The Government will meet with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to discuss the findings of an investigation into an internal culture which revealed bullying, racism and harmful behaviour at all levels.
Moreover, the umbrella body, which oversees the activities of all professional regulators, said it would “require increased scrutiny by the NMC over the coming months and years to ensure that improvements are implemented and sustained”.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) today confirmed that ministers will meet with the regulator to discuss the review and any responses to it.
However, the government has yet to say when it will meet with regulator leaders.
“I’m pleased to see the NMC improving the channels through which employees can speak up.”
Henrietta Hughes
The investigative report, published earlier this week by former prosecutor Nazir Afzal and Rise Associates, revealed a dysfunctional and toxic culture that influenced safeguarding decisions at NMC.
A DHSC spokesman said in a statement: “This investigation is of serious concern and must be addressed by the independent Nursing and Midwifery Council.”
“Ministers will meet with the NMC to discuss the review and responses thereto,” they added.
The NMC investigation uncovered poor handling of Fitness to Practice (FtP) cases, particularly relating to racism and sexual assault.
It also uncovered cases of bullying and discrimination against black and ethnic minority workers.
A DHSC spokesman added: “Bullying and racism are not acceptable.”
“It is vital that whistleblowers are able to speak freely, knowing they will be supported and that their concerns will be listened to and addressed.”
Meanwhile, Dr Henrietta Hughes, Patient Safety Commissioner for England, said on social media platform X that she looked forward to continuing the dialogue with the NMC about ways to improve patient safety and “respond to the patient voice”.
She added: “In my previous role as national guardian, I met with the NMC council to examine their own culture and encourage them to follow the example of many other national bodies and appoint a guardian of freedom of speech, but they have not done so.”
“I’m pleased to see the NMC improving the mechanisms through which employees can have a say. The real test will be whether leaders listen and follow up.”
“I am prepared to support them in making improvements so that patients and the public are kept safe,” Mr Hughes said.
The Queen’s Nursing Association wrote to the new Minister for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, yesterday calling on the Government to launch an independent investigation into the NMC and the performance of its regulatory functions.
The letter argued that such measures were necessary to restore public trust in the profession, following a damning report into the regulator this week.
The NMC subsequently apologised and accepted all 36 recommendations put forward by Afzaal, promising to act swiftly.
Central to the recommendations were to speed up the FtP process, improve how serious cases are managed and for the NMC to work more collaboratively with agencies such as the police and local authorities.
It also called on the Health and Social Care Professional Standards Authority (PSA), which oversees the NMC’s work, to return to more detailed annual reviews of the nursing regulator’s performance.
Currently, each year the PSA measures NMC’s overall performance against the agency’s Good Regulation Standards and reports the results to Parliament.
In its latest report, the PSA found that for the fourth consecutive year, NMC had failed to meet standards for clearing the FtP backlog and identified several areas requiring improvement.
Now Afzal’s review is calling for the PSA to carry out a “more detailed review of randomly selected cases at each stage of the NMC process”.
The PSA responded: “We agree that increased NMC oversight is needed over the coming months and years to ensure improvements are implemented and sustained.”
“We will provide an update shortly on how we will achieve this, after fully considering the findings of the review.”
“We will also be looking at the evidence we look at as part of our performance reviews, and our overall processes, and hope to further improve these so that we can identify the types of issues raised in the Rise review at an earlier stage.”
The PSA added that it was also currently reviewing its standards to determine whether it should consider internal culture, leadership and governance as part of its assessment of how well regulators were meeting their statutory responsibilities.