Can new NMC boss make nurse fitness to practise process fair?
Posted 19 November 2024 - 15:48
Nursing and Midwifery Council’s new interim chief executive should work with nurses’ unions to transform the organisation’s toxic culture and FtP processes, union leader urges
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has been told it must ensure it is ‘fit for purpose’ as the troubled regulator announces a new interim chief executive.
Paul Rees will take the position on a 12-month contract in the new year, making him the fourth person to head the UK’s nursing regulator since May. This period of flux has followed the summer departure of chief executive Andrea Sutcliffe on ill health grounds.
Interim NMC chief executive ‘must work with nursing unions to transform the organisation’
The union Unison said Mr Rees must now lead urgent reforms of the NMC. National nursing officer Stuart Tuckwood said the regulator’s ‘toxic culture’, as described by a damning report published in July, posed risks to nurses and the public.
Indeed, the independent review, led by former chief Crown prosecutor Nazir Afzal, said six nurses were reported to have died by suicide in 12 months while awaiting outcomes of fitness to practise (FtP) investigations. The review also described bullying, racism and burnout in the organisation.
On Monday the NMC announced Mr Rees would be joining as chief executive from the National Pharmacy Association, prompting calls for safeguarding of registrants to be his immediate priority.
Mr Tuckwood said: ‘Reform is needed to improve the effectiveness and organisational culture of the NMC. The appointment of Paul Rees must deliver this.
‘Recent failings at the regulator have undermined its reputation, putting the public and the careers of health and care staff in jeopardy. It’s crucial the new chief executive works constructively with unions to deliver the transformation necessary and ensure the NMC is fit for purpose.’
New NMC chief executive: who is Paul Rees?
- Appointed National Pharmacy Association chief executive in November 2023
- Past chief executive of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and director for policy and engagement at the Royal College of General Practitioners
- Made MBE for services to equality, diversity and inclusion in 2022
Source: NMC
Fitness to practise processes and the scale of improvement needed
Cathryn Watters, director of campaign group NMCWatch, which aims to support registrants facing FtP processes, said she wants to see radical improvements to the quality of investigations, but doubts Mr Rees can ‘achieve anything significant’ in a year.
Mr Rees has pledged to ‘deliver the culture change [NMC officials] need to thrive in their roles’.
‘In turn, this will enable them to deliver their best work for the public, who rely on high standards of nursing and midwifery care,’ he said.
NMC’s leadership: trouble and churn at the top of the regulator
- May 2024 Andrea Sutcliffe, chief executive of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) for the past five years, reveals she is to step down on health grounds
- July 2024 Crown Prosecution Service director Dawn Broderick starts as chief executive but leaves within 24 hours, after staff backlash about her links to a high-profile race discrimination case at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London while she was head of human resources there
- July 2024 NMC director of resources and technology services Helen Herniman acts up as Ms Broderick’s temporary replacement. She will step down once interim chief executive Paul Rees is in post
- 20 January 2025 Paul Rees to start as interim NMC chief executive
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