2024/2025 in review: NMC on the road to recovery

The 2024/25 business year included the publication, in July 2024, of the Independent Culture Review. This found that some NMC colleagues had experienced racism and other forms of discrimination, as well as bullying and harassment. The NMC is clear these behaviours are unacceptable.

The review also said that the NMC’s culture negatively affected its work in areas such as fitness to practise (FtP). Too many cases were being caught up in the organisation’s processes for too long, resulting in additional stress and anxiety for everyone involved.

We have acknowledged that our performance during this period fell short of expectations. Now, under new management, we have taken wide-ranging action to put things right.

• In September 2024, we introduced a new safeguarding hub: all new fitness to practise referrals are now reviewed so that safeguarding risks are identified straight away, and support can be put in place for professionals where wellbeing concerns are identified.
  
  
• In January 2025, Paul Rees MBE was appointed as our Interim Chief Executive and Registrar, having turned around culture and performance at other organisations. On 31 March, Ron Barclay-Smith was announced as Chair of Council and since then there have been three further appointments to the Executive Board – with Ravi Chand CBE joining as Executive Director of People and Culture, Julia Corkey joining as Executive Director of Communications and Engagement and Emma Westcott being appointed as Executive Director of Strategy and Insight
  
  
• In February 2025, we launched a programme of work to enhance education and standards for nursing and midwifery professionals: modernise the Code and revalidation, progress a review of practice learning, and develop standards for Advanced Practice. This will ensure that our work on education and standards meets the needs of the modern workforce, is fit for the future and protects the public.
   
• In March 2025, we published a comprehensive three-year Culture Transformation Plan to build a positive, empowering and inclusive culture for NMC colleagues and everyone involved in our regulatory processes.
  
  
• In June 2025, we set ambitious new equality, diversity and inclusion targets to eliminate bias from our regulatory processes and drive fairness for our staff. As part of our commitment to becoming an anti-racist organisation, the NMC also signed up to the UNISON Anti-Racism Charter. 

We are also starting to see gradual improvements in fitness to practise (FtP), particularly around the timeliness of case management. This follows the launch of our FtP Plan in April 2024, which aims to ensure that decisions are swift, safe and proportionate.

• In July 2023, the monthly rolling average for completing cases end-to-end within 15 months was 60.8 percent, against a target of 80 percent. As of May 2025, the timeliness figure had climbed to 69.8 percent.
  
  
• In recent months, there have been record numbers of decisions at screening (the initial assessment stage of FtP), with 809 made in May 2025 alone. This followed a previous record of 806 decisions in March 2025 – 92 percent more than in March 2024 (419 decisions).

Paul Rees MBE, Interim Chief Executive and Registrar, said:

“The 2024/25 business year was an exceptionally challenging period for the NMC. A very poor culture had built up over time, and our performance was simply not good enough meaning that we were letting down the public, registrants and colleagues.

“However, the NMC is now under new management and we are steadily turning the organisation around. There is a long way to go, and there will inevitably be some bumps in the road, but at last we can now look ahead to a brighter future.

“We have a clear turnaround programme – which is built on our Culture Transformation Plan, our Fitness to Practise Plan, our strengthened work on safeguarding, our forthcoming improvements to education and standards, and other turnaround activities.

“We will continue to build on this work and make sure that we build an NMC that is fit for the future.”

Ron Barclay-Smith, Chair, said:

“The NMC is under new management and we are working at pace to turn the organisation around by building on the remedial efforts of the NMC’s interim leadership team.

“The culture and performance at the NMC, as summed up in the independent culture review, was not good enough – and we are determined to now move full steam ahead to a position where we deliver for the public, the professionals we regulate and our staff team.”

Read the annual report and accounts

Other recent news…