NMC response to follow up article published in the Independent

Andrea Sutcliffe, the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Chief Executive and Registrar, says:

“I’m so sorry that anyone has personally suffered or observed racism at the NMC. I want the NMC to be an anti-racist organisation and it’s clear we’ve got a long way to go to achieve that.

“I absolutely accept that experiences of some of my colleagues from Black and ethnic minority backgrounds have not been good enough and that when they’ve raised concerns, these have not always been acted on or acted on quickly enough.  There’s so much more we must do to embed the safe, inclusive and supportive culture we all want to see.  People feel let down by the slow progress we’ve made and I’m determined that we must go further and faster to make our working environment and experiences for colleagues the best they can be.

“As a professional regulator in health and social care, it’s our core responsibility to make decisions that keep people safe. We’ve made improvements in our guidance and training for Fitness to Practise colleagues.  I hope that’s made us more consistent in what we mean by discrimination, bullying, victimisation and harassment, and how seriously allegations like this need to be taken. But I know we don’t get it right every time and we must learn when we make mistakes.

“It’s imperative we now investigate all of the concerns raised with us and we are in the process of appointing external, independent experts to lead those investigations with care, with rigour and with full transparency.  

“I recognise we’ve a long way to go in building people’s full trust and confidence and we are resolutely committed to asking ourselves the hard questions, acting quickly where we need to improve and being proactive to eliminate all forms of discrimination.”

The Independent published whistleblowing concerns on 26 September 2023. You can read our response to that article here.

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