Quality assurance of education process

If we identify that an AEI isn’t meeting our standards, we will work with them to make the necessary improvements, so the standards are met and students receive appropriate education and training. This is essential to maintain public confidence in our role in pre registration nursing, midwifery and nursing associate education and NMC post-registration education and encourages the education institution to remain accountable for meeting our standards.

Exceptional reports

AEIs and their practice learning partners must respond swiftly to manage and control risks appropriately as soon as they emerge.

They must report any risks to us by making an exceptional report.

We’ll take action when these risks are not being effectively managed and controlled locally.

How to make an exceptional report

We expect approved education institutions (AEIs) to tell us any concerns about an approved programme, this could include any concerns with the academic setting of the programme or an issue/risk which might affect the student practice learning environment or where there is a patient safety concern.

If there’s the potential that our standards are not being met, then this should be raised with us via our exceptional reporting form.

When to make a report

You should make an exceptional report if:

  • students have raised any complaints leading to an internal investigation in the practice learning environment or the approved education institution,
  • there’s an immediate or impending risk to the safety of students, members of the public or patients,
  • an unexpected or unexplained death has occurred,
  • a major incident has occurred,
  • a placement provider partner has been rated as “inadequate” by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), Health Inspectorate Wales, Healthcare Improvement Scotland or Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority - you do not need to do this if they have been rated by the CQC as "requires improvement",
  • significant concerns have been raised by a member of the public,
  • there’s significant public interest in the incident.

Make an exceptional report

Download and complete our updated exceptional reporting form.

When you've completed the relevant form, email it to us at exceptional.reporting@nmc-uk.org.

You’ll receive an automated email that confirms your form has been received by the team. We’ll then assess the risks and respond to you accordingly.

Reviewing your report

We need to assess whether the AEI is addressing any risks and that the AEI and programme(s) continue to meet our standards and requirements.

To help us with this assessment we may need to ask you for more information.

We can request this information in a number of ways, such as by phone call, online meeting, or a face to face visit.  In some cases, further action may be required, such as a monitoring visit, enhanced scrutiny, or an extraordinary review, depending on the nature and severity of the concern.

The above interventions allow the AEI to demonstrate how they have or how they intend to address the issues raised with them and how their programme and the AEI continue to meet our standards and requirements.

If we ask for more information, you need to send this to us within the stated timeframe. If you’re not able to provide the information in this time, then you need to let us know why.

When we close a concern, we’ll email you confirming this decision. Until a concern has been closed by the QA team, we expect you to continue to update us regarding the risk and your mitigations.

We may also need to speak to other relevant NMC departments to make sure that any concerns that could impact on public protection are dealt with. If a concern impacts another AEI, we'll also tell them about the identified risk.

There are occasions where we may handle personal information relating to specific individuals. We may also be involved in sharing personal information with third parties to further our overarching objective to protect the public. In general, the reason we process personal information is either because we have a legal obligation to do so or because it is necessary for the exercise of our statutory functions or any other functions in the public interest. For more information on this please read our Education and Standards information handling guidance and our Data protection policy.

Actions we can take

We will consider the information provided by the AEI and any other intelligence about the concern to get an understanding of the risks and how they are being managed by the AEI, we will then assess whether further action is needed.

If we decide that an AEI has not appropriately dealt with a concern, we can consider whether it's proportionate to withdraw approval of the AEI and/or the programme(s).

However, if we determine that there’s no longer a risk to the student learning environment or to patient safety and our standards are being met, we'll take the necessary steps to close your concern.

We'll aim to update you within two weeks of receiving your exceptional report form, however this is determined by the complexity of the risk/concern.

Listening events

Where we identify concerns that our standards are not, or may not be met, our QA Board may decide we need to carry out a listening event. A listening event involves independent visitors meeting with students, practice learning representatives or a combination of both, to hear students' experiences of their programme and placements, and where practice learning representatives are involved, to hear about partnership working to support student progression. Each listening event is tailored to the specific concerns identified.

Monitoring visits 

Where we identify concerns that our standards are, or may not be met, our QA Board may decide we need to carry out a monitoring visit. This involves independent visitors undertaking a visit and documentary review. As part of the visit we meet with students, practice learning partners, people who use services and members of the academic team. Each monitoring visit is tailored to the specific concerns identified.

Enhanced scrutiny

As part of our new data-driven approach to quality assurance, we may place education providers and programmes under enhanced scrutiny, if we’ve identified potential concerns.

What to do if you're placed under enhanced scrutiny
  • Report any concerns or risks through exceptional reporting (see above) including how you’re managing and controlling these risks.
  • Send us an enhanced scrutiny report every six months during the period of enhanced scrutiny.
  • Answer some additional enhanced scrutiny questions in your annual self-report.
How we will help
  • Provide a dedicated NMC contact for each approved education institution (AEI) placed under enhanced scrutiny.
  • Review, categorise and track concerns as they emerge.
  • Notify AEIs of timelines for submitting reports.
  • Follow up any reporting with a monitoring phone call.
  • Take action if concerns remain (this could result in a period of further enhanced scrutiny, an extraordinary review (see below), or even withdrawal of approval).

Please note that our Quality Assurance Board will make a decision about placing an AEI or programme on to enhanced scrutiny, if there are ongoing concerns. This will also triangulate evidence through self-reports, data driven monitoring and monitoring calls.

Extraordinary reviews

In some cases, we might need to carry out an extraordinary review of an AEI and/or practice learning partner.

This could be after an incident that presents a risk to public protection, the student learning environment or when an AEI is seen to be either unaware of an incident or not to have effectively managed its risks.

Reasons for extraordinary reviews

We carry out additional quality assurance work when we believe nursing and midwifery education providers are not meeting our standards.

It might be necessary for us to carry out an extraordinary review of an education provider which may also include their practice placements in certain circumstances.

For example, when there is an adverse incident that presents a risk to public protection, or if an approved education institution (AEI) is seen to be either unaware of the incident or not to have effectively managed the risks. We would organise an unplanned monitoring review visit, usually at short notice.

The focus of the extraordinary review is stated to the AEI. The review team will have a specific plan for their quality assurance activity for both AEIs and practice learning partners.

If you have any questions about extraordinary reviews, please email qateam@nmc-uk.org

Monitoring reports

Where we undertake a listening event, monitoring visit or extraordinary review the visitors produce a report outlining their findings. The education institution has a month to supply any observations on the report.

Our QA Board then meets to consider the report from the visit, any observations made by the education institution and any other relevant information, before deciding on whether our standards of education are being met and next steps.

We have published below the reports from our recent events, and where requested to do so, the education institutions’ response:

Anglia Ruskin University
University of Bedfordshire

University of Bedfordshire Monitoring Visit - January 2024 - Report summary

University of Bedfordshire Monitoring Visit - January 2024 - Full report

Canterbury Christ Church University
University of Greenwich

University of Greenwich - Midwifery Student Listening Event Report - June 2023

University of Nottingham
Staffordshire University

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