NMC keeps registration fee at £120 to ensure affordability
Registration fee will be frozen for ‘as long as possible’ to ensure affordability amid cost of living crisis, says the Nursing and Midwifery Council
The annual fee to register as a nurse will remain at £120 next year to ensure affordability for registrants.
NMC will retain £120 fee for ‘as long as possible’
At a council meeting on Wednesday 29 March, Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) members voted unanimously to approve a motion to keep the fee the same for nurses and midwives for 2023-24 as part of its annual budget.
Despite rising delivery costs due to inflation, council members committed to keeping the registration fee the same to ensure it was affordable for nurses in light of external costs, including rising household bills.
But board papers were clear that the rising risk of inflation, coupled with static fee income, could force the council to increase the fee in future budgets. The fee has been the same price since 2015, when it was increased from £100.
Speaking at the meeting, executive director for resources and technology services Helen Herniman said the NMC hoped to keep the fee stable for ‘the next few years’.
The budget report in the council papers said: ‘Our financial strategy aims to ensure that the fee is affordable for nurses, midwives, and nursing associates while at the same time providing sufficient funding to enable us to operate effectively as their regulator.
‘Provided registrant numbers continue to be in line with current expectations and recognising the financial pressure on individuals and their families now, we aim to maintain the registration fee at the current £120 level for as long as possible.’
Regulator will invest £43 million to tackle fitness to practise backlog
The registration fee generates more than £90 million in revenue for the NMC each year, making up the bulk of its income. With the number of registrants increasing, this income has allowed the regulator to build up ‘strong reserves’.
During the discussion council member Derek Pretty told his colleagues that ‘we should not take it for granted that the growth of the register will continue indefinitely’ when considering future spending.
The council agreed to free up some of its cash reserves and proceed with investing a further £43 million in tackling the fitness to practise caseload backlog without increasing the registration fee. The fee could have risen to £157 had it gone up in line with inflation.
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