NMC increases diversity of FtP panel member pool

• 24 percent of lay panel member pool now comes from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds - exceeding the 18.3 percent reflected in the UK population
• 23 percent of registrant panel members are now from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds - an increase of eight percent.

Panels play a vital role in protecting the public by determining whether nursing and midwifery professionals are fit to practise, or if any restrictions on their practice are needed to keep people safe. They work in threes, always including a mix of lay and registrant members. To help ensure fair and balanced decision making, we want our panels to reflect the diversity of the professions we regulate and the communities they serve.

Following our latest recruitment campaign for 2024-2025, we have appointed 149 new panel members, including 67 registrants. These appointments include a nursing associate – the first registrant panel member from this profession since it was introduced in 2019.

We are pleased to report that these appointments have succeeded in making the panel member pool more diverse. For lay panel members, 24 percent of the pool now comes from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds - exceeding the 18.3 percent reflected in the UK population.

For registrant panel members, 23 percent are now from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds - an increase of eight percent. This moves us closer to our goal of reflecting the 31.7 percent of the register who are from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Our data also shows that registrant panel members are as, or more, diverse than the register when it comes to disability, sexual orientation, sex and gender diversity. Lay panel members are more diverse when it comes to sexual orientation and disability, in comparison to the wider UK population.

However, there are still fewer individuals aged 21 to 40 in the panel pool compared to the wider public and the register.

Lesley Maslen, Executive Director of Professional Regulation at the NMC, said:

“The people who make up our fitness to practise panels play a crucial role in upholding high standards of nursing and midwifery practice. The decisions they take can have a profound impact on people’s safety, as well as on a nurse, midwife or nursing associate’s ability to work. That’s why it’s so important that we do everything we can to make sure that our panels are consistently making fair decisions.

“As part of this, it's fundamental that our panel members reflect the diversity of the professionals on our register and the public. We’re pleased to have taken a step forward in our latest recruitment campaign and remain committed to building on this progress - in particular, we will keep working to achieve a pool of registrant panel members that more closely reflect the diversity of those on our register.”

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