The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has confirmed further delays to its work around regulating advanced practice.
In an update this week, the regulator said it now planned to publish draft advanced practice standards for consultation by members in the 2027-28 financial year.
Over the last year, the NMC has been exploring and developing approaches for the additional regulation of advanced practice for nurses and midwives. Currently, advanced practice is not specifically regulated by the NMC.
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As part of this work, the NMC has originally intended to put some ‘regulatory principles’ before its governing council in November 2024 and consult on a draft set of standards in January 2025.
This was pushed back last year, when the NMC then said it looked to bring the principles to council in March 2025 and launch its consultation in November 2025.
And this week, the regulator has confirmed that while it will still bring its principles to its council meeting in March, it will not develop standards for consultation until the 2027-28 financial year (April to March).
Dr Crystal Oldman, chief executive of the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI), said the organisation was ‘disappointed’ that the consultation period was being postponed for a further two years.
‘However, we understand that this work takes a significant amount of time and appreciate the NMC is navigating various internal and external challenges, while prioritising fitness to practise work,’ she added.
‘The QNI will continue to partner with the NMC and support their work around advanced practice wherever possible.’
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In 2023, the QNI introduced a series of new ‘field specific standards’ for Specialist Practitioner Qualifications (SPQs), building upon the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) 2022 Standards.
The nine standards reflect an advanced level of practice across areas including district nursing, general practice nursing and adult social care nursing.
Anne Trotter, assistant director of education and standards at the NMC, said the regulator had ‘re-sequenced’ its work on advanced practice, the NMC Code, practice learning and revalidation.
‘We will also consider requirements for advanced practitioners as part of the Code and revalidation reviews which are taking place in 2025-2026, and then will move onto drafting standards of proficiency and programme standards,’ she explained.
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The latest primary care workforce published by NHS England shows that there was a 5.8% increase in the number of advanced practice nurses working in general practices across England between September 2023 to September 2024.
There were 4,511 full time equivalent (FTE) advanced practice nurses working in England in September 2024, up from 3,988 two years before.
