NMC recruits fitness to practise lead at GMC to help with caseload

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) announced today that the Anthony Omo will be seconded to the organisation for three months to support it to improve its handling of FtP cases.

“I am looking forward to working with colleagues at the NMC over the next few months”

Anthony Omo

Tackling the FtP backlog has been the NMC’s greatest challenge in recent years, as it had been for the regulator’s predecessors.

An independent review into the NMC’s culture, published earlier this year, laid bare the scale of the problem.

The review warned that it was taking too long for FtP decisions to be taken and that the delays were having a serious impact on registrants that had been referred.

In what made for harrowing reading, the report also revealed that six nurses had died by suicide or suspected suicide since April 2023, while under or having concluded an FtP investigation.

Following the publication of the report, the NMC committed to hiring additional external expertise to provide insight, support and advise on making improvements around FtP.

Mr Omo, who is also general counsel at the GMC, will be seconded as executive adviser to the NMC from 28 October.

The move comes as the GMC has met the Professional Standards Authority’s standards of good regulation for FtP every year since they were introduced in 2012.

In comparison, the NMC has failed for meet these standards for the last four years.

Mr Omo said: “I am looking forward to working with colleagues at the NMC over the next few months and believe that collaboration and knowledge sharing across regulators can drive positive change.”

Mr Omo will work alongside Lesley Maslen, the NMC’s executive director of professional regulation, on this initiative.

He added: “I know that Lesley and the team are committed to improving fitness to practise processes and tackling challenges around caseload.

“I am very pleased to support them with their important work.”

Mr Omo will also support the NMC to continue to implement its 18-month FtP improvement plan, which has been backed by a £30m investment.

Ms Maslen said that, six months into the FtP plan, the NMC was “seeing some positive early signs” that the changes were starting to work.

However, she noted that there was “a long way to go” before the regulator would make a sustainable change in overall timeliness of case progression and improve registrants’ experience of the process.

Ms Maslen added: “We believe that expert external advice is key to achieving this, and that’s why we’re pleased to welcome Anthony in a short-term advisory capacity.

“We’re grateful to the GMC for their support, which we hope will hasten our progress for the benefit of everyone impacted by our regulatory work – whether that’s our colleagues progressing difficult casework, the nursing and midwifery professionals living under the cloud of a referral, or members of the public seeking resolution to their concerns about care.”