Ministers to meet with NMC to discuss findings of culture review
The government will meet with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to discuss the findings of a review into its internal culture, which exposed bullying, racism and toxic behaviour at all levels.
In addition, the overarching body that oversees the performance of all the professional regulators has said “enhanced monitoring will be required of the NMC in the coming months and years to ensure improvements are implemented and sustained”.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has confirmed today that ministers will meet with the regulator to discuss the review, as well as its response to it.
However, no timeframe has yet been revealed by the government for the meeting with the leaders of the regulator.
“I am now pleased that the NMC is improving channels for their workforce to be able to speak up”
Henrietta Hughes
The review report, published earlier this week by former prosecutor Nazir Afzal and Rise Associates, laid bare a dysfunctional and toxic culture that was impacting safeguarding decisions at the NMC.
In a statement, a spokesperson for DHSC said: “This review is deeply concerning and must be acted upon by the independent Nursing and Midwifery Council.
“Ministers will be meeting with the NMC to discuss the review and their response to it,” they added.
The review into the NMC exposed mishandling of fitness to practise (FtP) cases, specifically relating to racism and sexual assault.
In addition, it uncovered bullying and discrimination against Black and minority ethnic workers.
The DHSC spokesperson added: “Bullying and racism are unacceptable.
“It is vital that whistleblowers are free to speak up, knowing that they will be supported, and their concerns will be listened to and acted upon.”
Meanwhile, the patient safety commissioner for England, Dr Henrietta Hughes, said on social media platform X that she was looking forward to continuing conversations with the NMC about how to improve patient safety and “acting on patient voices”.
She added: “In my previous role as national guardian, I met with the NMC Council and encouraged them to examine their own culture and appoint a Freedom to Speak Up guardian in line with many other national bodies. They chose not to.
Henrietta Hughes
“I am now pleased that the NMC is improving channels for their workforce to be able to speak up – the true test is whether their leaders listen up and follow up.
“I stand ready to support their improvements so that patients and the public are kept safe,” said Ms Hughes.
The Queen’s Nursing Institute wrote to the new health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting, yesterday, asking for the government to launch an independent review of the NMC and the performance of its regulatory functions.
The letter argued that such a move was necessary to restore public confidence in the professions, following this week’s damning report on the regulator.
The NMC has since apologised and promised swift action in response, accepting all 36 of the recommendations set out by Mr Afzar.
Central to the recommendations was speeding up the FtP process, improving how serious cases are managed and for the NMC to work more collaboratively with bodies like the police and local authorities.
It also urged the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA), which oversees the work of the NMC, to revert to more detailed annual reviews of the nursing regulator’s performance.
Currently, the PSA measures the NMC’s overall performance against the authority’s standards of good regulation every year and reports its findings to parliament.
In its most recent report, the PSA found that the NMC had failed to meet standards for clearing its FtP backlog for a fourth year in a row, and identified several areas where improvements were required.
Now, Mr Afzal’s review has called for the PSA to conduct “a more in-depth review of randomly selected cases at each stage of the NMC’s processes”.
In response, the PSA said: “We agree that enhanced monitoring will be required of the NMC in the coming months and years to ensure improvements are implemented and sustained.
“We will provide an update on how we will achieve this shortly, once we have considered the findings of the review in full.
“We will also be considering the evidence we look at as part of our performance reviews, and our process overall, to see if these can be further improved to help us identify the sorts of issues raised in the Rise review at an earlier stage.”
The PSA added that it was also currently reviewing its standards, to decide whether it should consider internal culture, leadership and governance as part of its assessment of how well a regulator is delivering on its statutory responsibilities.
