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‘Time and patience have run out’, RCN tells NMC
We need radical change to be delivered, as the NMC has failed to meet half of its regulatory standards
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The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) has found that the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) met just nine out of 18 regulatory standards in its 2025 review, with performance worsening year-on-year and no evidence of substantial improvement on key issues including fitness to practise (FtP) and oversight of educational standards in universities.
This comes as earlier in the week, the NMC admitted it failed to consider criminal convictions and health concerns while assessing an individual’s ability to join or remain on the nursing register over a period of 12 years.
The new report into the NMC’s performance revealed that the nursing regulator had commissioned an external audit into its own processes around FtP, only then to not share the findings with its own regulator, the PSA, or publish its own improvement plan.
Professor Lynn Woolsey, RCN Chief Nursing Officer, described this as “beyond unacceptable”.
She continued: “This shows a disgraceful lack of transparency and disrespect towards nursing staff who still endure tortuous waits for decisions, inadequate communication and shocking racial disparities in investigations and formal action. That the PSA’s latest performance review found little positive change is intolerable to both our members and the public.”
The report found that FtP investigations and adjudications remained too slow. The PSA concluded that the NMC’s communications with parties during FtP was still below standard.
The PSA also said that the NMC had failed to address significant education quality assurance issues. It highlighted examples of nursing courses at providers failing on multiple educational standards, while the NMC was unable to effectively identify them and take action. At one higher education provider, the regulator found out about several failings just by chance.
The NMC is “failing in its core duty to uphold educational standards across the profession,” said Lynn.
“It's deeply concerning that the NMC’s quality assurance of education providers was found to be high-risk, with little action taken since the last report. It’s clear the NMC’s method of allowing higher education institutions to self-assess is not only undermining the nursing profession but, crucially, posing a threat to care quality and patient safety now and in the future.”
The report’s findings also raised significant concerns across other core regulatory functions, including limited progress embedding equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) with disparities in FtP outcomes. It said the NMC was undermining confidence in its register by not following the required processes for high‑risk registration decisions.
The failings are considered so serious that the PSA has written to the UK government Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and health and care committees in all four countries.
Read the full PSA report.
“The case for change at the NMC is stronger today than it has ever been, but the sense of conviction and urgency is missing. Now is the time for radical change to be delivered, without delay. Failure to do so will leave nursing staff still wondering what they are paying for, while the regulator lets the public and our profession down when we need it to uphold standards. Time and patience from the profession has run out,” said Lynn.
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