Quality assurance of education

We approve and quality assure programmes of pre-registration nursing and midwifery education.

Quality assurance makes sure that education programmes meet our standards and that risks are managed effectively.

There are currently around 1,000 approved programmes at 80 approved education institutions (AEIs). Our approval lasts for a six year period, after which AEIs can choose to apply for reapproval or let approval lapse if they no longer wish to run the programme. We will assess any changes to the programmes that AEIs propose.

Our processes

We regularly monitor a selection of AEIs. The quality assurance process focuses on key risks and specific areas of practice. Monitoring reviews take account of feedback from students, service users and carers.

The review teams consist of fully trained lay and nurse or midwife reviewers. Lay reviewers are members of the public who have never been registered nurses or midwives.

As well as taking part in approval and monitoring, AEIs must submit an annual self-report. This responds to key themes that we have identified in advance. Our assessment of the reports helps to find any weaknesses and provides useful information that may be used to help select AEIs for the following year’s monitoring.

AEIs must also self-report any risks when they arise. We will assess these self-reports and take appropriate action where necessary. We also have an internal process for identifying, analysing and responding to information about risks that we receive from other sources including members of the public, students, the media and other regulators.

Get involved

Our standards for pre-registration nursing education require that patients and service users should contribute to how courses are designed and delivered.

If you would like to become involved in the design and delivery of nursing and midwifery programmes at your local education institution, please contact the health faculty for more information.

Our annual reports on the quality assurance of education 

We report annually on the key risks and themes that emerge from our QA activity of approved education institutions (AEIs). Please see a copy of our latest report from 2016-2017:

Quality Assurance of Education - Annual Report 2016-2017 (Cymraeg)