectively if someone uses one of our protected titles when they shouldn’t.

We want to help skilled, knowledgeable professionals to join the nursing and midwifery workforce – no matter where they trained.

But some people find it hard to provide specific documentation: refugees might find it hard to get information from previous employers, for example.

With regulatory reform…

We’ll be able to consider a much greater range of evidence that proves someone can meet our requirements, so more nurses, midwives and nursing associates who are safe to practise can do so.

We’ll be able to streamline our decision making.

When a concern about an individual is raised, we ask whether they are fit to practise – do they have the right skills, knowledge and behaviour to work and meet our standards?

But we know services are stronger when professionals can admit mistakes, learn from them and improve. We believe making people afraid of their regulator prevents openness and doesn’t lead to good, safe care.

We want midwives, nurses and nursing associates to know our focus is on understanding what has happened when mistakes are made, not on assigning blame.

We’ll always take action if needed, including removing professionals from our register in the most serious cases. But we also need our processes to drive learning and improvement so care becomes better and safer for everyone.

With regulatory reform…

We’ll be able to conclude more cases earlier when it’s clear there’s no risk to the public. There will be less stress and uncertainty for everyone involved, and good professionals will be able to return to full practice more quickly. Fewer witnesses and employers will be tied up in complex legal processes.

People involved in cases will be able to ask us to review more of the decisions we make. We’ll be able to put those decisions right if we get them wrong, keeping us accountable for the work we do.

We’ll work more collaboratively with people involved in a case. We’ll be better able to make the right decision at the right time, helping more people to learn from what went wrong. We’ll be able to do more support professionals and services to learn from mistakes, including by using new powers to promote, encourage and require early engagement.

We want our work in quality assurance of education to be better able to promote safer, more effective learning environments for students by supporting education providers to improve.

With regulatory reform…

We’ll have the new ability to issue conditions or warnings to education institutions, driving change where there are remediable concerns about a programme.

Regulators’ legislation on what can be shared – and with whom – is inconsistent.

This makes data sharing harder and reduces our ability to support partners across health and care with workforce planning.

With regulatory reform…

We’ll be better equipped to support partners across health and social care with information and data related to the UK workforce.

In turn, they’ll have better evidence to help them deliver sustainable, long-term workforce planning.