The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has revealed a three-year programme to build a ‘positive, empowering and inclusive culture’ for its staff and registrants.
Interim chief executive and registrar Paul Rees said the new Culture Transformation Plan was underpinned by ‘a strong anti-racist ethos and a commitment to improve the regulatory experience’ for the public and nursing and midwifery professionals.
The plan follows an independent culture review published last July revealed serious concerns about the regulator, including a ‘toxic culture’ of bullying, harassment and racism.
Since his appointment in late January, Mr Rees has met with almost 800 employees to hear about the changes needed – including those who said they still faced racism, discrimination and bullying, as well as those who warned the organisation was ‘too hierarchical, bureaucratic and siloed’.
The plan states that it will aim to bring about a ‘root-and-branch change in our organisational culture’.
‘We want to build a culture that is positive, empowering and inclusive for all staff, regardless of their background or characteristics – with everyone feeling that they belong,’ it said.
‘We want to build a new culture at the organisation because it is morally the right thing to do. We also want to do this because an organisation that has a positive culture, where staff feel valued, included and listened to, will have a team that is more engaged, with higher morale.’
The plan, which was first mooted by Mr Rees earlier this year, is based on six key pillars:
- Strong and effective leadership
- Values-based decision-making
- Embedding equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)
- Ensuring psychological safety
- Enjoying work, and
- Regulatory fairness.
The regulator said it hopes to bring about a new culture that will ‘drive higher morale, better performance and improved outcomes’; as well as improve the timeliness of its fitness to practise work and enable to NMC to ‘better regulate and support’ those on its register.
It also wants to ‘empower NMC managers to be better leaders’ and ‘improve employee experience’ where colleagues enjoy working in an ‘inclusive organisation where success is celebrated, poor performance is rooted out, and people can be themselves at work’.
The plan will see five expert coaches to support all NMC managers and give them ‘practical tools’ to lead its culture transformation.
New strategies to promote race and gender equality for registrants and colleagues will also come about under the plan.
And more junior employees will be given ‘direct routes to raise issues’ with senior management, the NMC said.
Mr Rees said: ‘When I joined the NMC in January, I committed to delivering a clear vision and plan in March that would create a positive, empowering and inclusive culture for everyone.
‘I’m delighted that we’re now taking this plan forward, underpinned by a strong anti-racist ethos and a commitment to improve the regulatory experience for the public and nursing and midwifery professionals.’
He thanked colleagues for their feedback during engagement events – something he said was ‘vital to understanding how we can roll out meaningful change and deliver regulatory processes that are faster, fairer and more effective’.
‘The culture transformation plan will be pivotal to successfully delivering our wider priorities as we work to win back the confidence of the public, nursing and midwifery professionals, stakeholders and employees,’ said Mr Rees.
The NMC will be asking its governing Council to approve the plan at its meeting next Wednesday (26 March) and committed to taking a ‘continuous improvement approach to managing the culture change programme, regularly reflecting on progress and refining activities in light of feedback’.
‘Culture transformation’ is the first pillar of the NMC’s wider corporate plan for 2025-2026.
Last week the regulator revealed it was looking to recruit three senior figures to help change the culture at the organisation, including an executive director of people and culture and two heads of EDI.
Led by former public prosecutor Nazir Afzal, with Rise Associates, the independent review published last summer warned of an NMC workforce that was ‘really struggling’ and an environment where ‘poor judgement, toxic behaviours and paralysis is affecting decision-making’.
And it revealed serious concerns around the way in which fitness to practise cases are handled, including that action was being taken ‘against good nurses’ while ‘bad nurses get away with it’.
