A Damning Report On The Nursing And Midwifery Council

22nd July 2024

A report on the Nursing and Midwifery council - Independent Culture Review will sound familiar in Highland. It reveals many problems.

NHS Highland had a particularly shocking report on NHS Highland called "Cultural issues related to allegations of bullying and harassment in NHS Highland: independent review report" more well known as The Sturrock report by John Sturrock QC.

This latest report published in July 2024 was led by a team headed by Nazir Afzal a former chief prosecutor.

The report does not pull punches
A catalogue of horrors... bullying, a deep seated caustic culture, racism, incompetence... dysfunctional. Horrible, ugly, slow, unresponsive.

From the Conclusions
At any given point two workers might pass each other in the corridors of the NMC with experiences that are worlds apart. One may be on an upward career trajectory, highly motivated and satisfied with their work. While the other may be subject to bullying and harassment, struggling to sleep at night and feeling trapped in their work.

In many ways this is the story that our review of the NMC has uncovered.

There are at least two cultures operating at the UK's nursing and midwifery regulator. Our extensive engagement with over 80 per cent of staff, combined with hundreds of hours of interviews and focus groups, showed that some of the staff respect their line manager and are content in their job. There are directorates possessing healthy cultures that support the essential work of the regulator. But there are also a growing number of staff who are trapped in a dangerously toxic culture and feel deeply frustrated and upset in their jobs. And it's this latter culture that is starting to overwhelm the good work and do enormous damage.

The origins of this review lie in claims of a toxic culture made by a whistleblower last year. The reported claims of racism, people being afraid to speak up and nurses accused of serious sexual, physical and racial abuse being allowed to keep working on wards were all repeated to us on multiple occasions. Everything the whistleblower documented was corroborated and we spoke to many others that had similar experiences. On reflection, given these patterns, it's remarkable that there have not been more whistleblowers coming forward.

Roy Lilley on his blog NHS Managers comments
nhsManagers.net
My gut, my intuition tells me there is a huge question hanging over the NHS and has been for a long time and it needs fixing.

Something that's unsettling a major chunk of the workforce. No one seems

... the Nursing and Midwiffery Council.
Whichever way you look at it, it's had a very unhappy history. Embattled, defensive, introverted.

Regulating nurses, midwives and health visitors started in 1919. Since that time the regulatory body has gone through umpteen iterations.

Today, run by the NMC Council. They have two jobs; setting the strategic direction for the NMC and overseeing the work of senior staff.

It looks to me, they can't manage either.

The council is made up of 12 lay and registrant members, including one member from each of the four UK countries. Has an income of £52m and 400 staff... all busy registering, setting standards, revalidating and managing complaints about registrants.

Over the years there have been umpteen changes to their legislative base and what looks to me, a disproportionate amount of, let's call it patching and palavering.

In 2012 NMC leadership was criticised, following ‘grave concerns', changed and immediately criticised again for lack of transparency in the process.

The next year the NMC lost a shedload of sensitive data and was fined.

The Kirkup Report, 2015, criticised them. The NMC council had ignored more than 20 concerns raised by Cumbria police and that its handling of complaints was "frequently incompetent".

Nazir Afzal led a team of experts
Nazir Afzal is the Chancellor of Manchester University and the former Chief Crown Prosecutor for North West England and formerly Director in London. He was Chief Executive of the country's Police and Crime Commissioners and, most recently, National Adviser to the Welsh Government. During a 30-year career, he has prosecuted many high profile cases, advised on many others and led nationally on several legal topics including Violence against Women and Girls, child sexual abuse, and honour based violence.

Time will tell if the new Labour government can implement the recommendations of the report.

Read the full highly detailed report HERE
Pdf 133 Pages