Thank you for taking the time to consider this role as a Council member of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). We are the independent regulator for more than 868,000 nurses and midwives across the UK, and nursing associates in England. We are, in practice, one of the largest regulatory organisations in the world.

The NMC has gone through a challenging period. Various reports have considered the NMC to be operating below par, and to rectify matters we have embarked on a highly-ambitious turnaround plan. We are determined to regain the trust and confidence of the public and show that we are fully committed to our primary aim: to protect the public.

We are now one year into our three-year plan to turn the NMC around and, while there are still bumps in the road yet to come, we are starting to see results in our favour.

As part of that renewal process, we are looking for four highly-committed individuals to join the Council of the NMC.

As part of our transformation, we published our Culture Transformation Plan in March 2025. In the plan, we set out six priority areas:

• Strong and effective leadership
• Values-based decision-making
• Embedding equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)
• Ensuring psychological safety
• Enjoying work
• Regulatory Fairness

Alongside our culture, we are also transforming our performance. This will be driven by a rigorous programme of health check that we are currently undertaking of all our regulatory functions – with best practice on adherence to policies, procedures and processes, as well as quality assurance being delivered through a central quality management process, that is shortly to be set up.

Our 2026/27 Business Plan(opens in new tab), approved by the Council in May 2026, signposts much of the work we still have to do, and reflects the priorities established in our interim 18-month strategy – Building a New NMC(opens in new tab) – published in September 2025.

Our journey is challenging. We have to maintain momentum in our “business as usual” activities, while at the same time implement a raft of changes and improvements to the NMC. This includes new ways of working and investment in new IT, facilities and processes as well as fundamentally changing the NMC’s culture.

We are operating in a challenging environment: we recognise that the journey towards faster, fairer and more effective regulation that supports high-quality nursing and midwifery practice will be complex, particularly in the context of the pressures evident in the wider health and care systems across the four countries of the UK.

It follows that our Council membership must be of the highest quality, both to oversee the complex changes in professional regulation and to ensure that the NMC’s executive delivers the right standard of services in order to protect the public.

Accordingly, we are looking for four Council members to join us on this journey to change and improve the NMC:

• Two registrant members: two professionals currently on our Register who have extensive experience of operating at Board level, and are professionally capable with required experience, knowledge, skills and independence to enable them to perform the duties effectively. We would like at least one of these members to be a midwife.
• Two lay members: two lay people who have extensive experience of operating at Board level bringing about transformational change and can demonstrate a mix of governance expertise, strategic vision, and specialised competencies for undertaking a Trustee role.

Desirable skills include senior level finance and legal expertise/regulatory experience.

The NMC is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and therefore we would be delighted to see applications from a diverse range of candidates.

This is an exciting and challenging time to be joining our Council. You will be joining a Council united in its commitment to improve how we protect the public, maintain standards in the nursing and midwifery professions and, indeed, to improve the way the NMC delivers its responsibilities.

I look forward to receiving your application.

Ron Barclay-Smith
Chair
Nursing and Midwifery Council