NMC responds to the Government's Covid-19 Social Care Action Plan

Commenting on the action plan issued today, Andrea Sutcliffe CBE, Chief Executive and Registrar at the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), said:

“The Government’s measures announced today are welcome and the focus on better supporting the social care workforce is vital.

“It is clear with the numbers of people using social care services being affected by Covid19 that social care nurses and their colleagues have a critical role and are just as much on the frontline in this pandemic as staff in the NHS.

“We know from the experiences social care nurses have shared with us that the actions shared today are desperately needed so that they can safely support people living in vulnerable circumstances at these hardest of times.

“I particularly welcome the commitment to providing sufficient PPE for social care workers and the clarity the Secretary of State provided about the unacceptability of a blanket application of do not attempt to resuscitate orders on groups of people using services. These are concerns the NMC has also addressed in our recent statements.

“The pandemic is continuing to increase demand for skilled, compassionate nurses to work in social care. I hope today’s measures will encourage many more to join over 9,000 former colleagues and apply to our Covid19 temporary register. I guarantee they will be welcomed with open arms in social care!

“As the regulator of more than 700,000 nursing and midwifery professionals working in diverse health and care settings across all four countries of the UK, we will continue to play our part in raising the profile for nurses working in social care and ensure that are equally recognised and respected."

ENDS

Further information will be regularly updated on our website: www.nmc.org.uk/covid19
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About the NMC

As the professional regulator of nurses and midwives in the UK, and nursing associates in England, we work to ensure these professionals have the knowledge and skills to deliver consistent, quality care that keeps people safe.

We set the education standards professionals must achieve to practise in the United Kingdom. When they have shown both clinical excellence and a commitment to kindness, compassion and respect, we welcome them onto our register of more than 700,000 professionals.

Once registered, nurses, midwives sand nursing associates must uphold the standards and behaviours set out in our Code so that people can have confidence that they will consistently receive quality, safe care wherever they’re treated.

We promote lifelong learning through revalidation, encouraging professionals to reflect on their practice and how the Code applies in their day-to-day work.

On the rare occasions that care goes wrong, or falls short of people’s expectations, we can step in to investigate, and take action when needed. But we want to prevent something going wrong in the first place. So, we promote a culture that encourages professionals to be open and learn from mistakes, gives the public an equal voice and where everyone involved is treated with kindness and compassion.

If we’re to play our part in making sure safe, high quality and consistent standards of care can be delivered, we need to continue to improve. That is why we are working with people, professionals and our partners to co-produce a new long-term strategy, one that’ll help us to support nurses, midwives and nursing associates to deliver even better, safer care.