Organisational culture is important

The recently published independent culture review of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) made shocking reading with its revelations of cultural shortcomings (Rise Associates, 2024). The NMC, as the regulator of the nursing and midwifery professions, is hugely important to public safety, the professions and the 800 000 professionals themselves. In the latest inquiry, while it seems some of the NMC staff reported being well led and content with their working lives, a significant proportion of staff and stakeholders reported experiencing inappropriate behaviours from the NMC leaders and staff (Rise Associates, 2024). These inappropriate behaviours have remained unaddressed despite these same issues being raised repeatedly from 2008 onwards, with the NMC promising to ‘learn the lessons’ on each occasion but seemingly not doing so. Most worrying is the huge backlog of fitness to practise cases, which stands at nearly 6000, comprising minor and serious concerns as far back as five years. Worse is the claim that the screening team is closing down cases, which endangers the public and warrants further inquiry. The Queen's Nursing Institute (2024) has reminded the Secretary of State that the NMC was given a £20 million grant by the Department of Health and Social Care in 2012 to clear its fitness to practise case backlog; however the backlog has built up again with more than 400 cases awaiting initial screening and over 5000 cases awaiting hearings.