We understand that if you’re thinking about raising a concern with us, you have been and perhaps still are going through a difficult time.

Calling our referrals helpline is an important first step if you’re considering raising a concern with us about someone on our register.

Our dedicated team can explain more about whether we're the right place to come, what to expect of the fitness to practise process, and what support we can offer you.

We investigate concerns about registered professionals to determine whether their skills, knowledge, education or behaviour fall below the standards needed to deliver safe, effective and kind care.

We act when we think someone on our register poses a risk to the public or what they've done is so serious it would damage the public's trust and confidence in the nursing or midwifery professions.

We understand that if you’re thinking about raising a concern with us, you have been and perhaps still are going through a difficult time.

Our new referrals helpline exists as an important first step if you’re considering raising a concern with us about a nurse, midwife or nursing associate. We can help explain more about who we are, whether we're the right place to come, how we can help you and most importantly, what support we can offer you.

By getting in touch with us, we can help you understand how to refer a nurse, midwife or nursing associate. Then, if you make a referral, we can better understand exactly what your concern is about and investigate it appropriately.

We can only investigate concerns about people on our register (nurses and midwives in the UK, and nursing associates in England). Other regulators might be able to help if your concern is about a different regulated health or care professional.

Healthcare assistants (HCAs) are not regulated in the UK. If you have a complaint about a healthcare assistant, you should raise your concern with the organisation that the healthcare assistant works for.

Have you already raised your concern with the organisation concerned? This is usually the quickest and easiest way to resolve a problem.

We can’t investigate concerns about organisations, only individual nurses, midwives and nursing associates. If your concern relates to the running of an organisation and you are worried the care provided by the organisation could be a risk to others, you should consider contacting one of the following regulators.

Some charities and public representative organisations can help you. The Patients Association and AvMA work across the UK.

The vast majority of those who use, work in, or interact with the NHS are honest. But a tiny minority commit fraud against the NHS. That could include a nurse, midwife or nursing associate.

Independent organisations are responsible for investigating fraud and other economic crime. They’re the right people to talk to if you become aware of fraud against the NHS.

If they find that someone on our register is involved, they will share information with us as the professional regulator.

If you want a refund, compensation or have another consumer issue it’s best to talk to the place you were treated directly as that’s not something we can help with.

Organisations like Citizens Advice can help if you need more support with a consumer problem.

We strongly recommend that you talk to the nurse, midwife or nursing associate’s place of work or employer before you raise your concern with us.

An employer is usually best placed to resolve issues quickly and fairly. They can give you a detailed explanation of what happened and an apology if appropriate. We can’t provide you with either of these things. 

They may then decide to refer someone to us once they've investigated your concern themselves. All the information they gather during an internal investigation can then be used in our own investigations and speed up the process overall.

If you don’t agree with the employer’s response you can complain to the Ombudsman.

Some charities and other organisations exist to help you raise a concern with a health or care organisation. We’ve listed out some of them below.

If you need help to complete the form please call our Referral Helpline on 020 3307 6802.

The form normally takes about 30 minutes to complete.

What you’ll need before completing this form 

• an email address
• the name of the person (or people) you’re raising a concern about
• if possible, their personal identification number (sometimes referred to as their registration number). This is a unique identification number we assign to every person on our register, for example 11A400AA 
• a description of what happened (including where, dates and times) 
• details of what you've already raised with their place of work 
• details of any other people who saw what happened.

Information you might want to upload

You’ll be able to upload information when you fill in this form. This could include: 

• copies of medical records that might be relevant 
• emails or letters about your concern that you've sent to the professional’s place of work and any replies you got.

We understand that if you’re thinking about raising a concern with us, you have been and perhaps still are going through a difficult time.

Our new referrals helpline exists as an important first step if you’re considering raising a concern with us about a nurse, midwife or nursing associate. We can help explain more about who we are, whether we're the right place to come, how we can help you and most importantly, what support we can offer you.

By getting in touch with us, we can help you understand how to refer a nurse, midwife or nursing associate. Then, if you make a referral, we can better understand exactly what your concern is about and investigate it appropriately.

Specialist community public health nurse includes health visitors, school nurses, occupational health nurses and family health nurses.

We can only investigate concerns about people on our register (nurses and midwives in the UK, and nursing associates in England). Other regulators might be able to help if your concern is about a different regulated health or care professional.

Healthcare assistants (HCAs) are not regulated in the UK. If you have a complaint about a healthcare assistant, you should raise your concern with the organisation that the healthcare assistant works for.

We'll normally need to contact you to ask for more information about the concern you’ve raised.

We use your contact details to keep you updated on our progress, but we never share your contact details with anyone else.

When using your information, we’ll follow our privacy notice and Fitness to Practise information handling guidance.

We can consider anonymous referrals (where you don’t provide us with your name), but this will make it more difficult for us to get the information we need. If we can’t get information to support the concern, we’ll close the referral without taking any further action.

Accessibility and support

After you share your concern with us, we might ask you for more information in writing, to talk through your experience with a member of our team or receive written information from us.

Please let us know if you have a disability or health condition and you need any adjustments. This might include receiving our information in an alternative format (for example, large print or audio).

We know that our processes can be difficult for some people, so please let us know if you think you’d benefit from any additional support. For example, some people might want us to contact them over the phone rather than over email, or have someone help them through the process, like a support advocate.

Do you have any documents you want to upload?

For example, we’ll usually ask to see your letter of complaint and any replies as these can help us understand the issues. If you upload them now, it can help speed up our enquiries.

If you’re raising a concern for someone else, like a friend or family member for whom you’re not the parent or full-time carer, please let us know. We’ll contact them and make sure they’re happy for you to act on their behalf.

Choose ‘no’ if you’re acting for yourself, or if you’re acting on behalf of someone you look after, like your child.

Accessibility

We’re committed to making sure that our processes are accessible for everyone.

If the person you're acting for has a disability or injury, please tell us if they need any adjustments.

This could include receiving our information in an alternative format (for example, large print or audio).

This is where we need you to provide information about who your concern is about.

If your concern is about more than one nurse, midwife or nursing associate, you can add their details below. We’ll need you to provide as much information as possible about each person so we can identify them on our register.

If your concern is about multiple professionals, we strongly recommend you talk to their place of work or employer first. An employer is usually best placed to resolve issues quickly and fairly. They may decide to refer someone to us once they’ve investigated your concern themselves. All the information they gather during an internal investigation, including what happened and who was involved, can then be used in our own investigations and speed up the process overall.

Please provide the location of the incident that has led to your concern. (If the incident happened online, you can say the name of the platform that it took place on - for example Twitter, or over email.)

What happened?

Please provide complete and accurate information so we can investigate your concern.

In some cases there may have been one big incident, but in others there may have been a series of smaller events over time. Making sure the information you provide is detailed and relevant means we can act and respond quickly.

Please describe:

• The incident or incidents in detail
• Where the incident or incidents took place
• The date of the incident or incidents
• Whether anything unusual was happening at the time.

Do you have any files to upload?

Please attach any of the following documents to help us understand what happened:

• Any photos of the incident
• Relevant medical records
• Copies of concerns you've raised and any replies you have received

Please make sure that you've removed any password protection when you upload the files.

Do you have any documents you want to upload?

For example, we’ll usually ask to see what you have said to other organisations and any replies you may have received. These can help us understand the issues. If you upload them now, it can help speed up our enquiries.

Please note: you can only upload the following file types - pdf, doc, docx, jpg, jpeg, mp3, wav, mp4, wmv and xlsx.

There is a 50MB limit to each file. You'll need to upload all your files in one go, if you upload the wrong file you can delete and upload again.

Telling us about anyone else who was there will help us investigate what happened. We may contact the witnesses without first telling you.

If your concerns are about care you’ve received, we might need to ask for your medical records as part of our investigation. This can help us to fully consider the concerns about the care you received.

We never share these records outside of our investigation, but we will need to share your records with the nurse, midwife or nursing associate and any representative acting for them. When we use your information, we’ll follow our privacy notice and Fitness to Practise information handling guidance.

If you do not give your permission for us to see your medical records and they are relevant to your concern, it may be difficult for us to understand what has or has not happened and could result in us not being able to look into your concern.

By agreeing, you give us your permission to share the information you’ve included in this form. That includes who you are, your concern, your medical records if appropriate, and any other information you provide to us during our investigations.

We will share this information with:

• the professional or professionals you have raised a concern about
• their employer, and
• any other relevant party we identify.

We'll use your information in accordance with our privacy notice and our fitness to practise information handling guidance.

You can raise a concern without giving us permission to share information.

But if you don’t agree to us sharing your information then it’s possible, we won’t be able to investigate further. This is because we’ll always give the nurse, midwife or nursing associate the opportunity to see the detail of the concerns raised about them and any evidence. We cannot do this if you don’t agree to sharing your name and the information you’ve provided to us. If we can’t find evidence to support the concerns, we’ll close the referral without taking further action.

In some cases, if we think the public might be at risk because of the information you’ve given us, we’ll need to share the information in your referral with the relevant parties. We'll explain this to you if we think we may need to do this.