Main content
Update on our review of the NMC’s performance for 2023/24
12 Mar 2025
We review and report on the performance of the 10 health and care professional regulators we oversee against our Standards of Good Regulation.
Our 2023/24 periodic review of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) was originally due to be published in September 2024. In Autumn 2023 the NMC commissioned three independent reviews to look into issues raised in whistleblowing disclosures.
To allow our review of the NMC to include this relevant information, we decided to await the outcomes of all three reviews and take them into account for our 2023/24 performance review.
The first of the three independent reviews, the Independent Culture Review (ICR) has been published
We have not yet seen the outcome of the other two reviews. These are both being led by Ijeoma Omambala KC: one into the NMC’s handling of the fitness to practise cases raised through the whistleblower’s concerns, and the other into the NMC’s handling of whistleblowing disclosures.
We have reconsidered our approach because of the significantly changing timeline for the publication of the independent reviews. We believe it is in the public interest for us to report on the NMC’s performance in a timely way. We will therefore complete this year’s review and publish our report by June 2025 without waiting any longer for the evidence from the Omambala KC reviews. In assessing a regulator, the judgements we make incorporate a range of evidence to form an overall picture of performance. We will use the evidence we have already gathered to make decisions, and will be clear within our report where we expect evidence from the ongoing independent investigations may be relevant.
We are clear that the Omambala reviews are important and are likely to be relevant to our view of the NMC’s performance. We will consider them in detail when they are available, including deciding how we can most appropriately report on what they tell us and whether further action is required by the PSA.
In the meantime, we continue to closely monitor the NMC’s performance. This includes through the NMC Independent Oversight Group. We established this Group in September 2024 at the request of the UK Government to oversee and support the NMC’s response to the serious concerns about its culture and governance.