NMC chair defends leadership position amid calls to resign
The chair of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has defended his position at the regulator, despite ongoing calls for him to stand down following a damning review into the organisation’s culture.
Sir David Warren, who has been chair of the NMC since June 2021, argued today that there needed to be “stability and continuity” in its leadership, as the organisation reckoned with the findings of the review.
“It is important that there should be stability and continuity in the leadership of the organisation”
David Warren
The report, published earlier this month, exposed alarming instances of toxicity, racism and discrimination at all levels across the NMC, which were putting nurses and midwives at risk.
The review found that the NMC’s senior leadership was “not functioning properly”, and warned that the lack of diversity in the organisation did not represent the nursing and midwifery professions.
In addition, it highlighted a widespread view that the NMC leadership had a culture where warm gestures and signals were more important than tackling poor behaviours.
The NMC has since apologised and accepted all 36 of the recommendations in the review, which cover changes to leadership and management, its regulatory processes and recruitment and retention of staff.
Since the publication of the review, led by Nazir Afzal and Rise Associates, many nurses have taken to social media site X to call for the resignation of Sir David, the NMC’s governing council and executive.
These individuals have argued that they do not have confidence in the current NMC leadership to make the necessary changes to change the culture at the organisation.
However, today Sir David held firm in his position as chair, telling the NMC’s governing council that he had no intension to resign. “I am not going to stand down as chair of the NMC,” he stated.
“I think firstly, it is important that there should be stability and continuity in the leadership of the organisation as we tackle the very difficult issues which have been identified by Nazir Afzal’s report.
“And I that continuity is best served by me as chair and the council remaining in place to oversee the processes, which we are setting in train.”
During the meeting of the NMC’s council, which was held online today, Sir David confirmed he had met with new health minister Karin Smyth to discuss next steps for the organisation following the review.
The NMC has agreed that it must appoint an interim chief executive and registrar as soon as it can, explained Sir David. It comes after Andrea Sutcliffe stepped down from the post due to ill health.
Her interim replacement, Dawn Brodrick, then resigned at the start of July just days before she was due to take up the position, after criticism of her involvement in a high-profile NHS race discrimination case.
The NMC has since appointed Helen Herniman, who had been its executive lead for the people and culture review investigations, as acting chief executive and registrar while the NMC moves to appoint someone on an interim basis.
Sir David confirmed today that the NMC would launch a campaign for an interim leader next week, with the hope to appoint someone by October.
In parallel, the regulator will also run a campaign from September to appoint a permanent chief executive and registrar, with a view to announce a permanent successor by Christmas.
Meanwhile, the NMC will also appoint one or more senior independent advisors to the council.
Sir David said: “We’re doing this because we want to increase the challenge and support that the council receives to ensure that the necessary cultural changes are delivered and to prevent any recurrence of what Nazir Afzal found and reported in their review.”
Other commitments agreed by the NMC with the government is that it will identify additional external expertise to provide support with the NMC’s goal of improving the speed in which it processes fitness to practise cases.
Meanwhile, the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care, which oversees the work of the NMC, has committed to “enhanced monitoring” of the regulator.
It will do this by establishing an independent advisory group, which will “scrutinise the impact of the measures introduced by the NMC to improve its culture and performance”, Sir David noted.
