Blog: A Day in the Life of an Employer Link Service Adviser

The NMC’s Employer Link Service (ELS) provides free learning, guidance and advice to employers of nurses, midwives and nursing associates. The ELS includes Regulation Advisers who provide a dedicated advice line for any employer looking for guidance before making a referral, along with support on how to make a referral, if needed.

As an ELS Adviser for the North West, I work closely with health and social care providers in the North West of England and the Isle of Man.

So, what does a typical day as an ELS Adviser look like?

Starting the day: building relationships

My day starts by responding to enquiries from employers who need help and guidance. For example, today I received an email from a social care employer who I recently met at a Skills for Care event. Before attending the event, this employer hadn’t heard of ELS, so it’s great to see that they are now reaching out for advice and support.

Delivering lessons learned

Next, it’s time to deliver one of my favourite parts of the role – a learning session.

ELS Advisers offer free learning sessions for employers, professionals and stakeholders across health and social care – in both the independent sector and the NHS. Our aim is to make the NMC more accessible, and to develop professionals’ understanding of our role as a regulator and the support we provide. These sessions also support professionals to embed and achieve high professional standards in everyday practice.

Today’s session is a two-hour virtual session for senior managers at a hospice. It focuses on an introduction to the NMC, our core responsibilities and an overview of our Fitness to Practise processes. It is highly interactive, using case studies and encouraging senior managers to think about how NMC guidance may apply in practice – and it’s always rewarding to hear the conversations that take place.

I’m now planning further learning sessions for nursing colleagues who work at the hospice. These sessions might cover record keeping, accountability and delegation, and preceptorship. There are so many important and interesting topics to choose from!

Peer review and quality assurance

Before I know it, it’s time for lunch ahead of the monthly peer review meeting.
Peer review brings together colleagues from across the NMC, including Regulation Advisers, Clinical Advisers and Safeguarding colleagues. Together, we review and quality assure the calls we have received through the Employer Advice Line.

Through our Employer Advice Line – which is free and available for any employer to use – we provide support and guidance to employers when they need to make a referral.

Peer review helps ensure the advice we provide remains consistent, proportionate and aligned with our regulatory processes and purpose.
As a registered mental health nurse myself, I find these meetings incredibly valuable. They give me confidence in the robust quality assurance processes we have in place, provide valuable learning and reinforce our commitment to ensuring we receive and take forward the right referrals.

Capturing learning and insights

The final part of my day involves capturing the learning and insights I’ve gathered during my recent visits to providers, networking events and learning sessions. What we learn from our external engagements helps us to identify emerging issues and patient safety themes, understand the challenges employers and professionals are facing, and shape our future work to better support the health and social care sector.

No two days are ever quite the same, and that’s one of the things I enjoy most about working in ELS. Whether I’m meeting employers, delivering learning sessions or sharing insights from across the North West and the Isle of Man with my colleagues, every day is focused on building relationships with employers and registrants and providing the right support to better protect the public.

Then it’s time to do it all again tomorrow!

Further information

• More details about the Employer Link Service are available on our website.
• You can find your local contact here.
• If you are an employer and would like to find out more about how we can support you, or you are interested in a learning session, please contact us at employerlinkservice@nmc-uk.org.

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