NMC appoints new education quality assurance service provider

Our quality assurance process includes approving nursing and midwifery programmes against our education standards and monitoring them once they are running. We also manage concerns if and where they arise, including issues affecting students’ learning environment, or where programmes are not meeting our education standards. This ensures that nurses, midwives and nursing associates are consistently educated to a high standard so that they can deliver safe, effective and kind care to people once they qualify, and throughout their careers. 
 
To support with this work, and in line with our education quality assurance framework, we outsource EdQA services to an external provider. We’re pleased to welcome the QAA as our new service provider from 1 September 2024. We’re also grateful to Mott MacDonald, our current EdQA provider, for their valuable services over the years and whose contract will end on 31 August 2024.   
 
Over the coming months, we’ll be preparing for a smooth transition between the two providers. This will include arrangements for programme approvals, major modification, monitoring events and guidance for escalating concerns. We’ll be engaging with education institutions about these arrangements and will share more details with them in the coming weeks.   
 
Sam Foster, NMC Executive Director of Professional Practice, said:  

“Education quality assurance is one of the core ways we can deliver on our primary purpose of protecting the public. It ensures that future professionals join our register with the skills and knowledge they need to practise and that people using services can have confidence in the professionals delivering their care.   
 
“We look forward to working with the Quality Assurance Agency as they support us with our work, and we’re extremely thankful to Mott MacDonald for their valued partnership over recent years. There will be changeover period between the two providers over the coming months so that we can assure the continuity of our quality assurance process – we’ll keep people informed as this progresses.” 

 Vicki Stott, Chief Executive of the QAA, said: 

"We are looking forward to working closely with the Nursing and Midwifery Council to ensure that standards in nursing and midwifery education are maintained, and that students continue to receive a high quality education.  
 
“There are clear synergies between our complementary areas of expertise, underpinned by a shared ethos of public service and commitment to upholding excellence in professional practice. We very much look forward to performing this key role in supporting the vital and hugely respected work of the NMC.”   

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