Our plan to promote high standards that inspire public confidence

The NMC has set out its goals for the next two years, with the top priority being to reduce the fitness to practise (FtP) caseload quickly and fairly. 

We know that reducing our caseload safely and speeding up the time it takes to manage each case is vitally important for everyone affected; the professionals going through our processes, people who have made complaints and other witnesses. 

We’ll make sure people’s fitness to practise cases conclude safely and more swiftly. If we can’t help people with their concerns, we’ll direct them at the earliest opportunity to other organisations better placed to help. 

Our other priorities include continuing to work with the Government towards regulatory reform, which will remove legal barriers that limit the way we regulate. This will mean our register becomes easier to understand, we’ll be able to act more rapidly to protect the public if someone can’t meet our standards, and we’ll strengthen our approach to quality assurance of nursing and midwifery education. 

We’ll also explore whether the regulation of advanced nursing and midwifery practice is needed. And we’ll focus on the safety of maternity services, working with trusts, higher education institutions and other regulators to deliver sustainable improvements, for the benefit of women, babies and families. 

The principles of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) will underpin all our work, because discrimination remains unacceptably high in health and social care. For example, our Ambitious for change research shows that some employers refer more men and Black professionals to fitness to practise compared to the make-up of our register and their own workforce. And the evidence is clear that professionals’ experiences of discrimination impact on the quality of people’s care. We are committed to learning from people’s experiences to change this, and ensure our processes are fair and accessible for all. 

Andrea Sutcliffe, NMC Chief Executive and Registrar, said: 

“Nursing and midwifery professionals have faced immense challenges over the last three years. The worst aspects of Covid may be behind us but ongoing challenges, and well publicised workforce issues, mean intense pressures look set to continue and impact on people’s care.

“Our NMC strategy guided our response to the pandemic, and it framed the successful delivery of significant initiatives. We’ll build on this progress in the strategy’s remaining two years. We’ll bring down our fitness to practise caseload safely and more swiftly, prepare for regulatory reform, review advanced practice, work with partners to improve people’s experience of maternity care, and much more.Through all of this we will have a relentless focus on promoting inclusion and tackling unacceptable discrimination.

“We’ll also start to turn our attention to the years beyond. We’ve already begun to think about our strategy for 2025–2030 and, during the coming year, we look forward to working with the public, our professionals, partners and employees as we develop our thinking further.”

Read the corporate plan 2023-2025 here

Other recent news…