NMC Fails Timeliness Standard for Third Year
27 September 2022
The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) for Health and Social Care has taken action under its escalation policy (which includes writing to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care) because, for the third year in a row, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has failed to meet its standard for timeliness in the progression of its fitness to practise cases.
It is taking too long to deal with fitness to practise cases and a significant backlog has developed.
The headline figures make gloomy reading for the Council and its registrants under investigation, with unresolved cases between one and two years standing at 1,885, two to three years at 697 and over three years at 290, for the period 2020/2021. Cases under investigation rose from 4,506 on 1 April 2020 to 6,357 by 31 March 2021. During 2020/21 the time it has taken the NMC to progress fitness to practise cases has increased significantly.
Although the NMC is currently implementing a wide-ranging fitness to practise improvement programme, it has had mixed results, and it does not expect the impact of these measures to be seen for some time; in fact, the NMC has made it clear that in the short term it expects average case closure times to increase as it clears older cases from the system.
In recent years the Authority reported on some persistent areas of concern relevant to this standard, including charges drafted by the NMC and failures to investigate or obtain and present relevant evidence. Those concerns were identified in only a small number of cases in the context of the NMC’s caseload, but they had significant implications for the fairness of the process. This year the number of cases where concerns had been identified was smaller still but it was not possible to determine whether this was the result of an improvement in the NMC’s performance or because fewer cases reached a final decision.
The PSA raised its concerns in individual cases through appeals of final decisions, correspondence and learning points and it will continue to monitor these issues.
The NMC is taking action in response to the pandemic’s impact on performance in this area. The Authority does not have concerns about the overall approach taken in what were unprecedented and challenging circumstances. The impact on timescales and case progression decreased over time, in part due to the NMC having successfully developed its capacity to operate remotely.
The clear focus and drive for improvement that the NMC has demonstrated is welcomed by the PSA but there is an absence of evidence of significant improvements to performance at this early stage.